YMYL is an acronym for “Your Money Your Life,” which literally means “Your Money, Your Life.”
Google is known for having strict evaluation standards for content in the seven genres that fall under YMYL.
In this article, we will explain in detail the basics of what YMYL is and what genres it specifically falls under, the relationship between Google updates and YMYL, and the SEO measures you should take when creating content in the YMYL area. Masu. Please use all means.
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What is YMYL?
YMYL is an acronym for “Your Money Your Life.” The literal translation is “your money, your life,” and it refers to a genre that has a significant impact on people’s health, financial stability, safety, or the welfare and well-being of society.
Publishing incorrect or misleading information in areas that fall under YMYL can have a major impact on people. For this reason, Google lists YMYL as one of the items in its Search Quality Rating Guidelines (Page Quality Rating Guideline), and has set strict evaluation criteria for content that falls under the YMYL area.
What genres correspond to YMYL?
Now that we have an overview of YMYL, let’s take a look at what genres actually fall under YMYL.
Health/Medical
This applies to pages related to medical care, such as health, illness, disease, medicine, nutrition, and mental health. Other topics include physical safety, online safety, and other topics that can compromise any form of safety.
finance
This includes financial pages such as insurance, pensions, taxes, investments, credit cards, real estate purchases, loans, and remittance sites.
Shopping/EC site
This applies to pages such as mail-order sites where you need to enter payment information and address or make a payment when making a purchase.
Religion/Race
This applies to pages regarding information and claims regarding specific groups such as religion, race, and gender.
News/Current Affairs
Important topics such as domestic and international events and politics. This applies to pages such as disaster information. News such as entertainment, sports, and lifestyle generally do not apply.
Law/Public Service
This includes pages related to legal information and public institutions that are essential to daily life and require accuracy, such as divorce, court cases, wills, etc.
others
This includes pages related to big decisions and important matters in people’s lives, such as housing information, education, career changes, and employment.
Additionally, if false investment information is published in financial content, there is a risk that the financial stability of those who have made investments based on it may be compromised.
In this way, genres that have the potential to affect people’s safety, economy, welfare, etc. are considered to be in the YMYL domain.
What is the background behind the importance of YMYL?
Google determines the search ranking of each page according to the search algorithm determined by Google. When Google updates its search algorithm, YMYL areas experience a larger ranking change compared to non-YMYL areas. This is because in order to protect people’s safety, Google needs to rank articles with higher accuracy and reliability for keywords in the YMYL domain.
Looking back at the history, it was around 2018 that the YMYL area began to be strictly evaluated in Google’s updates. One of the reasons why YMYL has become so important is the “WELQ problem” that occurred in 2016.
The WELQ issue is a problem that occurred on the medical information site “WELQ” operated by a certain company, where the quality and accuracy of the content were questioned, and as a result, the site was made private. On “WELQ”, unauthorized reproduction of articles from other media and publication of specialized articles without the supervision of doctors were rampant, but many of these low-quality articles were displayed at the top of search results, which became a problem.
As a result of this WELQ problem, Google’s algorithm update was implemented in February 2017 only in Japan, and high-quality sites with original and useful content were now displayed higher in the rankings.
Since then, updates have been made to improve the quality of the YMYL area, not only in Japan but around the world.
What is the relationship between YMYL and EEAT?
EEAT is one of the standards for evaluating websites as shown in Google’s “Search Quality Evaluation Guidelines.” It consists of the initials of “Experience,” “Expertise,” “Authoritativeness,” and “Trustworthiness,” each representing the following meanings.
Expertise: Authoritativeness
:
Trustworthiness: Reliability
Previously, an evaluation standard called “EAT” was used, which consisted of three factors: expertise, authority, and reliability, but from the guideline update in December 2022, “Experience” was added to the index and became “EEAT”. I did. *
Google will evaluate websites by considering whether each item of EEAT is reflected in the content.
In particular, content in the YMYL area is rigorously evaluated to see if it meets EEAT. Therefore, when creating articles in the YMYL area, it is necessary to have them supervised by experts and to include information to let Google know that the article is EEAT-certified.
The specific method and content to be included will be explained in the section “SEO measures to be taken in the YMYL area”.
Please also take a look at the detailed explanation of the mechanism for ranking higher on Google in ” 2023 Edition | What is SEO? An easy-to-understand explanation of effective measures and the mechanism for ranking higher .”
*Source: Latest information on quality evaluation guidelines: E of Experience added to EAT
Is it difficult to rank high in the YMYL area? Points to note when entering the market
For those who are thinking of entering the YMYL domain from now on, or those who have already created content in the YMYL domain, the question is, “Should I refrain from producing content in the YMYL domain, which is highly difficult?” You may think so.
As mentioned above, the YMYL area is a genre that has strict evaluation criteria from Google. Government sites, medical institutions, and financial institutions tend to be prioritized and displayed at the top, and search rankings fluctuate widely, so we do not recommend entering the market easily in the same way as non-YMYL fields.
However, the basic premise of Google is to “post information that is as useful and easy to understand for users as possible”. Even if it is not a government website, accurate and easy-to-understand content supervised by experts will be ranked higher than content that is difficult to understand and uses a lot of technical terms or has insufficient information for beginners to understand. There are many.
As long as you understand the following trends and keep in mind the points introduced in the next chapter, there is no problem in entering the YMYL field.
Points to keep in mind when entering the YMYL field
- Easily affected by core updates, ranking fluctuations are large compared to other genres
- Compared to other genres of articles, “experience, expertise, authority, and reliability (EEAT)” are required, which may require more man-hours and costs.
- While the quality of content is important, there is a tendency for emphasis to be placed on the relevance of the company’s media to the targeted keywords, authority, and domain power.
In addition, our company Pantograph has a track record of content and site production in YMYL genres such as medical, finance, and education. We can provide consistent support, from proposing project plans and SEO keywords, creating composition instructions, assigning experts to write and supervise, creating articles, and reflecting them on CMS. Consultations are free, so please feel free to contact us.
Women’s health-related keywords: 1st place under the supervision of obstetricians and gynecologists/midwives
Finance/investment-related keywords: 1st place under the supervision of tax accountants,
and many more
SEO measures to be taken in the YMYL area
As explained above, it is important to satisfy “EEAT” when implementing SEO measures in the YMYL area. Specifically, please take the following measures when writing articles.
Narrow down the genre of communication and increase expertise and comprehensiveness
In order to improve your expertise, it is more effective to narrow down the genre you publish rather than publish articles from a wide variety of genres without uniformity. Creating content that focuses on a specific genre will also increase the coverage of that genre.
It is also important to focus on genres that match the overall theme of the domain. For example, if the content is to be posted on a financial institution’s website, an article in the financial genre will have an advantage in terms of expertise than an article in the medical genre.
Written and supervised by experts
When it comes to content in the YMYL domain, emphasis is placed on the type of person providing the information. By requesting the writing and supervision of articles by experts who are familiar with the topic of the article, you can ensure their experience and expertise. The trustworthiness of the expert is also important, so be sure to consider their track record and background before making a request.
Post author/supervisor information in articles
It is important to disclose author and supervisor information in articles. If the article was written or supervised by an expert, please also disclose the author/supervisor information. By disclosing the profile information of authors and editors in articles, users can recognize that the information is trustworthy.
If there are many different authors and supervisors, it may be a good idea to create a page that introduces the authors and supervisors.
Enter media operator information
By posting media operator information and communicating it to Google, you can increase your authority and credibility. Specifically, it would be a good idea to disclose the following information:
- Operator information (company name, company URL, company address, etc.)
- Contact information (email address, phone number, etc.)
- Number of employees
- Company establishment year
It is also effective to include the media’s philosophy and editorial policy. This will help you gain trust not only from Google but also from users.
Refer to or quote public information in order to post accurate information
In the YMYL area, the accuracy of information is a very important point. Indicating the basis (source) of the information listed will lead to evaluation.
When referencing or quoting information, be sure to use official information posted on government websites, data from academic institutions, etc. When doing so, it is important to follow the rules of the source site and include the source.
Please refrain from reprinting without permission, as it will not only lower the site’s reputation but also constitute copyright infringement.
Post the latest information and post the updated date
Not limited to YMYL, the updateability of content has a large impact on evaluation.
Always check that the information is up to date and rewrite it as necessary. If you leave old information in there, it may be determined that it is not true.
When updating content, be sure to update the article’s update date.
For more information on rewriting, please also take a look at the article ` `What is rewriting? Explaining its meaning and how to improve articles to increase SEO effectiveness .”
Collect backlinks to increase authority and domain power
Obtaining many backlinks from other highly authoritative and reliable sites will increase the authority and reliability of your own site. However, backlinks cannot be fixed in a short period of time, so it is important to continue producing high-quality content.
Also, the quality of the source site is also important, so increasing the number of backlinks unnecessarily is counterproductive. Please be aware that backlinks from mirror sites (imitation sites, phishing sites), malicious affiliate sites, etc. will lead to a drop in your site’s reputation.
When creating content in the YMYL area, be sure to take the above measures.
For more information on content marketing methods, see “ What is content marketing? A detailed explanation of the purpose, benefits, and practical methods!’ ‘, and for information on how to create owned media, see “What is owned media? What does it mean, how to create it, and examples?” Please take a look at the ” All-in-one explanation ” section.
YMYL Summary
YMYL is an acronym for “Your Money Your Life.” This refers to genres that have a significant impact on people’s health, economic stability, safety, or the welfare and well-being of society. Content in the YMYL area will be evaluated harshly by Google, so be sure to create content that meets EEAT and take SEO measures.
In addition to content marketing that supports the growth and improvement of media, Pantograph provides all kinds of support, from problem identification to planning proposals, for strategic planning centered on Internet business.
We have many achievements in SEO article production, site production, and supervisor assignments in the YMYL are introduced this time. Consultations are free, so please feel free to contact us.
