What is YMYL (Your Money or Your Life)?

YMYL, “Your Money or Your Life,” refers to a category of web pages that Google considers highly significant because they can impact a person’s future happiness, health, financial stability, or safety. Examples of YMYL pages include those offering financial advice, medical information, legal counsel, or any content that could affect a user’s well-being or livelihood. Because of the potential impact of these pages, Google holds them to a higher standard of quality and accuracy.

In SEO, optimizing YMYL content involves ensuring that the information provided is accurate, trustworthy, and written by or attributed to qualified experts. Google’s E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) criteria are particularly important for YMYL pages. To rank well, YMYL pages must demonstrate credibility through high-quality content, clear author credentials, secure and user-friendly design, and positive user engagement. SEO for YMYL pages is critical because poor-quality content in these areas can lead to significant consequences for users and may result in penalties from Google.