Using the proper YMYL SEO framework for websites provides excellent components for building page quality, authority, and trust. While this is essential for YMYL sites, why not have some of the same standards for every website to gain an extra competitive advantage in search results?
For example, let's say you're ranking a plumbing website. Who would you want to write your blog posts?
a) A plumber who is praised for revolutionizing the plumbing industry and who publishes white papers on plumbing technology. Or
b) An anonymous writer from Upwork who writes about everything under the sun?
Obviously, this is an extreme comparison gansu mobile phone numbers database but if Google AND your audience know that the blog posts are from a highly credible source, that means a huge boost in the credibility of the plumbing company and the content on their website.
This doesn’t mean your posts will automatically rank. Content still needs to meet search intent and be high quality. However, in today’s competitive environment where information is readily available, this type of credibility can change how people and search engines perceive your content.
You won’t get that credibility in search results without implementing the framework that tells search engines who your star writer is! Implementing tips and tactics that demonstrate high levels of EEAT can increase your search visibility.
Does this mean that EEAT is a direct ranking factor? I don't think anyone can say that for sure...
But if you follow the EEAT principles and do everything that makes your page incredibly useful to users, isn't that what Google wants to show in search results?
What exactly is the YMYL website?
YMYL is short for Your Money Your Life. It may sound like a scary ransom note, but it’s not. YMYL content refers to websites and web pages that have content that has a high risk of harming a person (or significantly impacting their life). This type of content is often found on sites that:
News
Health or medical information
Finance
Groups and individuals
Shopping information
The short list above is by no means an exhaustive list of the types of content that could be considered YMYL. There are many examples of content that could fall into this category, so there are other additions that need to be made.
Here is a topic table from the Search Quality Rater Guide manual with examples of how these topics might fall into different areas of inclusion:
YMYL topic chart.png
How does YMYL affect SEO strategy?
When it comes to Your Money Your Life, Google wants to show the most trustworthy and credible content on the first page of search results. That’s basically what everyone wants to see. If you were searching Google for medical advice, would you rather read a web page written by a doctor or an affiliate marketer?
The truth is, when you have the best content, you have one of the biggest pieces of the puzzle to achieving high rankings. In most cases, writing SEO content to rank is the easy part. The harder part of YMYL SEO is proving that your content is the best.
Here’s the solution: Use tactics that signal that your content is credible, authoritative, and trustworthy.
To rank YMYL content, there is a certain framework that needs to be in place to get results. According to Google itself, YMYL content is subject to higher scrutiny for quality and credibility.
Google on YMYL SEL.png
Google asks, "How do I know your content is the best, most accurate, and most up-to-date?"
While we don’t know Google’s algorithm exactly, we do know that it looks for top quality content that is backed by facts and trusted by many. Therefore, to improve the SEO of your YMYL content, you should improve the overall page quality and show EEAT.
