Your Money Your Or Your Life Topics (YMYL): The Definitive Guide
Abdul-Wakil Mohammed
Medical Writer
Blog Writer
SEO Writer
Ahrefs
Surfer SEO
WordPress
In this guide, you’ll learn the following;
What is a YMYL topic?
What is YMYL content?
How do you write YMYL content?
How to rank in YMYL?
And more
Let’s dive in.
Table of Contents
What is Your Money Or Your Life Topics (YMYL)?
YMYL is from Google. The tech giant coined this term to ensure web admins, bloggers, content creators, publishers, online magazines, and businesses provide the most up-to-date and accurate information to online searchers, especially on Google.
So what does YMYL mean?
YMYL are topics, niches, categories, pages, or any form of content with a high risk of harming, hurting, or detrimental to health, the safety of people, financial stability, welfare, or well-being of society. Google calls these topics and niches Your Money Or Your Life (YMYL) content. Health and finance are the most YMYL topics, but there are others.
How Do Your Money Or Your Life Topics (YMYL) Affect Us?
YMYL topics may harm or impact your readers in one way or the other. It could be individuals, family members, peers, and significant others.
1. Individual(s)
You influence and impact your readers through the content you share with them; you can harm or impact individuals consuming, viewing, or using your content.
Your content can shape and influence the beliefs and worldviews of your readers, particularly when it comes to personal or controversial topics. Therefore, for individuals who engage with YMYL content, it is critical to provide accurate, up-to-date information that is well-researched and well-presented.
Examples of YMYL topics include health, finances, addiction recovery, parenting, relationships, housing and employment issues, academic performance, and much more. These topics can have a significant impact on an individual’s life. For this reason, website admins and content creators must be careful when creating content around these subjects.
Whether you are writing reviews of products or services related to health or finance, providing advice on parenting or addiction recovery, or sharing news stories about housing or employment trends – it is essential to approach these topics with care and sensitivity. Doing so will help you avoid spreading inaccuracies or misinformation that could harm your readers.
When creating content on a YMYL topic, do your research thoroughly and take special care to ensure that what you share is accurate, true to evidence-based research methods and practices, and in line with the accepted standards within your industry or niche nation.
By doing so, you can help protect your readers from harm while providing them with quality content that will enrich their lives in meaningful ways.
2. Second-Hand People
Your content can affect your immediate readers and second-hand individuals, including friends, family members, significant others, peers, etc.
When creating content on a YMYL topic, it is essential to consider how your readers may share this material with others. By thinking about second-hand individuals and other people your content could impact, you can take steps to mitigate any potential harm.
For example, suppose you are writing a health-related article that provides nutritional advice or treatment recommendations. In that case, it is crucial to include accurate and vetted information to help readers understand the risks associated with these topics.
In addition, accurate data will help your readers make informed decisions and help prevent them from passing potentially harmful misinformation along to friends or family members.
Similarly, providing accurate advice based on up-to-date research is essential if you write about finances or addiction issues. Up-to-date content will ensure the information you share helps rather than harms your readers and their immediate relatives.
In addition to taking care when creating content around high-risk topics such as health, finances, parenting, relationships, and more, it is also important to remember that fact-checking is an essential part of the publishing process.
Even a single sentence in your article or blog post that contains inaccurate information can affect the credibility of everything you write negatively!
To avoid spreading misinformation and inaccuracies in your work, invest time and resources into ensuring the accuracy of every piece of content you create. If needed, reach out to experts or other industry resources who can verify the facts within your work so that everything you write will avoid mistakes and errors before going live.
3. Groups Of People
You can also harm or impact groups of folks or society through the actions of those who read your content. For example, when you create and publish content online, you may have a specific audience in mind. Still, your content could go on to affect a whole family, community, group, and society.
When creating content on sensitive topics such as health or finances, it is essential to consider how your words could impact different groups of people. For example, writing a single piece of content in the health space can create ripples across society as people share it with others depending on their needs and interests.
While some individuals may seek validation for their experiences and thoughts through this material, others could turn to it for guidance and advice when making important decisions about their health.
Each reader will interact with your content differently. Also, not everyone who consumes something you publish has equal access to reliable sources of information or social support networks to help them make sense of what they have read online.
As such, Google demands you, as a publisher or creator of content; ensure what you put out into the world can empower readers without putting them at risk emotionally or otherwise.
Consider the potential impacts that can occur using the following factors:
The nature of the topic you’re addressing
The expertise level of the writer or creator
How well does your audience understand what they are reading
The social factors involved (such as age, gender, and groupings)
and more.
Consider these factors when producing quality content around high-risk topics such as health and finance (among others). You can mitigate potential adverse outcomes while still helping individuals in need gain access to information that empowers them.
What is YMYL content?
YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) content directly impacts a person’s financial or health status or other aspects of their life that are considered high risk.
Examples of YMYL content include;
Health & medical advice: These can be blog posts, images, web pages, press releases, online news and magazines, videos, categories, infographics, Memes, ad copies, and more.
Drug & alcohol abuse help- these can include blog posts, images, web pages, press releases, online news and magazines, videos, categories, infographics, Memes, ad copies, and more.
Financial advice and more- Finacial advice can include any form of online content such as blog posts, images, web pages, press releases, online news and magazines, videos, categories, infographics, Memes, ad copies, and more.
How do you write YMYL content?
To write YMYL content, you must provide up-to-date and well-researched information; this may involve conducting extensive research into the latest trends and developments in your field and consulting with experts and professionals who can provide their expert advice and insight.
You should also be mindful of your content’s impact on readers, especially if it addresses sensitive or high-risk topics such as health or financial advice. Being mindful includes:
Considering their age groupings,
Understanding how well they understand what they are reading
And being aware of any social factors that may influence their reactions to your content.
With these factors in mind, you can produce quality YMYL content that empowers readers while helping them make better decisions about their finances or health. You can follow the steps below to write YMYL content.
Do Keyword Research
Great Writing
Quote Experts
Make it readable
Get links
Optimize the content
Let’s dive deeper into each point.
1. Do Keyword Research
Before you start writing your content, you must know what Google searchers want. You can find what people are searching for by conducting keyword research using SEO tools like Ahrefs, Growth Bar, and Serpstat.
For instance, if you want to write an article on “How to lose weight,” you can learn what your audience is looking for by searching for the keyword “How to lose weight.”
Using this search, you can get ideas for your content by reading the top 10 articles on Google and adding new information unique to your website.
Doing keyword research also allows you to satisfy search intent and do content gap analyses. Search intent and content gap analysis allow you to cover content more unique than others.
2. Great Writing
Excellent writing or quality content is one of the vital parts of YMYL content. The writing affects your Google rankings; the days are over when you could only write 500 mediocre words and get success on SERPs. You can follow the tips below.
Write great introductions
Write excellent conclusions
Use the Proper length
Use the right keywords
Let’s see how to do that.
1. Write great introductions
The introduction is the first thing your audience will read. Therefore, a bad introduction can confuse your audience and lead to a higher bounce rate.
Google searchers like well-written introductions. So one of the crucial things you can do is to write great introductions and hook your reader.
The introduction of your writing must be clear and easy to read. It should contain your keyword, which is the central theme of your writing. For example, the keyword “How to lose weight” can be part of your introduction.
2. Write excellent conclusions
After the introduction, your readers will read the conclusion of your writing. The conclusion is the last thing they will see (however, some audience read your conclusion first), so you must ensure it is the best. It is where you summarize the main points of your YMYL content or article.
Google hates it when you try to scam users with a fact that you can’t back up. So instead, write excellent conclusions, and use facts that no one can dispute.
3. Use the Proper word length
There is no definitive answer to the proper length of an article for web admins. However, there is evidence that articles between 1000 and 1,500 words tend to perform better regarding search engine rankings and user engagement.
It’s essential to note that this doesn’t mean you should add large amounts of fluff and filler text to reach a specific word count. On the contrary, quality is more vital than quantity when writing online content.
However, if you want ways to improve your search engine rankings or boost user engagement with your website, longer articles may be a good option. The best way is to find what works for you through experimentation and testing.
So don’t be afraid.
4. Use the right keywords
Keywords are essential in SEO, and you can rank your YMYL content on Google search results if you use your keyword correctly. For instance, if you are writing a post about “How to lose weight,” you must use the keyword multiple times throughout the article. Use your keyword in the following target areas.
The title of your article
The URL of your article
Your first headings
Your last heading
the first sentence of your article
Your last sentence or
Your last paragraph
You can also use keyword synonyms in addition to the main keyword. Keywords or keyword phrases are the main themes of your writing. Finding the right keyword can be challenging, but it becomes easy with tools like Growth Bar and Ahrefs.
3. Quote Experts
Quotes from experts carry more weight. For example, you can quote experts from your company or industry or people from other industries you know.
Quoting experts in your content can help your readers trust the information you share because your readers will witness the expert’s wisdom or expertise. You can quote experts by using the “expert roundup” tactic.
4. Make it readable
When you create YMYL content, it is essential to write in a clear and easy-to-understand manner. It is also important to write using simple language, break your text into small sentences (small sentences are easy to read), and write using active, not passive, sentences.
It is vital to write for an audience and optimize for search engines. Use H1, H2, and H3 tags, subheaders, bold, italic, and paragraph to break up your content.
Avoid using jargon, buzzwords, and overly complex or high-level language. Images, graphs, infographics, tables, memes, and videos can break up your text and add visual appeal.
5. Get links
Link building has been the cornerstone of SEO for many years, and it’s not going away anytime soon. As a result, links can be a considerable part of your SEO strategy and are crucial to the YMYL content creation process.
You can use many types of in-text links in your content, both internal and external. For example, you can use anchor text but not over-optimize anchor text.
Building backlinks from other reputable websites is essential to boosting the search visibility of your YMYL content.
6. Optimize the content
Optimizing content is a continuous process, from start to finish. The best way is to find the keyword people are searching for and create content around this keyword.
Write YMYL content for your audience and optimize it for search engines. Here are some tips you can use to optimize your YMYL content for search engines.
Use Yoast, Rank Math, or any tool you like for SEO titles and meta descriptions.
Make sure that the first paragraph or sentence of your writing contains your keyword.
Use your keyword multiple times in your article.
Use your keyword in all subheaders as well last sentence or paragraph
Avoid all grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes
And more.
How do you rank in YMYL?
Various factors influence your rank—for example, the popularity of the keyword, relevance, quality content, and so on.
If you want to rank in YMYL, you will need to create high-quality content and promote this content. Getting your first few backlinks can be challenging, but you must remember that great content will help you get links. Use these tips to rank in YMYL.
Create excellent content
Optimize your content
Do outreach
Post on social media
Guestpost
Get press mentions
Invite topic experts
Use HARO
Let’s see how you can rank in YMYL with these tips.
1. Create excellent content
A strong content strategy is the foundation of your SEO strategy and the cornerstone of your YMYL strategy. There are many ways to improve your ranking in YMYL, but creating excellent content is the best place to start.
To rank in YMYL, write excellent, comprehensive content that will help your audience and serve your goals by adhering to the core principles of SEO.
Using excellent SEO practices is the best way to create high-quality content that delivers value to your reader and your company while boosting your SEO.
2. Optimize your content
The best way to optimize your YMYL content for search engines is to understand the algorithms and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Several factors influence your credibility, including the quality of your content, backlinks, the popularity of your referring domains, and much more.
3. Do outreach
Outreach is a great way to get backlinks, but it also increases the authority of your content and helps to boost your rankings in YMYL. So do outreach to rank your YMYL in search results.
Even if you write high-quality content that covers the core principles of SEO and the needs of your audience, you will not rank high in search results. That’s where outreach comes into play.
4. Post on social media
Social media is an excellent way to get your content in front of more eyes. Many social media platforms can help get your content in front of more people; TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more.
Research and choose one that fits your needs.
5. Guestpost
Guest posts are another great way to build backlinks and increase your credibility in the market. You can approach relevant bloggers to write about your subject matter and get a backlink to your site.
6. Get press mentions
Press mentions can be a great way to get credible backlinks for your content. If you can access online publications, you can get your content in the media and get exposure to boost your rankings. Industrydive, for example, has several press release websites to share your content with its audience and grow your YMYL content.
7. Invite topic experts
Inviting topic experts to participate in your content is another excellent way to get more backlinks and rank in YMYL. If you invite topic experts to your content, people will start to link to your content when they mention the name of your topic experts.
8. Use HARO (Help a Reporter Out)
HARO is an excellent way to get free backlinks, and you can share your content with reporters who might want to use it for their articles. If you are an expert in a niche and can help reporters to write quality articles, you can use this service to get exposure to your content.
What is YMYL’s niche?
You may think that YMYL content and niche are the same, but they are not. However, they are very similar. YMYL niche is a niche or sub-niche that Google classifies as impacting, harming, or detrimental to a person’s present and future life. Not only an individual but groups, communities, and societies can all have an impact by these niches. For example, Niches and sub-niches from health and medical are all YMYL niches. Any part of the human body is the YMYL niche and more.
What Are Your Money Or Your Life Niches (YMYL)?
There are many YMYL niches you can write about on your website and make money. Health and finance are the two popular ones.
You can look into these twenty YMYL niches to create a blog or YouTube channel.
Mental health
Medical conditions
Fitness & Health
Medical drugs usage
Alternative medicine
Health equipment & tools, usage
Medical & Health Emergency topics
Nutrition & Supplements
Investing
Saving money
Banking
Taxing
News on current affairs
Law, Government & Legal Issues
Jobs & career
Discrimination & racism
Online shopping
Natural Disasters
Weapons
Sex & sex tools
Let’s see how the above falls into the category of YMYL niches.
1. Mental health
Mental conditions like anxiety, compulsive behavior, depression, bipolar and so on are YMYL niches. However, mental health is becoming a popular topic for blogs, social media, and even YouTube.
Research well and write articles using best SEO practices when covering these topics. The advice you write can impact or harm your readers, second-hand individuals, and communities.
2. Medical conditions
All medical conditions are YMYL topics. You must provide up-to-date and accurate information for your audience because this niche can relate to your readers, family members, friends, and more. You can write about medical conditions, their causes, and treatment and share your knowledge with others.
3. Fitness & Health
Fitness and health are other YMYL niches, and millions have health problems. According to WHO, “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” As a result, many people are looking for fitness and healthy living tips online.
When writing on fitness and health, you must provide the best advice to make the information as helpful as possible for your readers.
4. Medical drugs usage
Health professionals, especially nurses and doctors, use medical drugs for various conditions and diseases. And the impact these drugs have on an individual is the most important.
You can inform your audience about the side effects of the drugs and their benefits, and you can also provide a list of drugs by their brand names and non-brand names to ensure you have the most accurate data.
It’s vital to inform your audience to seek doctors rather than writing command sentences.
5. Alternative medicine
Pharmaceutical drugs and alternative medicine can be controversial topics for many people, but the fact is that natural medicine is an excellent part of this world.
When providing information about alternative medicine, it’s crucial, to be honest about the benefits and potential dangers of the treatment. Most people are interested in alternative medicine because they are more natural, so Google demands that you provide the best information for your audience.
You can review different types of alternative medicine and their benefits; do extensive research on the effectiveness and possible harms before creating your content.
Alternative medicines include;
Acupuncture
Ayurveda
Chiropractic
Herbal therapy
Homeopathy
Massage therapy
Reflexology
Reiki
Traditional Chinese medicine
And Naturopathy.
All these are YMYL niches and impact a person’s well-being, life, and future.
6. Health equipment & tools, usage
To live a healthy life, many people have to use medical equipment, such as wheelchairs, crutches, water purifiers, prostheses, yoga mats, healthy drinks, diet pills, and so forth. Your audience wants to know how to use them and what they help treat.
When writing in this niche, you must be diligent and give your readers or audience the correct facts and information.
Tell your audience how to use the tools and equipment and give the best advice regarding these tools, but be careful. Google demands this trust from you.
7. Medical & Health Emergency topics
Emergencies in the health niche are YMYL niche, so it’s vital to create quality medical information, and you must also avoid engaging in unproven treatments. You must also avoid unbiased information on opinions on health emergency topics.
If you’re writing on this niche, you can use the most proven first aid treatments. Medical emergencies are many, but some include the following;
Life-threatening medical conditions
Accidents
Violence
Suicide
Pregnancy and pregnancy problems
Accidents and their danger
Childbirth
Accidents and Prevention
Accidents and their victims
And more
8. Nutrition & Supplements
Nutrition and supplements are YMYL niches. When providing information about nutrition and supplements, you must be sure about the facts you provide to your audience. In addition, you must be fair about the products you review and avoid giving false and misleading information.
It’s vital to give the best advice to your audience regarding nutrition and supplements. Then, your audience can use the information to improve their health and well-being.
Why does Google demand accurate and fluff-free content when writing about nutrition and supplements?
It’s because you and everybody need to take some nutrition and supplements, even babies, toddlers, and young children.
9. Investing
Investing is YMYL’s niche because it can be risky. Therefore many people are looking for investment tips and advice online. When writing about investing, Google wants you to provide data-proven articles for your audience because you can impact or harm your readers’ future.
10. Saving money
Saving money or money, in general, is YMYL’s niche because it’s vital for many people, especially in this economic time. Google demands the best information for your audience about saving money because it can impact or harm them.
11. Banking
Banking and finance information is YMYL’s niche because it has much to do with our daily lives. Therefore, provide the best and most accurate financial content, so your readers can depend on your advice and data.
12. Taxing
Taxing is YMYL’s niche because it’s essential for people, businesses, and more. Please provide the best information when it comes to taxes because it can impact or harm your audience.
13. News on current affairs
News on current affairs is YMYL’s niche because if you make a mistake, you can harm people and organizations. So, you must provide high-quality and accurate information to your audience. So it can impact rather than harm them.
14. Law, Government & Legal Issues
Law and government issues are YMYL niche because if you give false information, you can cause harm or wrong and the victims can sue or get you behind bars.
When providing and writing about law and government issues, ensure you are accurate, thorough, and honest with your information. Your information can impact your readers, so be diligent.
15. Jobs & career
Jobs and careers can impact your audience’s future, so provide the best information you can if you’re creating content on this YMYL niche.
It’s essential to provide the correct information to your audience so that it can improve their lives with careers and jobs.
Jobs and careers can be YMYL in many ways, including the following;
Job and career opportunities
Job vacancies
Remote working
Job Salary
Career Advancement
Career and educational information
Jobs in different countries
Job and career tips or advice
Job and career opportunities from various organizations
16. Discrimination & racism
Discrimination and racism are YMYL’s niche because you can cause harm to your audience if you’re not careful. Therefore, you need to be diligent, reliable, and accurate when providing information on this topic.
17. Online shopping
Online shopping is a trending topic and a YMYL niche. However, shopping online can impact popular brands, businesses, and consumers differently. Therefore, providing accurate and reliable information is vital when writing about online shopping.
18. Natural Disasters
Natural disasters are a trending topic and YMYL niche. It can impact many people differently, so providing accurate, fluff-free, and complete information is vital. Natural disasters can affect many people, like the following.
Snow
Earthquake
Landslide
Flooding
Storm
Tornado
Hurricane
And more
19. Weapons
Google doesn’t want you to provide information that can harm your audience, so it must be accurate, detailed, and complete.
Weapons are a YMYL niche because they can be dangerous and cause harm if you’re not careful when providing information about them.
When writing about weapons, it’s essential to provide accurate, reliable, and detailed information to protect your audience from harm. Some topics to write about include types of weapons, safety precautions when using weapons, legal considerations related to weapons, and more.
20. Sex & sex tools
Sex is a popular topic and can be a YMYL niche.
If you provide inaccurate and fluff content, you can cause serious harm to your audience, so you must be careful when providing information regarding sex. For example, if you’re writing information about sex toys, you must provide into detail, accurate, and complete information.
Your Money Or Your Life Topics (YMYL) FAQs
This section covers the most asked questions about YMYL. So you can read them and understand more about the topic.
What are YMYL categories?
YMYL categories refer to page categories in any of the YMYL niches. It can be any of the following:
WordPress categories in finance, health, news, and more.
Blogger categories in health, medical conditions, and more
Wix categories in taxes, money
Squarespace categories in money, banking, careers
And more
What is the YMYL category?
A YMYL is a category in a website that writes and publishes content on these topics;
Health and Safety
News and current events
Civics, government, and law
Finance
Shopping
Groups of people
What is a YMYL page?
YMYL page is a WordPress page or any website page that writes about the Your Money Your Life niche, including health and safety, news and current events, civics, government, the law, finance, and shopping.
What are YMYL pages in SEO?
YMYL pages are web pages that write, cover, or touch on topics that can impact a person’s future, health, financial stability, or safety. For instance, Pages that explain 401k for retirement are YMYL pages. Another example of a YMYL page is how to diagnose a stomach ulcer.
How can I improve my EAT for YMYL pages?
Find out what questions your customers have regarding your product, niche, or service. Then answer those questions. How? Ask your customers questions and provide them with informative answers. Then you will be able to improve your EAT for YMYL pages.
What is EAT and YMYL?
EAT stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, and now Experience has been added to the term making it E-E-A-T. So, it’s now Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. So E-E-A-T?
YMYL stands for Your Money or Your Life. Google uses the two terms to ensure bloggers, content creators, and web admins provide top-level information for online searchers(Information that makes a difference in their lives).
EAT and YMYL are concepts relevant to search engine optimization (SEO) and refer to the quality factors that search engines like Google take when ranking websites in search results.
YMYL content is in high demand, and content creators who can master the art of creating such content can potentially earn a lot of money. That’s because YMYL pages are apparent and can lead to massive traffic and conversions.
However, this also creates an environment that tempts content creators to create low-quality content to capitalize on the high traffic potential of these pages. Google doesn’t welcome this behavior and tries to keep the quality of search results up to par.
Is crypto a YMYL?
Yes, Crypto is a YMYL. You all know how volatile crypto prices are, but the best crypto news can help you invest wisely. Crypto news sources must be the best source of information for all folks and new investors.
Is YMYL insurance?
Yes. YMYL is insurance. For example, having insurance for your life is essential in case you get seriously ill.
If you’re planning to build a new house, you need to get the proper type of insurance because, with your professional advice, the house can withstand any natural disaster or civil war in the country.
Companies, businesses, fortune 500s, organizations, and non-profits need insurance; that’s why it’s part of your money and your life niche.
What is YMYL update?
YMYL update is from Google. It is to ensure that bloggers, SEO specialists, content creators, and web admins provide the best articles, content, blog posts, web pages, and videos on the niches that are YMYL.
What does YMYL stand for in SEO? (What is your money, your life SEO?)
YMYL stands for Your Money or Your Life. YMYL is content that makes a difference in people’s lives. So, for example, when people start writing about their finance, it’s considered YMYL content.
Do these to power your SEO in YMYL topics.
Know your audience
Focus on Expertise
Know the keywords your audience is using
Invite experts to write for you
Produce accurate content
Use Headlines tags
Use Yoast or Rank Math
What are some examples of YMYL pages?
A web page that answers a question about how to build wealth can be an example of a YMYL page.
A page that explains how to save money on utility bills can also be an example of a YMYL page.
A website that publishes content on diagnosing and treating stomach ulcers is also an excellent example of a YMYL page.
Conclusion
Content that makes a difference in people’s lives is more important than anything else. Your Money Your Life topics provide value to your customers.
If your content is high-quality, you may get more customers and improve your business reputation.
On the other hand, if you are in business and have a challenge figuring out whether your content is part of YMYL or not, comment below, and I will be glad to help.
