For SEO marketers, YMYL is a new standard that is shaking up what we need to do in order to generate more organic traffic. Not staying up-to-date with YMYL could cost you your search engine ranking.
On the other hand, staying ahead of YMYL is a great way to boost organic traffic and dramatically improve your search engine results.
Let’s discuss what YMYL is, and how to adapt your SEO tactics to suit this new standard.
What is YMYL?
YMYL stands for “Your Money or Your Life.”
You might be a little shocked by this acronym, but it’s actually just a new SEO marketing standard from Google.
YMYL simply means refers to any content that has the potential to influence either the reader’s monetary situation (Your Money), or their physical or mental well-being (Your Life). Essentially, if your online presence has the potential to impact their finances or their health, Google is now holding your content to much higher standards.
Why You Need to Adapt to YMYL
There are two major reasons why you need to get your content marketing in line with YMYL.
The biggest change you’re going to notice is that Google is now aggressively changing how they rank websites that fall under YMYL.
If search engines think that your content qualifies as YMYL, you might see your search rankings plummet if you don’t meet these new standards. You can also see a dramatic Improvement in your search rankings if you’re able to meet the stricter requirements.
Google implemented the YMYL standards in order to protect everyday people from getting bad financial or healthcare advice online. However, the impact of YMYL goes way beyond just those two categories.
Anything that could impact an individual’s well-being is a broad net to cast in the ocean of online content. This means you’re better off staying in line with YMYL standards than risking accidentally losing your ranking.
How to be YMYL Compliant
Here are a few quick tips for how you can adapt content to YMYL standards and keep your SEO rankings near the top.
Determine If Your Content Is YMYL
YMYL is intentionally an open category. The worlds of finance, healthcare, and related topics are constantly changing.
A great example is CBD and legal cannabis. These weren’t issues a few years ago, but now a blog about the differences between delta-8 and delta-10 THC could count as YMYL, since it has the potential to impact the health of MMJ patients.
Likewise, the hot world of cryptocurrency topics also meet the criteria for YMYL, because of their financial nature. In fact, under the new system any web page that allows an individual to make a financial transaction currently counts as YMYL.
Knowing if your online content counts as YMYL should be your first step in the process.
It’s Time to EAT
EAT stands for Expertise, Authoritative, and Trustworthiness. This refers to the resources that you link to in your online content. Trusted and reliable sources are going to rank much better than untrustworthy links.
The more you rely on EAT, the better your position for YMYL is going to be.
Research, Research, Research
When you’re writing your content, you can’t risk misrepresenting the topic or citing an incorrect source. This means that the most important thing you can do is to research before you write.
One of the easiest ways to run afoul of the YMYL standard is to have a poorly researched article. This means if you’re writing a blog about the latest stock market news, make sure you’re getting your information from a reliable source, such as established financial institution, mainstream media, government or regulatory agencies, etc rather than some little-known blog or amateur publication.
Write Smart
A great way to stay on top of YMYL is to bring in more data to your blog.
You can add well-researched statistics, figures, or even quotes from leading experts to help improve your standing with YMYL. It’s always important to back this up with authoritative sources that can connect people back to the experts that originated this information.
Get Content Marketing Help From the Pros
There’s one surefire thing you can do to stay one step ahead of Your Money or Your Life standards. If you work with a professional content marketing service, you’re not going to have to worry about all of the fickle little details that happen when the software engineers at Google change their standards.
You can just simply let the pros handle this one for you. They’ve got all of the skills and know-how to not only take your online marketing to a new level, but also navigate these new challenges that appear on the road to success.
Building Organic Traffic
At the end of the day, this is all about building organic traffic to your website.
Organic traffic simply means people who reach your website from an unpaid source. This means viewers reached your website from search engines, social media, or from the good old-fashioned way of having a friend share a link to your website.
The more you focus on writing content for YMYL, the more you’re going to naturally build in the value add that people look for when they engage in organic traffic patterns.
Wrapping Up YMYL Marketing Tips
YMYL is a new search engine optimization standard that’s designed to protect people when it comes to their money as well as their well-being.
In order to stay on top of YMYL, you want to add more expertise, include authoritative voices, and trustworthy sources to your content marketing.
One of the best tips for content marketing is to reach out to the experts. After all, YMYL is all about leaning on the strength of authoritative voices and people who are trustworthy experts in their field.