YMYL

What counts as YMYL

Google’s Search Quality Evaluator guidelines specifically call out:

• Medical/health — symptoms, diagnoses, treatments, medications, mental health
• Financial — investing advice, loan products, tax info, insurance
• Legal — legal advice, regulations, rights, immigration
• News/civic — election info, government services, voting
• Shopping — product safety, large purchases, transactions
• Topics affecting safety — child safety, safe behaviors, emergencies

The boundary isn’t always crisp. A nutrition blog can be YMYL depending on the specific advice; a finance education site might or might not depending on whether it gives actionable recommendations.

What stricter E-E-A-T looks like for YMYL

• Author credentials must be verifiable — MD, JD, CFP, CFA, real licenses
• Citations to primary sources — peer-reviewed research for medical, regulatory texts for legal
• Editorial review process documented publicly
• Recency — medical guidance from 2018 is materially worse than 2025 even if both are technically accurate
• No hedging that hides liability — “this isn’t medical advice” with no qualified author is worse than no disclaimer at all
• Schema.org Person + MedicalScholarlyArticle / LegalService schema as appropriate

Why YMYL pages get hammered in updates

Every major Google update (March 2024, August 2024, November 2024, early 2025) has disproportionately affected YMYL queries. Sites that:

• Hired junior writers for medical content
• Used AI without expert review for legal advice
• Published financial content without verified credentials

Saw 50-90% organic traffic drops. Recovery requires structural changes (real qualified authors, real editorial process), not surface fixes.

How AI search handles YMYL

ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini all apply additional source-quality filters for YMYL queries. A medical answer cites NIH / Mayo Clinic / peer-reviewed journals before random blog posts, even if the blog post ranks higher in traditional search. Entity authority matters even more here than for non-YMYL.

Practical implication

If your business operates in a YMYL category (fintech, healthcare, legal, education, financial services), E-E-A-T isn’t a nice-to-have — it’s the foundation. Skipping it means the algorithm will demote you regardless of how good your content “feels.”