YMYL webpages are the more extreme cases of EEAT, which generally require much more credentialed expertise to be deemed trustworthy.
When SEOs discuss YMYL topics they are usually referring to the short list of topics. One note to keep in mind, even a product review for say, guitar lessons, could be deemed YMYL because people could make purchasing decisions based on that info.
The short list of topics are:
So, for example, a site that sells clothing would likely not be considered YMYL, unless it's selling clothing with health benefits, while most web pages that offer health or medical advice would be regarded as YMYL.
Pages on YMYL topics can be created for a wide variety of different purposes. If the purpose of a page on a clear YMYL topic is to give information or offer advice, a high level of expertise may be required for the page to be trustworthy.
(Search Quality Rater Guidelines, 2022, p. 28)
There are YMYL topics of every kind. Google provides examples of hobbies and home improvement as potential YMYL topics. A home renovation can cost thousands if done incorrectly, and photography equipment can be costly.
YMYL extends to anything that may cause harm. The definition is relatively broad.
YMYL can be related to many topics, including health, business, technology, and more. Google has stated that anything that can influence a personal life decision or financial decision should be considered YMYL.
Some topics are indisputably YMYL and require strong E-E-A-T for nearly every query. Others fall somewhere in the middle.
To determine whether a topic is YMYL, assess the following types of harm that might occur:
(Search Quality Rater Guidelines, 2022, p. 11)
- YMYL Health or Safety: Topics that could harm mental, physical, and emotional health or any form of safety, such as physical or online safety.
- YMYL Financial Security: Topics that could damage a person's ability to support themselves and their families.
- YMYL Society: Topics that could negatively impact groups of people, issues of public interest, trust in public institutions, etc.
- YMYL Other: Topics that could hurt people or negatively impact the welfare or well-being of society.
Ask yourself this.
Can it cause financial harm? Can it cause personal harm? Some subjects are almost always yes. The following is a list of subjects that are almost always YMYL.
This refers to a site where health-related information is shared. This can include disease information, dietary information, fitness exercises that may cause harm if done incorrectly, and more. People often make life decisions based on the information they get from these sites.
Steve Jobs died of curable cancer because he believed that crystals would cure him.
Even M.D. medical doctors cannot give medical advice without seeing a patient. This realm is regarded as particularly harmful. Crazes such as treating illnesses with incense are prime examples of why this space is YMYL.
News, especially misleading news, can be very harmful. News sources must follow rigorous reporting standards, or they may become liable for defamation or libel.
I don't know how many times I've Googled a show's future release date to see a result like the following.
I Googled "Dark Season 4 release date" and the following result populated.
Dark ended on season 3, and the show's creators are purists who would never create a 4th season.
Financial sites contain personal finance, investing, banking, and more information. These can have a direct impact on people's lives. Finance is also a highly regulated industry, and CPAs cannot give financial advice to random people on the internet, note all the 'this is not financial advice' disclosures.
The crypto bubble Ponzi is the prime example of why the Financial space is heavily regulated. In my opinion, as well as the government's opinion, no one should give financial advice without the proper credentials.
These websites contain information about legal matters and laws, including federal and state laws, legal documents, court case information, etc. Because these sites impact personal life decisions in a significant way, their accuracy and quality are critical to users. Lawyers are wary of providing legal advice on the web, as they may become liable themselves.
It is also highly regulated and illegal for anyone except an attorney to provide legal advice; thus, if you're not a Lawyer, don't do it.
Misleading studies are at the core of the misleading information you've read online.
Academic sites contain content published in academic journals; they could also have content made from research-backed articles and are meant to move society forward.
Inaccurate or misleading scientific research can be particularly insidious because academic research can potentially empower unqualified authors and cause genuine harm to people's lives.
I had a friend who tried to cure her mom's cancer with incense!
Many Covid research detractors were professors, talk show hosts, and billionaires, but were they qualified medical professionals? An M.D. medical doctor without years of study in virology, a specialty, is not qualified to comment on virology, a complex subset of the medical field.
YMYL topics are broad and not just focused on finance or legal topics. A fitness exercise can also cause permanent injury if done incorrectly. A home can cause severe financial strain or personal injury if tackled by non-experts.
This one is fascinating because I wouldn't think hobbies require expertise. However, let's consider how affiliate marketing has incentivized people to write about topics they have little to no knowledge about. It makes sense that you wouldn't take guitar lessons from someone who has never played guitar.
Expertise is easily verifiable regarding Legal, Financial, and Medical YMYL topics. Professionals in specific fields must display their credentials publicly on association websites and directory listings. Many licensed contractors are required to do the same.
Such websites are the American Bar Association, American Medical Association, FINRA, and institutional directories.
Writing about stuff specifically to gain traffic is against Google's Guidelines.
SEOs often write about random topics specifically to gain traffic.
You might ask, well, why does anyone write anything?
All humans have this issue; we often think of ourselves as experts in a subject regardless of whether we genuinely are. We also believe that because we Googled the answers online, it qualifies as research.
I'm going to select a random legal topic, such as Divorce. Before I write about Divorce online, I look at the following game theory and ask, am I a qualified expert? An unqualified expert? Or an unqualified non-expert
| Expert | Non-expert | ||
| Qualified | A Lawyer with 10 years of experience in Divorce cases | A Lawyer who practices bankruptcy only. | |
| Unqualified | Someone who's been through 7 divorces. | An SEO trying to rank for legal terms who has never been in a courtroom, never been divorced, and has no qualifications except that they read stuff online. |
If you had told me a couple of years ago that I could type "a cyberpunk hedgehog making a latte" and get a photorealistic 4K video back in seconds, I would have laughed. But here we are in 2026, and AI video generation isn't just a novelty anymore, it's a massive part of my daily workflow.
This guide leverages my experience to break down how to write, structure, and publish a document that earns trust rather than just demanding attention.
Depending on who you ask, there are anywhere from five to twenty "essential" rules out there. But in my experience, there are really only a dozen “laws” of visual design that matter across every medium. Here’s a guide I’ve created with the elements I find to be the most important, no matter your platform.
The results are surprising, Quality Score and Cost Per Click are more clearly correlated when you look at Exact Match keywords.
I love WordPress for its customizations. Styling code snippets enhances user perceptions. Copy and paste the code below to style your WordPress code blocks.
The code snippet plugin changed my life. I no longer edit the raw PHP files to add simple functions like titles to users' profiles.
If you had told me a couple of years ago that I could type "a cyberpunk hedgehog making a latte" and get a photorealistic 4K video back in seconds, I would have laughed. But here we are in 2026, and AI video generation isn't just a novelty anymore, it's a massive part of my daily workflow.
This guide leverages my experience to break down how to write, structure, and publish a document that earns trust rather than just demanding attention.
Depending on who you ask, there are anywhere from five to twenty "essential" rules out there. But in my experience, there are really only a dozen “laws” of visual design that matter across every medium. Here’s a guide I’ve created with the elements I find to be the most important, no matter your platform.
The results are surprising, Quality Score and Cost Per Click are more clearly correlated when you look at Exact Match keywords.
I love WordPress for its customizations. Styling code snippets enhances user perceptions. Copy and paste the code below to style your WordPress code blocks.
The code snippet plugin changed my life. I no longer edit the raw PHP files to add simple functions like titles to users' profiles.
