Your Money or Your Life (YMYL)

Google uses the term YMYLYMYL (Your Money or Your Life) refers to topics affecting money, health, safety, law or important life decisions. E-E-A-T matters especially for these topics.Open glossary entry → for topics where inaccurate information could cause real harm, for example health, finance and pensions, insurance, law, safety, major purchasing decisions and politically or socially sensitive subjects.

Because the risk is high, visible expertiseExpertise is the subject-matter competence behind a piece of content. It is the second E in E-E-A-T and should be visible through author details and supporting evidence.Open glossary entry →, traceable sources, timelinessFreshness describes how current a piece of content is relative to the search intent. It is not equally important for every query.Open glossary entry → and clear responsibility are particularly important. A YMYL guide without a visible author and without cited sources is considered especially critical.

As a rule of thumb:

• the more sensitive the topic, the more important authorship and evidence become,
• the greater the business or personal impact, the stronger trust signalsTrust signals are visible elements of a website that build credibility, such as an imprint, contact details, privacy information, sources, reviews, update dates and transparent company information.Open glossary entry → need to be.

Not every page is YMYL; simple product or service topics face lower requirements than medical, financial or legal content.