How to Get Google to Consider Your Content High-Quality Through YMYL and EAT

Google has established quality standards for search, in which content—as we already know—is the most useful tool for achieving that desired ranking. This content must be high-quality, user-focused, and created by true experts. The keys to understanding Google’s definition of high-quality pages and content lie in the acronyms E-A-T and YMYL. Let’s take a look.

Every time those of us who work in SEO, digital marketing, or content marketing hear that Google has made a change to its algorithm, we worry that the change might cause the websites we manage to drop in search rankings.

Once this happens, SEO experts step into the role of detectives and investigate what Google might be doing now to prioritize some pages over others, what factors it considers most important, and what it defines as “quality”—a fundamental component of its algorithm.

The same thing happened on August 25, 2022, when Google rolled out its new algorithm called “Helpful Content Update’, which will place even greater emphasis on quality and useful content, thus following in the footsteps of the American search engine’s previous moves in this regard.

In this regard, in 2015—amid all the discussion about content quality as a fundamental factor in a website’s search ranking—Google released its comprehensive Search Quality Rating Guidelines. These guidelines addressed all the speculation and rumors circulating online on the subject.

These guidelines, published by Google, essentially contain two key points that help us understand how Google interprets websites and how it distinguishes quality content from content that isn’t. These two key points are:

• E-A-T (Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) —or, in other words, experience, authority, and trust.
• YMYL (Your Money or Your Life).

Thanks to this guide, we now know whether a website is high-quality or not—or at least, what the search engine takes into account when making that determination.

But what do they really mean, and how can I apply them to the content on my site? Let’s take a look.

How to Use YMYL and EAT to Improve the Quality of Your Website

The Search Quality Rater Guidelines have been updated three times: in July 2018, May 2019, and October 2021. In the meantime, we have also seen numerous algorithm updates, including some to the main algorithm.

Let’s take a look at each of these key points and what they mean.

YMYL: Your Money or Your Life

With this evocative name (la bolsa o la vida in Spanish), Google highlights the importance of content to users; if presented inaccurately, without verification, or in a disappointing manner, it can have a direct impact on the user, making them less happy and potentially harming their health, safety, or even their financial situation.

In other words, if you create content that isn’t fact-checked—containing false, irrelevant, or inaccurate information—it can affect the reader’s life. That’s why Google’s quality standards in this area are particularly high.

For this reason, Google requires that content be written by expert and relevant professionals.

However, not all pages are YMYL, so keep in mind which ones will be analyzed more closely based on this requirement.

In short, topics related to business, technology, science, politics, and anything else that constitutes news or a noteworthy event; topics related to government, laws, and society; anything related to financial matters (taxes, pensions, mortgages…); price comparisons for purchases; health information (medical advice, hospitals, information on medications…); and anything related to highly personal matters such as race, sexual orientation, religion, etc., will be subject to analysis by the search engine, which will be particularly strict regarding the content posted on that site.

Google evaluates this through its quality raters. These raters are individuals hired by Google who are tasked with reviewing websites that appear in specific search results and, therefore, determine whether a piece of content is YMYL.

The pages that are the subject of this comprehensive analysis must also meet the highest standards of E-A-T. Let’s take a look at what that means.

E-A-T: Expertise, Authority, Trust (or Page Quality)

This is an acronym you’ve probably seen before if you read articles about SEO. As I’ve already mentioned, it stands for Experience, Authority, and Trust.

In May 2019, Google made a very significant change to its algorithm, which had a direct impact on EAT. Following this change, EAT became a key factor in determining a page’s quality.

Once a page has been determined to be valuable, its E-A-T level is carefully evaluated to determine whether its content is YMYL. Non-YMYL content does not require the same level of rigor as YMYL content.

Let’s take a look at each of the factors it analyzes to determine the EAT (Expertise, Authority, and Trust) score.

Experience.

This aspect has to do with the author of the content. Is he or she an expert on the subject? Does he or she have the necessary credentials to cover the topic, and is the information available to read online?

Authority.

When Google talks about “authority,” it refers to when people are familiar with you and your background, and also view you as a leader in the industry for which you write or create content, accepting you as a reliable source of information.

Trust.

This section covers both the content and the website. Being a trusted expert means that people can rely on you as a source of honest and accurate information.

As you can see, SEO consists of a wide variety of factors that are constantly changing, and these factors play a crucial role in making your digital project visible on the web.

At MIO One, we believe that SEO is the foundation of a healthy online presence. Thanks to our SEO strategies and the day-to-day work we do for our clients as part of the comprehensive digital marketing strategies we implement, we’ve been able to take a significant step forward that positively impacts the overall results of our work. Do you need help with your website’s SEO? Do you want to improve your Google quality score? Contact us.