How to Create SEO Content for YMYL Pages

How you can use YMYL content to your advantage to improve your SEO

1. Create high-quality content:

   Creating quality content for YMYL pages involves a number of factors. Mainly, you’ll have to follow Google’s recommendations in the SQEG. High-quality content always provides enough information to satisfy a user’s search intent. It’s important that the content is relevant to your services and written by an expert on the subject matter. To understand how people are searching for your topic, it’s a good idea to conduct SEO Keyword Research. You can gage whether other sites have already addressed the topic by doing an SEO Competitor Analysis.
   
   You’ll also want to pay attention to on-page SEO, as well as technical SEO. High-quality content is a great asset. Whether you want to rank for your chosen keywords or earn links.

2. Write for your audience:

   Keeping your YMYL searchers’ needs, vulnerabilities and expectations in mind when writing content will go a long way. Content should enrich your users’ lives and have a purpose. Never write an article just for the sake of writing an article, just because the keywords have high search volume. It’s your responsibility to ensure the information you provide will improve your readers’ finances, wellbeing, and ultimately, their lives.

3. Write on Subjects you have knowledge of:

   According to the SQEG, Google rates personal experiences and knowledge when it comes to YMYL content:
   
   “If it seems as if the person creating the content has the type and amount of life experience to make him or her an ‘expert’ on the topic, we will value this ‘everyday expertise’ and not penalize the person/webpage/website for not having ‘formal’ education or training in the field.”
   
   Writing on topics you have knowledge of is one of the oldest tricks in the book to creating quality content. However, it’s still important to find a balance between your unique knowledge and perspective and the coverage that the topic warrants. Differentiate your content from that of competitors using your personal experience and knowledge, then enrich it and add depth by doing additional research.

4. Build your site’s E-A-T:

   This can be done by making your contact information and business history readily available, as well as updating any low-quality pages with better content. Boosting your domain’s E-A-T is a long process. It might be a good idea to start with less sensitive topics and once your domain gains credibility, move on to YMYL topics. It’s also important to monitor any user-generated content on your domain. Make sure comments and forums align with your branding.

5. Boost your content writers’ E-A-T:

   It’s important to lean on experts in the field you’re covering. Link to reports or studies and quote or reference industry experts. If your content is written by experts, make sure your site features your content creators’ profiles that include their titles and credentials. Also be sure to link to your content creators’ domains or social media profiles.

6. Include external links in your content:

   This is applicable for every single piece of content you create, but even more crucial for YMYL pages. YMYL pages will inevitably contain information from other sources. To support and substantiate your claims – and give credit where it’s due – link to those sources.
   
   External links pass equity from your domain to the site you link to, and vice versa. This is because citations increase the extent to which Google associates your site with those credible domains. This can help make your own site seem more trustworthy.
   
   It’s also appropriate at times to reference and link to your competitors. These may be direct business competitors or pages already ranking for the keywords you are targeting. If those domains are good sources of information and undisputed authorities on the subject, it will always benefit your site’s E-A-T when linking to them.
   
   It’s important to only link to other authoritative sites. Links to low-quality or spammy pages can reduce the quality of your own page.

7. Get backlinks:

   In addition to linking out to high-authority sites, build links to your own content. Backlinks from trustworthy sites boost the authority of your site by passing link equity.

8. Refrain from employing black hat SEO practices:

   Black hat SEO practices such as link spam or keyword stuffing could permanently damage your site’s rankings and reputation.