YMYL: The Google algorithm health & wellness brands need to know about

YMYL for Health and Wellness Websites: What You Need to Know

If you work in health and wellness, you may have heard that your website is considered “YMYL” and that Google will judge it more harshly than other websites.

There is some truth in that. But there is also a lot of confusing and inaccurate advice about what YMYL means, how it affects your visibility and what you need to do about it.

YMYL is not a standalone Google algorithm, penalty or score. It is a way of describing content that could significantly affect someone’s health, safety, finances or wellbeing if it is inaccurate or misleading.

That means Google needs strong reasons to trust health-related content before giving it prominent visibility. Your potential clients need those reasons too.

Quick answer: What is YMYL?

YMYL stands for “Your Money or Your Life”. It describes subjects in which inaccurate, unsafe, or misleading information could cause significant harm.

Health advice, medical information, mental health guidance, nutritional recommendations and treatment claims can all fall within YMYL. The greater the potential harm, the stronger the evidence, expertise and transparency required.

YMYL is not a separate Google algorithm. It is a concept used within Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines to assess whether search results are safe, reliable and useful.

For a health or wellness brand, the practical goal is not to “beat YMYL”. It is to make sure that:

• your claims are accurate and appropriately qualified;
• your content reflects your real expertise and scope of practice;
• important information is supported by credible evidence;
• readers can see who created or reviewed the content;
• your qualifications and experience are easy to verify;
• your website is transparent, secure and trustworthy.

What does YMYL mean?

YMYL stands for “Your Money or Your Life” because it covers information that could affect a person’s:

• physical health;
• mental health;
• safety;
• financial stability;
• legal position;
• ability to make major life decisions.

The principle is simple. The more harm inaccurate information could cause, the more important the quality and credibility of that information becomes.

Someone choosing between two yoga mats is unlikely to suffer serious harm from a poor recommendation. Someone deciding whether to seek medical care, change their medication or follow a restrictive diet could.

Google therefore looks for stronger evidence of trust when the search concerns a potentially serious health decision.

That does not mean every page on a wellness website is treated in exactly the same way.

Does YMYL apply to your wellness website?

It depends on what each page says and what someone might do as a result.

A wellness website can contain a mixture of low-risk and high-risk content.

This is why a long list of “YMYL industries” is not particularly helpful. Two practitioners in the same profession may publish very different types of content.

A Pilates studio describing its class timetable does not carry the same responsibility as a practitioner advising someone how to rehabilitate an injury. A health coach sharing their experience of recovering from burnout is not automatically qualified to diagnose or treat a mental health condition.

The question is not simply, “Am I a wellness business?”

It is:

Could someone make an important health or wellbeing decision based on this particular page?

The stronger the potential impact, the more care that page requires.

Who does YMYL affect?

If you’re any of the following professions, it’s likely you’re content will be judged against YMYL standards.

• Medicine and integrative medicine
• Nutrition and nutritional therapy
• Mental health practitioners
• Chiropractic Treatment
• Oncology and integrative oncologist
• Osteopathy
• Counselling
• Naturopathic healthcare
• Herbalists
• Supplements
• Alternative health care
• Holistic Health care
• Health coaches
• Fertility Coaches
• Midwifery & Doulas
• Acupuncture and acupressure
• Reflexologists

Related: IS SEO worth it for Health and Wellness Businesses?

What is the difference between YMYL and E-E-A-T?

YMYL describes a subject’s sensitivity and potential impact.

E-E-A-T is a quality framework used in Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines. It stands for:

• Experience
• Expertise
• Authoritativeness
• Trustworthiness

Google’s quality raters use these principles to assess whether search results appear helpful and reliable. Their individual ratings do not directly determine where a page ranks.

Google’s automated systems use many different signals to identify content that appears relevant, useful and trustworthy. There is no single E-E-A-T score you can find in Google Search Console, improve with a plugin or add to your website with schema.

Trust is the most important part of the framework. A page cannot compensate for inaccurate or misleading information simply by adding an impressive author biography.

You can read more about each element in my guide to Google E-E-A-T and experience.

What makes health and wellness content trustworthy?

You and Google ultimately want the same thing: for people to find useful information from sources they can trust.

For health and wellness brands, that trust usually depends on several connected elements.

1. Appropriate expertise

The person creating or reviewing the content should have the necessary knowledge to support the claims being made.

This does not mean that only doctors can publish health and wellness content. The appropriate level and type of expertise depend on the subject.

A physiotherapist may be suitably qualified to explain a rehabilitation exercise. A patient may be the best person to describe their own experience of living with a condition. A retreat leader can credibly explain what happens during one of their retreats.

Problems arise when personal experience is presented as clinical proof, or someone starts giving advice beyond their training and professional scope.

What to check

• Is the author clearly named?
• Are their relevant qualifications and experience explained?
• Are they writing within their professional scope?
• Has specialist content been reviewed by an appropriately qualified professional where necessary?
• Can the reader distinguish professional guidance from personal experience?

2. Accurate, evidence-supported content

Health claims should be based on credible evidence and explained with an appropriate level of certainty.

Words such as “may”, “can” and “has been associated with” are not signs of weak writing when they accurately reflect the evidence. They are more trustworthy than presenting an emerging theory as a proven fact.

Where a claim could influence someone’s health decisions, link to the original research or a reputable medical source wherever possible.

Good sources might include:

• peer-reviewed research;
• NHS guidance or CDC or Medline Plus in the US;
• recognised medical institutions;
• government health bodies;
• professional associations;
• established clinical guidelines.

Linking to external evidence does not diminish your authority. It shows readers that your advice is grounded in something more substantial than marketing copy.

What to check

• Which claims could materially affect someone’s health?
• Is there credible evidence to support them?
• Does the source support the precise claim being made?
• Is the research current enough for the subject?
• Have limitations, risks or contraindications been included where relevant?

3. First-hand experience used appropriately

The extra “E” in E-E-A-T recognises the value of experience.

First-hand experience can add depth that generic content cannot reproduce. It can show what a treatment felt like, what recovery involved, how a process worked or what someone learned from supporting clients in practice.

But experience and expertise are not interchangeable.

A personal account can credibly say:

“This is what I experienced.”

It cannot automatically conclude:

“This treatment will work for everyone.”

For some questions, lived experience is exactly what the reader needs. For others, qualified clinical expertise and strong evidence matter more.

The content should make that distinction clear.

4. Transparent authorship and business information

A reader should be able to understand who is behind the website, why they are credible and how to contact them.

An anonymous article offering consequential health advice has a much higher trust barrier than one connected to a clearly identified and appropriately qualified author.

Your website should make it easy to find:

• the author’s full name;
• a relevant biography;
• qualifications and training;
• professional affiliations or registrations;
• practical experience;
• the organisation responsible for the website;
• contact information;
• editorial or review information where relevant;
• appropriate medical, affiliate or commercial disclosures.

Your About page matters here, but important credibility information should not be hidden exclusively on another page. A concise author biography can give readers useful context at the point they encounter the advice.

Relevant structured data can also help search engines understand the relationship between an author, an organisation and their credentials. It can support machine understanding, but it cannot turn weak evidence or unclear expertise into trustworthy content.

5. Independent authority and reputation

What you say about yourself matters. What credible people and organisations say about you can provide additional reassurance.

Relevant authority signals may include:

• professional accreditations;
• membership of recognised organisations;
• awards with meaningful selection criteria;
• contributions to reputable publications;
• conference or podcast appearances;
• citations or links from relevant websites;
• genuine client or patient reviews;
• collaborations with respected professionals.

Quality matters more than collecting the largest possible number of badges, directory listings or backlinks.

A relevant mention from a respected professional body may carry more meaning than dozens of links from unrelated directories.

6. A safe and functional website

Expert content can still lose trust if the website around it feels neglected, confusing or unsafe.

The site should:

• use HTTPS;
• work properly on mobile devices;
• have clear navigation;
• avoid intrusive or misleading advertising;
• separate editorial information from promotional claims;
• disclose sponsored content and affiliate relationships;
• provide working contact and enquiry routes;
• make important policies and business information accessible;
• avoid broken links, outdated details and obvious technical errors.

A well-designed website cannot prove that a medical claim is true. But poor functionality and missing information can make it harder for readers to trust, understand or act on otherwise credible content.

A practical YMYL content check

Start with the pages that could have the greatest effect on someone’s health or decisions.

For each page, ask:

Who wrote it?

The author should be named and have relevant experience or expertise.

First action: Add or improve the author biography and link it to a detailed profile.

What is the page claiming?

Identify health claims, treatment outcomes, statistics and recommendations.

First action: Highlight every consequential claim and verify its accuracy.

What evidence supports those claims?

Look for original research, clinical guidance or suitably authoritative sources.

First action: Replace vague references such as “studies show” with direct, relevant citations.

Is the certainty justified?

Check for words such as “cures”, “prevents”, “guarantees”, “reverses” and “works for everyone”.

First action: Rewrite absolute claims to reflect what the available evidence genuinely supports.

Is the author working within their scope?

The content should not imply clinical authority the author does not possess.

First action: Clarify whether the information is professional guidance, general education or personal experience.

Does the reader know what to do next?

Helpful health content should make it clear when someone can take a low-risk action and when they should seek individual professional or medical advice.

First action: Add appropriate limitations, contraindications and routes to qualified support.

Is the content still current?

Some health information changes as research and professional guidance develop.

First action: Review time-sensitive pages and show when they were last meaningfully updated.

Common YMYL mistakes wellness brands make

Treating personal experience as universal evidence

Your story can be powerful and useful. It becomes misleading when an individual result is presented as proof that everyone will experience the same outcome.

Publishing outside your scope of practice

You do not need to minimise your expertise, but you do need to represent it accurately.

Using generic health content

A long article assembled from information already repeated across the internet does not necessarily demonstrate expertise or help the reader.

Original explanations, practical insight and relevant professional experience are more valuable than filling a target word count.

Hiding the person behind the advice

If your qualifications, experience, and identity are difficult to find, readers and search engines have less context to evaluate the content.

Adding citations without checking them

A reputable source does not help if it does not support the exact claim you have made.

Using AI without expert review

AI can help organise, draft and edit content. It can also produce convincing inaccuracies, invented evidence and claims that exceed your professional scope.

Health content still requires careful human review by someone qualified to assess the subject matter.

Trying to manufacture E-E-A-T

Author schema, biography boxes, accreditations and references can make genuine credibility easier to understand. They cannot manufacture expertise or compensate for misleading content.

Do you need to optimise your website for YMYL?

There is no YMYL setting to switch on and no guaranteed checklist that will move your website to the top of Google.

You are improving the website’s underlying quality, not optimising for an acronym.

That means bringing together:

• a clear area of expertise;
• useful, accurate content;
• responsible health claims;
• visible qualifications and experience;
• external evidence and authority;
• transparent business information;
• a secure and functional website.

These elements also affect whether a potential client trusts you.

You may be exceptionally experienced and qualified, but if your website does not communicate that clearly, people can only judge what they can see.

For many credible wellness experts, that is the real problem. The expertise already exists. The online presence simply does not represent it properly.

What should you fix first?

Work in this order:

1. Review your highest-risk content. Start with pages discussing symptoms, conditions, treatments, supplements or significant health outcomes.
2. Correct consequential claims. Remove unsupported statements and add credible evidence where it is needed.
3. Clarify authorship and review. Show who created the content, their relevant expertise and whether a specialist reviewed it.
4. Strengthen the surrounding trust information. Improve biographies, About pages, contact details, disclosures and professional credentials.
5. Fix functional problems. Check mobile usability, security, navigation, broken links and enquiry routes.
6. Build authority deliberately. Create genuinely useful specialist content and earn relevant recognition beyond your own website.

Do not begin by publishing articles every week simply to appear active. One accurate, genuinely helpful and well-supported resource is more valuable than a stream of shallow content.

Your expertise should be visible

YMYL is not something credible health and wellness professionals need to fear.

It is a reminder that the standard of your online information should reflect the standard of your real-world work.

Your qualifications, experience and integrity may already be exceptional. But if they are buried, disconnected or poorly communicated, your website can still under-represent your calibre.

The strongest health and wellness websites do more than look professional. Their strategy, messaging, content and user experience work together to make the expertise behind the brand clear, credible and easy to trust.

If you are unsure which part of your online presence is weakening that trust, take the Be More You Brand Alignment Quiz. It will help you assess how effectively your strategy, design and messaging, website, and content and search visibility are working together, so you know where to focus next.