How to Be a Successful YMYL Blogger

As we all know, YMYL bloggers have high competition. The acronym YMYL stands for “Your Money, Your Life”. And quite literally, these are topics that affect people’s decision-making of important things that affect them significantly (in money and in life, particularly). Almost every topic can be considered as a YMYL topic and it gets confusing at some point. Does this mean there are no more worthy blog niches to join? This knowledge leaves YMYL blogging such an overwhelming job. But it does not mean being a successful YMYL blogger is impossible.

The question on everyone’s minds is – how can anyone become a successful YMYL blogger?

Upgrade your website’s About or Author pages

Expertise and trustworthiness are two of the most important elements of a YMYL post. This goes together with authority. Your blog needs to establish that it has experts behind the content. Expertise could be shown by extensively and carefully writing ‘About’ or ‘Author’ pages. Contributors can write down their backgrounds and experiences. As a good addition, the page could also highlight their previously published works from reputable sources. Another option is to Invite credible guest collaborators every now and then.

Unique (and honest) About Page. Screenshot: Blake Suarez Website

Do your research

High-quality content can be identified not just by SERP algorithms but also by readers. Skip all the grammatical errors, wrong spellings, and incorrect punctuation. Also, be careful in auditing your own blog for layout issues, header sizes, backlinks, and the like. You would need your work to establish authority. A clean and well-written piece will certainly showcase the website’s trustworthiness to its readers.

Always look at a different angle

It is inevitable to write about the same topics, especially when dealing with YMYL. How can you write a news article about a trending event without putting in the same details as more established websites? What is the odd chance you will outrank them? The best way to write about the same topic without actually writing it exactly as other news websites is to always look at a different angle.

For instance, a prominent figure has passed away. Instead of writing a post announcing that the person has passed, why not focus the article on the person’s achievements, lifestyle, daily routines, favorites, and more. Your content is still YMYL as it is considered as news, but the possibility of producing similar content with other blogs is lower.

Choose a less sensitive query

If you are confident about your expertise in your niche, then go ahead and write answers for sensitive queries. However, we must still remember that SEO and YMYL still go hand-in-hand. Competition lies with more established websites. Yes, there are good chances that you will outrank them, but it will surely be difficult. So, the good approach for this is to choose a less sensitive query for the same topic.

Thinking of writing a post about deciding whether or not to get a mortgage? Instead of answering the YMYL query “should I get a mortgage on a house?”, go for the less sensitive route like “Should I mortgage a house or a condo?”. Both are YMYL queries but the latter query already establishes the premise that the searcher has already decided to get a mortgage and is just choosing between a condo and a house. There is no apparent danger of influencing an individual to get a mortgage and preventing readers from hiring professional financial advisers.

“Should you get a credit card” vs. “What to expect before you get a credit card”

Same but different

Establish your limit

It may be safe to say that even experts have certain topics they know little about. Also, in many cases, content creators have knowledge about topics but don’t necessarily have expertise about them. For example, a blogger may have knowledge and expertise in SEO analysis and optimization but have only enough knowledge about brand marketing.

Establish your limit. If you think that an expert can write about the topic better than you think you can, then why not invite a guest collaborator? Or, if you are unsure about what advice to give about a certain subject, why not skip that topic altogether. It’s better to admit that the topic is difficult than produce poor content about it.

How to be a successful YMYL blogger?

There are many ways to measure success in YMYL blogging. Simply follow these blogging principles, and you’ll be well on your way to good YMYL blogging. As a blogger, it is sure that you will learn more principles and rules along the way, but being equipped with these may be enough for now.