Google Medic Update: Should You Avoid YMYL Niches? [LNIM157]

Hook

The Google Medic Update hit two months ago and shook up rankings across health and finance sites. In this episode, I break down what we know about the update, whether you should avoid YMYL niches, and exactly what to do if your site was affected.

What You Will Learn

• What the Google Medic Update targeted and why Google made this change
• Whether you should start an affiliate site in the medical or finance niche right now
• Four actionable steps to bolster your E-E-A-T if you were hit

Episode Summary

Barry Schwartz at SEO Roundtable was the first to report the Google Medic Update. After surveying impacted sites, he found that nearly half were health-related and a significant portion were finance-related. Google calls these YMYL sites — Your Money or Your Life.

Google is targeting sites that lack E-A-T: Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. The logic is simple. Google makes money from ads, and their ad business depends on being the best search engine. To stay on top, they need to deliver authoritative answers, especially when someone is searching for medical or financial information.

Should you start a niche site in health or finance? Only if you have real expertise or are committed to creating genuinely authoritative content. If you have medical credentials and want to build a site in your field, go for it. But if you are just looking for an affiliate opportunity and have no credentials and no plan to hire experts, I would avoid YMYL niches right now.

If you were hit by the update, take these steps:

• Add contact information, disclaimers, privacy policies, and terms of service to your site
• Create detailed author bios that reflect your expertise and link to your social media profiles
• Write content that references authoritative sources with outbound links
• Make your articles comprehensive and appropriately lengthy for the topic

I also introduced the Late Night Swimming Pool Experiment — my attempt to pay for a swimming pool using Amazon FBA wholesale revenue, working just 30 minutes a day.

Key Takeaways

1. The Medic Update targets weak E-A-T. If your YMYL site lacks credentials, trust signals, and authoritative content, your rankings are at risk.
2. Only enter YMYL niches with real expertise. Credentials matter more than ever in health and finance.
3. Trust signals are table stakes. Contact pages, legal disclaimers, and author bios are non-negotiable.
4. Cite authoritative sources. Outbound links to research and expert sources signal credibility.

What Has Changed Since This Episode

• E-A-T evolved to E-E-A-T. Google added “Experience” as a ranking signal in December 2022, valuing first-hand experience alongside expertise.
• Multiple Helpful Content Updates. Google continued refining content quality signals through 2022-2024, making E-E-A-T even more critical.
• AI content requires extra care. With AI-generated content flooding the web, demonstrating genuine human expertise is more important than ever.

Resources

• SEO Roundtable (Barry Schwartz)
• Late Night Internet Marketing Facebook Community
• Subscribe to Late Night Internet Marketing

Full Transcript

The full transcript for this episode is available at LNIM 157 Transcript: Google Medic Update.

Take Action

Run an E-E-A-T audit on your site this week. Do you have author bios, legal pages, and authoritative citations? Fix the gaps and your rankings will thank you. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.