Daniel Fava: If your therapy website isn't ranking the way you hoped or SEO just feels harder than it used to, today's episode is going to explain why. We're talking about something called YMYL, which stands for your money or your life. It's the category Google places mental health websites in, and it means your site is held to a much higher standard than most industries. In this episode, I'm joined by our lead SEO specialist, Michael McDaniel, and we're breaking down what YMYL actually means, All right, well, thanks so much for tuning in. Daniel here. And as always, I'm excited. I'm especially excited for today's conversation, today's episode, all about Google and all the changes that Google's been making. So yeah, and today is also, as I'm recording this, today is my oldest son Samuel's. Well, I hope that this episode was helpful to you as you kind of navigate this whole landscape of online visibility, SEO, AI optimization. know, things have really changed a lot over the last year. And, you know, I hope that this has been super helpful. It was helpful to me to have a conversation with Michael and just understand just the change in the landscape, the change of how we create content for therapy websites. And it really all comes back to this your money or your life category. Alrighty, well I am super excited to have Michael McDaniel on the Private Practice Elevation Podcast. Finally, how are you doing Michael? Michael McDaniel: good. How are you? Daniel Fava: I am doing good, doing good. So Michael is our lead SEO specialist here at Private Practice Elevation. Super excited about just ⁓ work you've been doing, Michael. And I know that over the last year, we've worked pretty closely on ⁓ a lot of how we do things because of how Google and now AI is doing things. So to just share your wealth of knowledge and wisdom ⁓ with audience. ⁓ And before get into our topic ninth birthday. I can't believe that he's nine already. ⁓ But we're having a fun day and excited for when he gets home from school today so that we can continue to play and we can continue to celebrate him and just really, really love that kid. He's so creative and he got his big gift this year was a Chromebook. ⁓ Google evaluates therapy websites now and what simple changes you can make to build more trust with both Google and potential clients. But first, a word from our sponsors. the standard that Google holds it to. So I'm just hopeful that you really received a lot of tips, quick wins, things that you can apply to your own SEO strategy. And as always, if you would like help with that strategy, if you need help understanding what your visibility or lack thereof looks like right now, we'd love to help you. We do that with our SEO assessments. And you can go to privatepracticeelevation.com to learn what goes into an assessment and how long it takes and what you're going to uncover when you go through Why don't you just tell us a little bit about yourself, just a little bit of your professional background and how you came to be in this world of SEO and online visibility. because he's really getting into, he wants to his own YouTube channel. He's super creative, so he's really into origami. So he wants to teach people how to do origami on his YouTube channel. It's so cute, it's so sweet. So yeah, so it's a fun day over here in the Faba household. And yeah, today is just a special day, because we have Private Practice Elevation's very own lead SEO specialist, Michael, on the podcast. I've been asking him for some time, we gotta get you on the podcast. Michael McDaniel: Well, I started doing web design. I actually started web design in 2001, 2002, which was way before search optimization was a thing. So going through all the web design stuff gave me a good backbone for websites, how they work and all that stuff. then ⁓ incorporates, and now we have search engines. And ⁓ optimization sort of ⁓ up at one point and became its own industry. And so I kind of ⁓ in with that kind of from the ground, basically. And I've gone through most iterations of Google's algorithm all the way through where we are. Daniel Fava: and assessment. So we'd love to talk to you about that. So thanks so much for listening to the Prior Practice Elevation Podcast. Now go elevate your practice. and you'll see why as you listen to this conversation because Michael is just a wealth of information. He's really been in the SEO space since it really started and he shares a little bit about his journey but since he's been in that space for so long he's just got so much ⁓ information, so much wisdom and so you're gonna get a lot of helpful tips. Michael McDaniel: now, is AI. So I have been doing this for quite a while. Lots of little tips and tricks and little things ⁓ that I picked up along the way. So it's been a fun ride. Daniel Fava: in this episode that you can apply to your website. You're going to understand a little bit more about the landscape of Google and AI search, how things have been changing, how you can really craft your content for 2026 and beyond, and these changes with AI and Google so that you can increase your trustworthiness, increase your visibility, and ultimately reach more of your clients. So hope you enjoy this episode. Here's my conversation with Michael McDaniel. going through all of all of those changes and all that history, ⁓ I think that that's really I mean you've been just so Such wealth of knowledge for our clients and for me too because ⁓ when came on board It was kind of like at the forefront of ⁓ things kind of shifting AI hadn't really like blown up just yet But we saw kind of the beginnings of that ⁓ little and I keep up, you know, because ⁓ There's a that I'm doing so ⁓ I need who's a specialist And so, yeah, just so excited to have you on board and the work that you're doing. So I appreciate it. Michael McDaniel: Well, thank you. I've loved it. Daniel Fava: Good, Awesome. Well, let's get into today's topic. One of the main reasons I wanted to have you on is because of the shifts that have been happening over the last year and a half-ish, year-ish, with Google and AI and just kind of like what is working now and what are those shifts that have happened in terms of getting a private practice website to do well on search in AI, have that visibility. Today we're specifically diving into something I don't think a lot of people know about, that is the ⁓ category. And some people may have never even heard that. What is YMYL? So why don't we kind of start at the beginning. ⁓ is YMYL and why is it important for therapists to know about this category and topic? Michael McDaniel: So a lot of people don't realize that there even are categories, know, Y-M-Y-L, you know, sounds like an acronym, most people don't, you know, really like, well, what is it? Because they don't know the industry and acronyms. ⁓ it's actually one of the most important things for like a therapist specifically to understand. ⁓ stands for your money or your life. So basically what happens is Google categorizes like certain topics as like high stakes. So like if you search for a sourdough bread recipe or something like that and it's wrong, then that's great. Daniel Fava: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Michael McDaniel: you get bad bread. But like if I if someone searches for how to treat postpartum depression or look for PTSD symptoms and you get bad advice that can turn into like a real-world disaster. So since therapists deal with people's mental health, their safety, Google and most AI crawl bots now the way that they categorize saying you're gonna put your website in this YMYL bucket. So ⁓ means that the algorithm isn't just looking for keywords or information. It's looking for proof that you're not full of it. That's what it's basically doing. Daniel Fava: You Mm-hmm. Michael McDaniel: So it matters in 2026 so much because the internet, know, we're being flooded with AI generated health content, gurus on everything from weight loss to therapy. So, you know, the content all starts to sound the same. Google and search's response has been to get super aggressive about how they and why they trust a site. So if your site doesn't clearly show that you're a real licensed human that knows what you're talking about, then Google is just going to hide you to play it safe. So kind of for a therapist, understanding why MYL and why Daniel Fava: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Michael McDaniel: you're in that bucket is basically the difference between being a trusted ⁓ people find or being completely invisible because Google feels the need to protect people from your site. ⁓ Daniel Fava: Right, so it sounds like this is really about the standards of the content that goes on a website and this ties into, and I've spoken about this in the podcast before, the EEAT, your expertise, ⁓ trustworthiness, authority and all that sort of stuff, ⁓ it's also like, to it's like an extra standard on top of that. Michael McDaniel: Yeah, so I mean it's just a different level than some other sites. So if you think about it, it's sort of like a hierarchy. The YMYL category is kind of one of the highest standards that you have to kind of live up to when you're putting this sort of content out there and saying, I'm an expert, I'm going to tell you how to manage anxiety at home in between appointments with this blog article. You're just held to a standard saying, look, I'm not just going to show this to anybody because I don't know if you're going to tell them good things or bad things. And so you have to hold yourself to this really high online just like you would in real life seeing a patient. Daniel Fava: And I think too, like this fits in, I think so well with, you know, what therapists do. And I know that a lot of people are struggling with their online visibility, but I think at the end of the day, like this is a good thing that Google is really honing in because we want to make sure that at end of the day, people find the, you know, the help, the mental health help that they really need. so, I think it's good that we're having these, you know, we're held to these higher standards because we want to make sure that, ⁓ know, we're, putting really good content out there. And let's kind of talk about that a little bit. What type of content fits into this category? What is Google looking for on a therapist's website when it comes to this higher standard that it holds a therapy website to? Michael McDaniel: So, This is kind of a big question. So for 2026, Google doesn't look for a textbook, kind of like it used to, where it's sort of like keywords and topics and stuff like that. It's like you could kind of have sort of a textbook section or something like that. But what it's looking for is it's looking for the practitioner. ⁓ whether you're a group practice or an individual practice, ⁓ looking for that expert voice behind the content. So ⁓ you want to rank well ⁓ the YMYL world, ⁓ content needs to Daniel Fava: Yeah. Michael McDaniel: kind of like do, and I put together three things that I wanted to tell you guys. So you have to prove that you're a real human. That's the experience signal, right? So Google is kind of obsessed with first-hand experience and knowledge because it makes you real, it makes you a person. So of writing like a generic post, like saying, ⁓ is CBT? So if that's your blog article and you're trying to explain what CBT is, ⁓ write more now, like ⁓ a first CBT session looks like in my office, because that's a human question. That's showing your experience, you're talking about your office. Daniel Fava: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Michael McDaniel: stuff like that. you we use original photos. We talk about real world observations. In my 20 years of treating clients with I have seen blank. So when AI, you know, summarizes things, know, like AI can summarize a Wikipedia page. Like, that's fine. ⁓ But can't tell a client what it feels like to sit on your couch. So that human touch is a massive search signal right now. ⁓ The second thing is you want to lean into your bio. ⁓ Your page, your bio page. Daniel Fava: Hmm. Michael McDaniel: It's like the second, generally it should be about the second most viewed page on most sites and it is for most of our clients because Google is going to treat it that way. So you need to really, really lean into that bio. Back in the day we wouldn't lean in but so hard because talking about yourself too much whatnot, know, again, keywords and whatnot, you know, we built up the bios but it was a different way of doing it. ⁓ now we don't just list your degree, include a license number or specific certifications and things, EMD, Gottman, whatnot. ⁓ Daniel Fava: Yeah. Michael McDaniel: We include everything, so we include your degree, we do include all those license numbers, we include your certifications, we include your professional directories, ⁓ of the places that you're listed, psychology today, your NPI numbers, ⁓ like that, we put those in your bio because Google can source those and AI search bots, because we're not just optimizing for Google anymore, can those and they can go out and they can say, okay, look, I can find these verified things to say this person ⁓ is expert in their field. ⁓ Daniel Fava: Yeah. Michael McDaniel: The third thing is you want to answer ⁓ questions. This is the helpful signal. ⁓ don't just search for depression anymore because we don't search by keywords. ⁓ search ⁓ AI by questions. So people might search for, ⁓ do I tell my boss I'm struggling? Will my insurance cover my therapy? Those are scary questions. And we shy away from those sometimes because ⁓ tend to feel like that puts us in a box, especially that insurance question. If you're a private pay ⁓ people to Daniel Fava: You Mm-hmm. Michael McDaniel: feel like that turns people off, but that is a trust signal for search. So when you answer those things clearly, Google rewards that content, it provides immediate clear answers, so they reward that content. You're gonna get shown more, and those questions are gonna get answered ⁓ you're hitting these specific pain points. ⁓ the last thing I'll say, a big tip is, you wanna add an FAQ section to all of your service pages. ⁓ exact questions that clients ask you, so when someone comes in, sits on your couch, or calls you for that first Daniel Fava: Right. Michael McDaniel: know, consultation, the questions that they ask you use those the site because those are the questions people are asking. So it doesn't help, it doesn't only help with the people always ask section in Google results, ⁓ it allows all of the other AI crawlers to source these questions and use you as that answer. Daniel Fava: Yeah. Yeah, and I think that just listening to those tips which are super helpful, I'm thinking about is the shift. The shift has been from so focused, and I know that we run into this sometimes with just educating our clients because many of... ⁓ of our clients or maybe listeners have heard throughout the years, it's all about the keyword. I want to rank for depression in Atlanta, which is a good goal, but it's not the whole story. It used to be we just create a page just super detailed about depression in Atlanta, but now... ⁓ we're getting more of that human touch, which I think is great. it's about answering those specific questions and ⁓ not filling your website with information because ⁓ anyone go to Wikipedia or whatever and learn about. depression or depression counseling but we need to really find those people who are searching with the intent of finding a therapist not just information. I think that kind of that's my way of kind of summarizing like what you just said in some of like the shift it's much more it's much more human focused on what people are actually searching for. Michael McDaniel: Yeah, so I mean, when we think about intent, that's kind of our conversion optimization, right? So we want to find those intent-driven questions and queries. With AI Search, AI Search is its generative search, know, it's a generative experience. So ⁓ don't just go in and type depression in Atlanta anymore. I type, ⁓ struggling with depression, who's the best depression therapist in Atlanta? And that's what people are typing in, ⁓ like that. so AI is now giving people these answers. And what we're seeing is people are trusting these answers almost like their friend told them. So when that traffic hits your site, asks an AI a question and the AI says, ⁓ know, ⁓ this therapist blah blah blah and they go to your site. ⁓ seeing that the engagement rate is more like a warm audience like a friend recommended you so you're not a cold entry anymore. You're not trying to figure this therapist out. You feel like you already know this therapist because they were recommended. So ⁓ why you know even even non intent based questions ⁓ great because ⁓ AI suggests you Daniel Fava: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Michael McDaniel: that becomes the intent. Daniel Fava: Right. Yeah. So you're getting pulled into those snippets in Google and you're being cited and yeah, it's so interesting. And I know that for us too at PPE and like, you know, I see every new lead that comes in and we are seeing a lot more people say chat GPT recommended you and it's just, it's kind of cool to see it's fun. And I'm glad that we've got, we're doing something, right? You know? So that's working. And yeah, those folks are warmer, you know, because they've been doing research. Michael McDaniel: Absolutely. Daniel Fava: you know, talking with AI and ⁓ yeah, and so that's really like, you know, the goal is to get in these searches and hopefully convert people at a higher level. And so let's talk a little bit about like, you know, we talked about, just bring it back to these Y and YL guidelines. what happens if you kind of ignore these guidelines? Like what are some of the maybe mistakes that you see people make? Michael McDaniel: Mm-hmm. So this sort of tough love. conversation, I do have this with clients a lot, ⁓ if you ignore the YMYL, and there's ways that you can do that. you can do it unintentionally too, ⁓ by not leveraging your expertise. And I see this with group practices sometimes where ⁓ want, they don't want to highlight a therapist's ⁓ per se, because maybe they might have contracted that article and that therapist didn't particularly write it so they feel some kind of way about it. But ⁓ that out with your staff, Daniel Fava: You Michael McDaniel: because attributing, ignoring that type of stuff is kind of ignoring the why I'm well category. So you're not necessarily gonna get like a red flag or some kind of formal ⁓ from Google because they don't do that with that type of stuff. ⁓ What it's kind of more like is a silent emotion. So Google's job is to protect users. That's the whole point. That's why spam sites and everything. ⁓ if your site doesn't ⁓ the trust signals like we talked about, clear credentials, medically backed info, you write a blog post but you don't put any credentials on it, ⁓ Google views you as more of a liability. in a high stakes category like therapy, Google would rather show nothing at all than risk showing a user something that's inaccurate. So, you know, when you're putting out content, you're like, man, just none of my stuff is showing up. You have to kind of look at this and say, well, are you proving to Google that you should be saying this or does it feel like it's protecting people from you? ⁓ So, you know, you get the invisible blog syndrome. You could spend 20 hours writing the most beautiful, helpful posts on trauma if you want, but if Google doesn't see the receipts, Daniel Fava: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Michael McDaniel: gonna post you on page 20 or not at all and ⁓ is not gonna cite you. ⁓ Daniel Fava: Yeah. Michael McDaniel: So those AI overviews, those summaries that you see at the top of the search page, they're super, super picky, like very picky. They only pull from the top 1 % of trusted entities. So if you skip all the MYL stuff, you're 100 % pretty much guaranteed to be left out, which is where most traffic goes now. Plus, if you're spending money on ad, it's a waste, because if you're paying for ads and Google looks at your landing page quality and your site fails the YMYL trust, Google might actually charge you more per click, Daniel Fava: Wow. Michael McDaniel: view your page as less relevant or less safe for a user. So there's all these kind of silent penalties that go in stuff that you don't really really know. Now Google changes this stuff constantly and over the next year and a half or so it's going to be changed a lot. the core idea of this is not going anywhere. It's just the implementation of the way they do it might change as AI picks up because in 2028 we're saying AI's search is going to be the standard and traditional search is going to be out the window. But the take Daniel Fava: Mm-hmm. Michael McDaniel: The from this is not to be scared. These kind of things should motivate you. Ignoring the rules hurts your SEO, ⁓ it almost impossible to compete. But on the flip side, because so many people do ignore them, ⁓ ones that actually follow these guidelines, ⁓ can turn into one of your biggest competitive advantages. Daniel Fava: Yeah, yeah and also just to kind of like ask a follow-up that is hopefully like a tip for someone is this is like simple as you know for a starting point ⁓ if you do have you know your team writing blog posts ⁓ this blog post was written by Liz faba ⁓ you know has a little bio about who she is and then you can click that and go over to her bio rather than which I've seen on some other group sites, it's like you know, on a WordPress site says article by Fafa counseling, you know, just like this generic, the name of the practice. So we want to highlight who actually wrote this as a human and here's their credentials and all that good stuff. Michael McDaniel: So there's two ways to do it. Attributing it to an actual human like a blog post or something will tend to work a little bit better So you don't have to go too in-depth in it But usually at the top of an article you'll see like by Liz Fava with credentials that links to her bio and like a one-sentence byline Liz Fava is a Gottman trained counselor with over 20 years experience or whatnot whatnot So you have just like a little sentence byline and what that does right at the top of the article is gives the crawlers like everything they need to know that okay This was written by a person if you don't have a standard author bio that just shows up on on your blogs or something like that. So if you're like a group practice, sometimes we'll put an about the author towards the bottom so people can read more about it and we want that expertise in there with maybe some links to some licensures or something like that. And so you kind of reinforce that with a little bit more information. And within the blog post and your service pages, again, you want to use that wording. Like in my 20 years of working with couples I've seen, ⁓ those sentences and tidbits kind of like link your bio to the real person ⁓ and of finish that knowledge graph of who you are. ⁓ Daniel Fava: Mm-hmm. Michael McDaniel: in that particular blog article. The second way that you can do it is you can do an entity-based authorship, which means you build the credentials, you build the expertise around the entity, the business itself, so that you create an author, an almost bio for the business. You have to do this very carefully though. ⁓ have ⁓ really play with the way that you link the credentials and the therapist to your business page. ⁓ Daniel Fava: Mm-hmm. Michael McDaniel: It's a little bit harder to do just because now you're asking Google to attribute staff's expertise to the business entity then give that to a blog article. So ⁓ can do an entity-based authorship if you want to. ⁓ just takes a little more cultivation. Daniel Fava: you. Okay, awesome. All right, well, ⁓ we kind of touched on some of this stuff. But what some like simple things, some simple that people can do to like really start improving these Y and YL signals, you know, I know we touched on a few already, but do you have any more sort of quick wins that people can take away from this conversation? Michael McDaniel: Yeah, so like some low effort, high impact changes. You don't always need a total website redesign or anything when you wanna start winning in a YMIL category. So like you can do things like make your footer a foundation. So you look at the bottom of your website. It's got your practice name, usually your physical address, telephone number and stuff. If it doesn't have that stuff, you 100 % want it there. Google uses your footer to verify like your real world entity. Where are you? Are you real? Can I find you make sure your license type? Lcsw phd whatever is right there in the copyright line or down at the bottom ⁓ So like you have your entity so you know if you're the founder ⁓ or like that you can link your credentials to that ⁓ It's tiny little detail that just sort of like screams out. You know I'm a legitimate professional Like we talked about optimizing your bio. Don't just write about your philosophy get super specific Talk, you know your license number obviously your state board certified. Where are you? certified user numbers, link to anything you can link to, all of your specializations and stuff, know, if you can, you know, link out to state licensing boards and stuff like that. People get it in their head that off-site links take people away from your site, but they don't. Most people don't necessarily click on them. It just in their mind, it says, oh, they put a link there, so it's real. A Google bot or a search bot will follow that link and verify you. So for search purposes, it's a world of difference. Daniel Fava: Right. Michael McDaniel: For people, they tend to just ignore it. But it does help Google and search bots connect the dots. have two more, or actually I have three more quick ones I'll give you. Add a crisis resource block. So when you write a blog post and you talk about really mental health problems like PTSD, even on your trauma service pages, put a small block in your footer or on your contact page or sometimes at the bottom of these blog posts with your 988 around here is, or suicide crisis line. your ⁓ of it there wherever you are. You know, to a local crisis center. Give links different resources that people can find if they're in crisis at that moment. Because unless you're like ⁓ a 24 hour ⁓ mental health service, might be hitting your site at a time that you can't do anything. And that shows Google and your visitors that you prioritize safety and clinical responsibility. Daniel Fava: Yeah. Michael McDaniel: So that's gonna help you with clicks. We talked about the blog bylines. I won't go too much in those because I had written that one down, but make sure you do add the blog bylines. It's real world evidence. And the last thing, again, people get caught up in this when we add these to blog posts because they're like, you know, do we really want to send people off site? But quote experts. Write your blog post and when you're writing that blog post, don't just give your opinion. Drop in a link to a study on the NIH or an article from the Daniel Fava: out. Mm-hmm. Michael McDaniel: or even if you know like the Gottman website or if there is a widely known psychologist that you like or follow and they've said something about the same thing, ⁓ link them and let the world including the search bots know that I didn't just pull this out of thin air. Now if it's your own opinion that's fine but if it's research-backed let everyone this is research-backed and here's the evidence. Daniel Fava: Yeah, awesome. are, anyone can pull from one, two or all of those and apply to their website. So thank you for, for that. I know that we can just continue to talk about SEO and all the different aspects of it forever, but we do need to wrap up ⁓ the plane here. ⁓ why don't, ⁓ sort of. Michael McDaniel: Okay. Daniel Fava: I don't know, how do you wanna end this conversation, Michael? What's the one thing you wanna see people prioritize or maybe the main takeaway from understanding content has shifted, these higher standards that Google holds at therapist website to? What's that key takeaway that you wanna leave folks with? Michael McDaniel: The big key takeaway is that we are talking directly to the question because that's what people are searching. So we're not anymore hitting these keywords, talking points, things like that. We are directly talking to the human. We're giving them the most helpful and accurate advice that we can, which includes to crisis hotlines, link to this. So we're trying to include literally everything that one person could ever need ⁓ by hitting your site. We want to make sure that with all of the information that we put out there that it's verifiable, that we are the voice behind it or you as the therapist are the voice behind it, that that's verifiable. And that basically you go down this checklist of, know, for a search bot and a human, does this person have the credentials to tell me this stuff? Is it good advice? Yes, I want to listen to it. And what you're doing is you're not just building a good search platform, you know, on your site. Daniel Fava: Mm-hmm. Michael McDaniel: literally building something that people will rely on, that people will come back to, that people will trust. And that's gonna be one of the biggest things going in 2026 with AI search is trust, trust, trust. Daniel Fava: Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time, Michael. Thank you for sharing your expertise. I feel like this is one of those episodes that people are just going to go back to and listen a few times. And for anyone listening, this may also sound overwhelming. obviously, this is stuff that we love to do, stuff that Michael loves to do. So if you're curious to understand a little bit more about how private practice elevation can help you build these trust signals and reach more of your ideal clients, we would love to help you. Just go to our website privatepracticeelevation.com and you can schedule a 15 minute call. Well thank you so much Michael, I really appreciate it. Michael McDaniel: Yep, no problem. It was fun.