A page with no named author can still rank in a YMYL space because E-E-A-T operates at the site and content level, not only through a visible byline. The page can earn its standing on the site’s overall authority and trustworthiness, strong sourcing, and the demonstrated expertise of the content itself, even when no individual author is credited. Authorship is one signal among many, not a gate the page has to pass, so its absence does not disqualify a page that is trustworthy by other means.
The paradox dissolves once you stop treating the byline as the whole of trust. The search engine assesses trust across the entire property: an established medical institution, a well-known reference site, or a publisher with a long record of reliable content carries authority that attaches to its pages whether or not each one names a writer. A page on such a site inherits that site-level trust, so a YMYL query can be satisfied by the site’s reputation backing content that is plainly competent, with no individual name required.
The content itself also carries trust signals independent of authorship. A page that cites authoritative sources, gets the nuances right, handles the edge cases, and reads as genuinely expert demonstrates reliability through what it says, not through who signed it. The search engine can read that demonstrated expertise directly. So a well-sourced, accurate, clearly knowledgeable YMYL page on a trusted site has the substance that authorship is meant to vouch for, which is why it can rank without a named author standing in for that substance.
So if you are building for a YMYL space, do not treat an author tag as the lever. Invest in site-level trust, real authority and a clean track record, in strong and verifiable sourcing, and in content that demonstrates expertise on the page itself. A named author can add to that picture, but the picture is built from the site and the content, and that is what lets a page rank in a high-stakes space with or without a visible byline.