Introduction
Yandex is the leading search engine in Russia with a 60% market share and it provides a browser, email, news aggregator, maps, paid services and a translator for the Russians, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, and Turkey.
Indexing and Yandex SEO Optimization
It takes a little longer for Yandex to discover new sites and URLs, so the SEO Yandex optimization, and crawling and indexing of new content will take longer as well.
Yandex is a region-specific search engine
The geo-targeting is a very important and unique functionality of the Yandex. It means users from different locations will see different results for a geo-dependant search query. That`s why it is easy to do local business.
To apply a regional/local SEO strategy:
- Set-up regional preferences in Yandex Webmaster Tools and Yandex Catalog;
- Use regional domains and subdomains;
- Create region-specific content;
- Include region in metadata like meta description.
On-page Yandex optimization
There is a difference between Google and Yandex search optimizations and a site admin should focus on:
- Title and description tags – using keywords in the content title and description;
- Canonical tags – when copying the content from another site in Pangea CMS, use Copy & Edit this article from <site> button;
- Keywords in URLs – using slugs for content pages;
- Internal Linking – create links to other content items within the site;
- Alt text – using captions for all images placed in all text-based content types;
- Meta Keywords – opposite of Google, Yandex is still using Meta Keywords, which can be set up in Pangea CMS (at Zone and Section level or using Tags on content edit pages).
Ranking factors for Yandex
- Content quality and keywords – fresh, unique and interesting content written for users. Please note, that Yandex can penalize for content duplicates and over-optimization (misusing of tags and meta keywords);
- Domain age – the website which has older domain is more trustworthy for Yandex;
- User behavior – Yandex analyses users' behavior and interaction with the site: time spent on the site, engagement and if users are encouraged to interact;
- Mobile-friendly websites have a better ranking.
