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What is Yandex [All You Need to Know]

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Exploring Yandex Search Engine

Yandex is the largest Russian multinational technology company operating the most used search engine in the region. The company also developed a few internet-related services and products like maps and translations.

Due to Yandex's innovations in serving its users, it has become one of Google's biggest competitors. Yandex has a 58.17% market share and 2.21 billion average monthly visits.

Discover more about what Yandex is and its:

Key services
Search Engine Optimisation
Privacy concerns

Dive into this article and see what Yandex has to offer.

🔑Key Takeaways:
	Yandex company has a search engine, mail, navigation, and other services.
	Compared to Google and Bing, Yandex prioritizes Russian and other Eastern European languages.
	The founders are Russians and decided to develop a search engine catering to the locals.
	Yandex’s SEO focuses on geotargeting, quality content, and mature domain.
	The tech giant has asserted that the data they gather are minimal and not personalized. This collection makes it impossible for Yandex to identify the user.

Exploring Yandex Search Engine

Yandex.ru, the search engine, debuted on September 23, 1997, at the Softool exhibition in Moscow. CompTek initially created Yandex and later became an independent company in 2000.

Since 1997, Yandex's goal has been to help businesses and individual customers have better online and offline navigation. Today, the company has established 30 offices globally and has been NASDAQ listed since 2011.

📖Definition: NASDAQ, or National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations, is an international electronic marketplace.

This platform facilitates stock exchanges in 50 countries.

Arkady Borkovsky, Ilya Segalovitch, and Arkady Volozh developed Yandex because no search engine uses languages apart from English.

🎉Fun fact: The founders named Yandex as a combination of two words. "Ya" (means I) and "Index." Together, it is the index for me or my index.

Eventually, Yandex became Russia's Google.

Dig deeper into Yandex's features, competition, and landscape in this section.

Services and Key Features of Yandex

Like Google, Yandex offers various built-in features and separate services. Some of them are the following:

Yandex Search
Yandex Disk (cloud)
Yandex Music
Yandex Games
Yandex Images
Yandex Videos
Yandex Maps
Yandex Mail
Yandex Translate
Yandex Maps
Yandex Money
Yandex Go (taxi and delivery in collaboration with Uber)
Yandex Slovari (dictionary)
Yandex Direct (advertising)
Smart home technology
Alice (voice assistant)
eCommerce
App analytics
Artificial intelligence (self-driving cars)

Unlike with other competitors of Google, Google doesn't have the opportunity to compete with Yandex's versions in Russia. Learn about Yandex's edge in the market in the next section.

Yandex vs. Other Search Engines

Yandex's market share is 1.36% worldwide. As of 2023, two of the biggest competitors of Yandex are Google and Bing. Google has a 40.45% market share in Russia, and Bing has .82%.

In the worldwide setting, Google has a 92.66% market share, and Bing has 2.76%. To understand some of their similarities and differences, refer to the table below:

	Yandex	Google	Bing
Rank in Russia (2023)	#1	#2	Not specified
Global Rank (2023)	#103	#1	#29
Priority Language	Russian	English	English
Image Search Options	Size, Color, Type, Layout, Format	Size, Color, Type, Time, Usage Rights	Size, Color, Type, Layout, Format, Wallpaper
Maps or Navigation	Better coverage of Russia and is fair with other places globally	Better coverage of other parts of the world, especially Europe	Has a fair coverage of places around the world
Language Translation	More effective with Eastern European languages	Effective in many languages	More effective with Central Canadian languages

As you read on, understand Yandex's service on the Russian market further.

Yandex and the Russian Digital Landscape

Yandex holds a robust impact on the Russian technology industry. It has contributed to Russia's tech innovation and job creation.

Some factors that affect this asset are the following:

Yandex is prioritizing the Russian language and texts
The platform filters out ads on the search results giving quality results for the users.
52% of the Android devices in Russia use Yandex Search more than other search engines.
Since Yandex is a Russian company, it understands local consumers' behaviors the most.

👍Helpful Articles: Yandex is big in Russia, but Google is big all over the world. Get a grasp of how huge the best search is with this Techjury article on Google Search Statistics.

Optimization Pages for Yandex

It’s vital to understand how to optimize pages on Yandex for your businesses or personal branding.

Know some of the reasons and tips on how to do it in this segment.

Reasons to Optimize in Yandex

Yandex has a few different dynamics when it comes to optimization. These factors benefit those whose target audience is Russia and nearby regions.

Moreover, here are the most common reasons you should optimize Yandex:

The technology company supports the Russian locals with information, food, transportation, etc. If you want your business to be present on the Russian market, you must optimize web pages on Yandex.

2. The Search Engine Uses Geotargeting System

Yandex favors local SEO more than Google because it uses a geotargeting system, allowing location-based queries more exposure. This system causes search results to vary based on location for the exact keywords.

3. Combining Your Web Page With Other Yandex Company Services

As Yandex offers other services like maps and advertising, your content will grow in online visibility and sales. If you list your business on Yandex, users can see your products and the directions to physical stores.

4. Mobile Friendly Interface of Yandex

Yandex released its mobile version with the label Vladivostok which helps cater to its mobile users better. This version shows videos, images, and layouts in appropriate size and orientation.

These features benefit both businesses and consumers, giving mobile-friendly sites an advantage and providing a hassle-free experience for users.

🎉Fun Fact: Yandex named their mobile version after Russian Far East's largest city, Vladivostok. This city has the largest number of mobile internet users in Russia.

5. Yandex Is Also Popular in Other Countries

Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine, and Turkey are some countries that also highly use Yandex. If you target the audience in Russia and optimize your website in Yandex, users from other countries will also see it.

6. There Is an English Version of Yandex

Since Yandex has grown its market outside Russia, it has created an English version to accommodate its English-speaking users. This version benefits business websites that aim to widen their market outside Russia.

Tips for Yandex Optimization

Below are the tips for you to optimize your website on Yandex:

1. Create High-Quality Content

Yandex's algorithm favors websites with informative and engaging content. People stay longer on your website if it's with valuable information in written, audio, and video form.

Written information with keywords would also raise your website's ranking on search results.

2. Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly

As mentioned earlier, Yandex developed its mobile version favoring those mobile-friendly sites. In fact, 80% of internet users have a smartphone as of 2023. Chances are high that Yandex users would access it using their mobile devices.

3. Use Quality Backlinks

Statistical reports show that 68% of online experiences start with a search engine. One factor that improves users' online experience is quality backlinks.

Yandex SEO focuses more on the quality of the backlinks than the quantity. The search engine emphasizes the traffic those backlinks bring to your website.

📝Note: Avoid putting too many backlinks, as the Yandex algorithm does not favor excessive backlinking.

4. Consider Your Site's Commercial Edge

Yandex looks at sites that could meet searches with commercial intent. This factor influences the overall user experience and challenges e-commerce sites to provide quality content.

The platform considers these elements in ranking sites for commercial importance:

Website's interface
Company's credibility
Products' price range and shipping
Business's return policy
Payment and delivery methods
Products listing or description
Company's contact details
Business's Customer service

5. Examine Your Site’s Potential in Local SEO

As mentioned earlier, Yandex's geotargeting affects search results. Due to this factor, considering your site's local SEO will hint you how to direct and align your content.

For example, if your business's target market is in Moscow, you should emphasize details that cater to your consumers in that area.

6. Observe Mature Domain Age

Older domains with robust materials perform best in Yandex. If your website or domain grows in age, it will get a better ranking. Some businesses buy older domains if they are firm on dominating Yandex SEO.

Yandex may have benefits in how it ranks site contents, yet there are privacy concerns about its use. Learn more about this in the next section.

Privacy Concerns with Yandex

Zach Edwards, a researcher for Me2B Alliance, a nonprofit's app auditing campaign, discovered that Yandex harvests information. It does this through a software development kit (SDK) named AppMetrica.

📖Definition: AppMetrica is Yandex's equevalent of Google's Firebase. It covers the following:

App usage analytics
Advertisement tracking
Marketing

Yandex had incorporated AppMetrica into different apps, including messaging and games.

Like Google, the tech giant acknowledged this discovery and revealed it collects the following information:

IP address
Device details
Network data

Yandex stores these data in Russia and Finland but clarifies that the data they collect are minimal and not personalized. The company further said it is hard and impossible for them to identify users based on the information they gather.

The company asserts that it has strict internal processes in handling governments and turns down poor requests. Despite this claim, tech experts are concerned that the Russian government can access and use the users' data.

👍Helpful Articles: Now that you’ve learned about Yandex, you probably realized that the world of search engines isn’t all Google. If you want to learn more, try checking out Techjury’s article about DuckDuckGo and its privacy features for another Google alternative.

Conclusion

Yandex is the Google of Russia which offers search engine, translation, and other services. If your target market is in Russia, optimizing a site on Yandex is best.

Be sure to observe geotargeting, quality content, and a mobile-friendly interface, as they are excellent for optimizing a site on Yandex.

FAQs.

Is Yandex Search Engine available in multiple languages?

Yes, Yandex supports other languages apart from Russian. Depending on the model, some of its available languages are Ukrainian, English, Indonesian, and Turkish.

How does Yandex delivery work?

Yandex's delivery services get your small parcels to their destination. Provide the recipient's details, and Yandex will notify them so they can track the vehicle. This service accepts bank cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.