Tell someone in Russia to ‘Google It’ and they’d probably give you a quick slap or the same stare fellow geeks give you if you say that Star Trek/Star Wars are the same thing? But why?
Yandex is Russia’s biggest Seach Engine (64% Usage), with Google in a forgettable second place (24% Usage). Last week, it went public – reigniting the ‘Yandex SEO’ debate. Besides Blekko, Yandex puts up a good fight to Google’s search dominance, with 15 years in the game and great quality search results to boot.
Should you optimise for Yandex? Lets be honest, I’d advise to tick the ‘easy’ boxes for now to make sure your site is A) Listed and B) Secure those rankings as every hit counts right?*
Yandex 101 – 5 Quick Tips for Better Rankings
- Obvious Tip Warning: Submit your URL to Yandex (Duh!)
- Check out Yandex Webmaster Tools – At least verify your URL & Submit your XML Sitemap (ala Google Webmaster Tools)
- Submit your URL to the Russian Yandex Directory, Yandex loves to figure out your websites ‘theme’ when determining SERPs (think DMOZ/ODP)
- Grab the Yandex Toolbar for those rainy days – Whats your URLs Trust Rating? Works on a 0 to 15000 scale and specifies your authority (think PageRank)
- Yandex’s Citation Index doesn’t count backlinks from places that can be easily spammed – yes, this means SEO Directories, Link Farms, Forum Sigs & Blog Comments – forget your Panda update, this is a sign of things to come!
* Reason C) to bother with Yandex - It will keep your boss happy, every business mogul and their mother probably heard the word Yandex last week! Everyones a Winner/Chicken Dinner!