Yandex Data Leak: Ranking Factors and Myths We Found

Yandex is the search engine with the largest market share in Russia and the fourth-largest search engine in the world.

On January 27, 2023, it suffered what is arguably one of the biggest losses a modern insurance company has experienced in years – but the second league below ten years.

In 2015, a former employee of Yandex tried to sell the number of Yandex search engines on the black market for $ 30,000.

The first league in January of this year showed 1,922 special conditions, of which more than 64% were listed as unused or damaged (changed and best avoided).

This link is only the file named seed, but when we researched deeply with the SEO community, we found a lot of files to combine that include about 17,800 special conditions.

When it comes to practicing SEO for Yandex, the guide I wrote two years ago, for the most part, still applies.

Yandex, like Google, often publishes with its algorithm updates and changes, and in recent years, how to use machine learning.

Highlights from the past two-three years include:

On a personal note, this record is like a second Christmas.

Since January 2020, I have been running a SEO news website as a hobby to install Yandex SEO and search for news in Russia with 600+ articles, which is probably the most interesting place.

I have also spoken twice at the Optimization conference – the biggest SEO conference in Russia.

This is also a good test to see how Yandex’s public information and private codebase match up.

In 2019, working with Yandex’s PR team, I was able to interview engineers in their Research team and ask questions from the wider Western SEO community.

You can read the interview with the Yandex Search team here.

Although Yandex is best known for its presence in Russia, the search engine also has presence in Turkey, Kazakhstan, and Georgia.

The database was believed to cover politics and the activities of a rogue employee, and contained several classified sections from Yandex’s monolithic repository, Arcadia.

In the 44GB of data, there is information related to many Yandex products including Search, Maps, Mail, Metrics, Disc, and Cloud.

What Yandex Has Had To Say

As I write this post (January 31st, 2023), Yandex has publicly stated that:

the contents of the archive (leaked code base) correspond to the old version of the repository – different from the one used by our services.

It is important to note that the social media sections also contain sample algorithms that were used in Yandex to ensure the correct use of services.

So, how much of this code base is actively used is questionable.

Yandex has also announced that, during its investigations and research, it found many errors that violate its own principles, so it seems that parts of this leaked code (which are used now) may change in the near future.

Factor Classification

Yandex divides its rankings into three categories.

This has been described in Yandex’s public documentation for some time, but I feel it is worth including here, because it helps us better understand the classification of the leak.

The classifieds in the document are marked to match the corresponding section, and TG_STATIC and TG_DYNAMIC, then TG_QUERY_ONLY, TG_QUERY, TG_USER_SEARCH, and TG_USER_SEARCH_ONLY.

Yandex Leak Learnings So Far

From the data so far, below are some of the evidence and lessons we have been able to do.

There is a lot of information in this league, it is likely that we will find new things and make new connections in the next few weeks.

Below, I have expanded on other evidence and lessons from the leak.

Where possible, I have also included these ranking factors with algorithm updates and announcements related to them, or what we were told about those affected.

MatrixNet

MatrixNet is mentioned in a few classifieds and published in 2009, then it was replaced in 2017 by Catboost, which ran on the Yandex product sphere.

This adds more credibility to the information directly from Yandex, and one of the reasons author DenPlusPlus (Den Raskovalov), in fact, is an old code library.

MatrixNet was originally introduced as a new algorithm, which considers thousands of ranking factors and assigns weights based on the location being used, the actual search, and the purpose of the search.

It is often seen as a mirror of Google’s RankBrain, or rather, given that MatrixNet was launched six years before RankBrain was announced.

MatrixNet has also been built on, not surprisingly, since it has been 14 years.

In 2016, Yandex introduced the Palekh algorithm that used deep neural networks to better match documents (webpages) and queries, even if they did not have the correct “position” of common keywords. , but satisfy the user’s expectations.

Palekh was able to process 150 pages at a time, and in 2017 it was updated with the Korolyov update, which took into account the depth of the pages, and could work on 200,000 pages at the same time.

URL & Page-Level Factors

From the leak, we have learned that Yandex considers the creation of URLs, in particular:

Photo by author, January 2023

The page age (document age) and last update date are also important, and relevant.

As well as the document’s age and last update, most items in the database are related to newness – especially for information related to articles. new.

Yandex was used earlier, specifically not for classification purposes but for “retargeting” purposes, but now it is classified as deprecated.

Also in the exclusion column there is the use of keywords in the URL. Yandex first measured that three keywords from the search engine in the URL would be the “best” result.

Internal Links & Crawl Depth

Although Google has gone on record to say that for its purposes, the depth of crawling is not a special situation, it seems that Yandex has a part of the law that confirms that URLs it can be found from the main page that there is a “high” level of war.

Photo by author, January 2023

This example John Mueller’s 2018 statement that Google gives “a little more weight” to pages that get more than one click from the main page.

The classification standards also specify a unique index for web pages that are “private” within the social network. structural order.

Clicks & CTR

In 2011, Yandex released a blog post discussing how the search engine uses clicks as part of its ranking and also addressed the demands of SEO pros to use the metric for ranking money. found

Features of the click-to-view feature include:

Manipulating Clicks

Using user behavior, especially “click-jacking”, is a popular method within Yandex.

Yandex has a filter, called the PF filter, that actively searches and bans websites that participate in this activity using scripts that monitor the same IP and then the “user ” those clicks – and the impact can be significant.

The explanation below shows the impact on specific organizations (сессии) after being penalized for the simulation of human clicks.

Image from Russian Search News, January 2023

User Behavior

User behavior taken out of the league is some of the most interesting research.

The manipulation of user behavior is a common SEO violation that Yandex has been fighting for years. At the 2020 Optimization conference, the Head of Yandex Webmaster Tools Mikhail Slevinsky said that the company is making good progress in finding and punishing this type of behavior.

Yandex has banned the use of user behavior with the same PF filter used to combat CTR usage.

Dwell Time

The 102 categories have the tag TG_USERFEAT_SEARCH_DWELL_TIME, and refer to the device, the duration of use, and the average dwell time of the page.

All but 39 are obsolete.

Photo by author, January 2023

Bing first used the term dwell time in a 2011 blog, and in recent years Google has made it clear that it does not use dwell time (or similar user interaction indicators) as a technical factor.

YMYL

YMYL (Your Money, Your Life) is a well-known concept in Google and is not a new concept in Yandex.

In the database of information, there are special standards for medical, legal, and financial content that exist – but this was revealed in 2019 at the Yandex Webmaster conference when the Proxima Search Quality Metric was announced.

Metrika Data Usage

The six ranking factors relate to the use of Metrica data for ranking purposes. However, one of them is marked as obsolete:

At Metrika, user data is handled differently.

Unlike Google Analytics, there are several reports that focus on the user’s “loyalty” combined methods of web browsing and return times, duration between visits, and source the inspection.

For example, I can view a report with one click to see a breakdown of website visitors:

Image from Metrika, January 2023

Metrika also comes “out of the box” with hot tools and user data, and in recent years the Metrika team has made good progress in being able to identify and clean up bot traffic.

With Google Analytics, there is an argument that Google does not use UA/GA4 data for analytics purposes because it is too easy to change or break the tracking number – but Metrika counters, more linearly, and many. The reports do not change in terms of how the information is collected.

Impact Of Traffic On Rankings

Continue to look at Metrika data as a ranking; These things clearly prove that direct traffic and paid traffic (buying ads through Yandex Direct) can affect the performance of physical searches:

News Factors

There are many things related to “News”, including two that directly mention Yandex.News.

Yandex.News is similar to Google News, but it was sold to the Russian social network VKontakte in August 2022, along with another Yandex product “Zen”.

So, it is not clear whether these are related to a product that is no longer owned or operated by Yandex, or how news websites are classified in “normal” searches.

Backlink Importance

Yandex has the same algorithms to prevent link manipulation as Google – and since the Nepot filter in 2005.

From the review of the important factors of the backlink ranking and some specific factors in the information, we can consider that the best practices for building links for Yandex SEO are:

The following is a list of communication factors that can be considered evidence of best practices:

However, there are some link factors that should be taken into consideration when planning, monitoring, and analyzing backlinks:

The leaked information also revealed that the link spam calculator has about 80 important factors to calculate, along with a lot of negative factors.

This raises the question of how Yandex detects bad SEO attacks, when looking at the ratio of good and bad links, and how to know what bad links are.

An SEO attack can also be a random (high time) link where a website will unknowingly get a number high level of negative links, non-topics, and may be overused.

Yandex uses machine learning models to identify Private Blog Networks (PBNs) and paid links, and the same concept between speed communication and availability.

Typically, paid-for links are built over a longer period of time, and these trends (including site link analysis) are which was introduced by Minusinsk update (2015) to fight.

Yandex Penalties

There are two classification levels, both limited, named SpamKarma and Pessimization.

Pessimization refers to the reduction of PageRank to zero and meets the expectations of heavy penalties Yandex.

SpamKarma is compatible with the ideas created in Yandex to punish teams and individuals, as well as groups.

Onpage Advertising

There is a lot of content related to advertising on the page, some of them are disabled (like the example below).

Photo by author, January 2023

It is not known from the information exactly what the thinking process is with this part, but it can be said that the high level of advertising in your view is a bad thing – just like Google’s fear when it is compromised The main content of the page is advertised, or it is dangerous.

Bringing this back to traditional Yandex practices, the Proxima update also considered the ratio of useful content and ads on a page.

Can We Apply Any Yandex Learnings To Google?

Yandex and Google are different search engines, with many differences, although ten engineers worked for both companies.

Because of this fight for talent, we can say that some of these master builders and engineers will build things in a similar way (although not direct copies), and use lessons from the previous versions of their buildings. and their new employees.

What Russian SEO Pros Are Saying About The Leak

Just like in the Western world, the SEO professionals in Russia are showing their stories on the league on many forums of Runet.

The response to these announcements is different from SEO Twitter and Mastodon, with a greater focus on Yandex filters, and other Yandex products are promoted as part of the general Yandex optimization campaigns.

It is also important to note that many of the conclusions and findings from the data correspond to what is also found in the Western SEO world.

Common topics in Russian studies:

The leaked material, especially on how Yandex evaluates the quality of sites, has also come under scrutiny.

There is a long-standing feeling in the Russian SEO community that Yandex often favors its own products and services in search results ahead of other websites, and webmasters are asking questions like:

Why bother with all this trouble, and just nail his services to the top of the page?

In unofficial translation documents, they are now called Sorcerers or Yandex Sorcerers. At Google, we call these pages search engine results (SERPs) – like Google Hotels, etc.

In October 2022, Kassir (a Russian ticket portal) received ₽328m compensation from Yandex for lost revenue, caused by “discriminatory conditions” where Yandex Sorcerers took the person buy from the private company.

This is the background of the 2020 class action where many companies raised a case with the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) for the promotion of its own services.

Featured Image: FGC/Shutterstock

What is the least secure browser?

Is there a real private investigation? Is there a real private investigation? There is a special browser called Tor, which is open and free. Tor triple-encrypts a user’s web traffic with their device’s IP address to hide it from their ISP.

Which browser does not spy on you?

DuckDuckGo (DDG) is a popular private search engine. Like Brave, DDG doesn’t generate user data, so it always shows search results to everyone. And it prevents tracking of web searches or clicks.

What is the safest browser for privacy?

Research Security

• Firefox. Firefox is a powerful browser when it comes to privacy and security. …
• Google Chrome. Google Chrome is a specialized web browser. …
• Chromium. Google Chromium is the open-source version of Google Chrome for people who want more control over their browser. …
• Courage. …
• Thor.

Is there a browser that doesn’t spy on you?

Tor Browser’s privacy helps keep it safe—no one who sees your connection can track your online activity, nor can they identify yourself unless you specifically identify yourself. Additionally, Tor does not track your browsing history and clears your cookies after every session.

Which browser has the least vulnerabilities?

Although some researchers say that they are safe from problems, it may not be the best choice from a technical point of view.

• Google Chrome. Google Chrome is the most popular browser. …
• Microsoft Internet Explorer/Edge. Edge is a Microsoft product. …
• Opera search. …
• Epic search. …
• Search safari. …
• Vivaldi search.

What is the most stable browser?

As of January 2023, Edge is the best browser in terms of memory usage. It also allows sleep seals to release their resources when they have not been used for a while.

Which browser has the most vulnerabilities?

Famous stories. A report says that Google Chrome is the most insecure website in 2022. According to a report by Atlas VPN, the search engine seems to have more than 300 problems. Compared to Chrome, Mozilla Firefox has 117, Microsoft Edge has 103, Safari has 26 and nothing for Opera…

What is the most unsecure browser?

Microsoft Edge Microsoft was ranked as the worst browser for privacy by Professor Leith because it often sends data, including IP addresses and location data. on Microsoft – it’s worse than Google Chrome.

Which is the No 1 secure browser in the world?

Brave is definitely the most secure and simple browser, especially out of the box. A Chromium-based browser that’s fast, secure, and completely private. It has a built-in display and fingerprint protection, while also giving you access to more of additions and additions.

What is the most unsafe browser?

Famous stories. A report says that Google Chrome is the most insecure website in 2022. According to a report by Atlas VPN, the search engine seems to have more than 300 problems. Compared to Chrome, Mozilla Firefox has 117, Microsoft Edge has 103, Safari has 26 and nothing for Opera…

How does website content affect SEO?

Quality Helps You Build Backlinks – One of the best SEO strategies is to get high quality backlinks from authoritative websites. For Google, high quality backlinks indicate credibility and trust. The more quality backlinks you have, the higher you are likely to rank in Google.

What is the relationship between web design and SEO? SEO refers to the technical process of increasing the quality of traffic and attracting more visitors to your website. On the other hand, information marketing focuses on using relevant and relevant content to attract potential customers or clients. SEO without content marketing is like a body without a soul.

How does content impact SEO?

The more content you add, organized around your most important keywords, the better your SEO ranking. Advertising helps businesses to spread their organic search terms through their websites in a significant way, it can also increase the number of backlinks.

Does more content increase SEO?

The SEO Benefits of Long Form Content. Longer content results in higher search rankings. Simply put, search results show how long content dominates the first page of search results.

Does content affect SEO?

The short answer to this question is yes. Content is important for SEO (search engine optimization) and the two go hand in hand. If you want your website to show up in search engines and drive traffic to your website, you need to keep the content up to date and the best.

Does more content increase SEO?

The SEO Benefits of Long Form Content. Longer content results in higher search rankings. Simply put, search results show how long content dominates the first page of search results.

Does longer content rank better?

Content is king, so having content that is better than competitors is considered better for search rankings. Based on the belief that the number of words is an indicator of the quality of the content, SEO experts say that a large number of words can help achieve high rankings.

How much content is good for SEO?

Forbes shows that an average of 600-700 words per page is the best for SEO. Forbes also says that websites with less than 300 words per page are considered by Google and, most likely, do not rank high in search results. Determining the best strategy for SEO can be confusing at best.

Does changing website content affect SEO?

It can definitely affect SEO. And it can be a good thing, it can be a bad thing. It doesn’t mean you should avoid making these changes but when you make these changes make sure to double check that you are doing everything right.†It is good advice.

Does content Affect SEO?

The short answer to this question is yes. Content is important for SEO (search engine optimization) and the two go hand in hand. If you want your website to show up in search engines and drive traffic to your website, you need to keep the content up to date and the best.

How do I redesign my website without losing SEO?

Website Redesign SEO Checklist

• Review your current site.
• Find your top performing content.
• Define your SEO goals.
• Improve your existing content.
• Set 301 redirects.
• Update your site structure.
• Improve your page speed.
• Update your XML map.

What are the different kinds of SEO?

12 Types of SEO

• White-Hat SEO. When you hear someone say white-hat SEO, it means that SEO practices comply with the terms and conditions of the major search engines, including Google. …
• Black-Hat SEO. …
• Gray-Hat SEO. …
• On-Page SEO. …
• Off-Page SEO. …
• SEO specifically. …
• International SEO. …
• Local SEO.

What is SEO content writing examples?

SEO writing is the process of writing articles with the goal of ranking on the first page of search engines like Google. This is achieved by researching the right keywords and creating the best content that answers human intent. Google, for example, uses âspidersâ that crawl in to see what.

What are some examples of content writing? Some examples of content include blogs, emails, newsletters, social media, case studies, and more.

What does an SEO content writer do?

An SEO writer understands search engine optimization and knows how to write content that is informative, compelling, and relevant. However, it doesn’t always work when it comes to writing content that will hopefully drive conversions.

What is difference between SEO and content writer?

The main difference between SEO and regular content that you are writing for search engines and users is to consider keywords and search engine, E-A-T, reading, alt tags on images, meta optimization data, images, internal communications and more. .

How much do SEO content writers make?

How much does an SEO Writer make in the United States? The average SEO Writer salary in the United States is $50,658 as of December 27, 2022, but the average salary falls between $45,977 and $56,014.

How do you write land for search engines?

If you are interested in submitting a photo or offering your expertise as a source, please email [email protected] Based on the number of pitches we receive, we respond to those questions that we are interested in pursuing.

What are SEO keywords? Your SEO keywords are the words and phrases on your website that allow people to find your website through search engines. A search engine optimized website that speaks the same language can be a visitor site and a keyword for SEO to help connect searchers. on your site.