Yandex SEO Ranking Factors in 2016 is similar to Google SEO ranking factors. Optimize your website for yandex search for targeting audience from Russia.
Yandex search ranking algorithm: Obninsk and the latest one, Krasnodar.

Each version on the algorithm made SEO more and more complex, while every new algo was aiming to improve a certain area of search. Obninsk was rolled out in September 2010 in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia and was mainly aiming to improve search results for geo-independent queries. Yandex claimed the search results became 70% better (whatever that means).



10 days after Obninsk Yandex announced a number of changes in the ranking formula aiming at de-valuing if “SEO-links”.

In December the changes were implemented for geo-dependent queries.
A bit later in December came Krasnodar, the latest version of Yandex ranking algorithm. The technology behind it is called Spektr (in Russian) and the goal of it is to guess users’ intention.

Yandex claims that 20% of all their search queries are not clearly formulated, e.g. a query like “sushi” does not explain if the user if trying to find a sushi restaurant or a recipe; or a query like Pushkin could mean that the user is looking for information about the Russian poet called Pushkin or the city called Pushkin in honor of the poet.

Spektr is a technology that analyzes search queries and divides them into categories, then selecting the most popular categories and giving them more exposure in the SERPs. At the moment Spectr has around 60 categories and is expanding itself. Yandex runs this analysis several times a week to keep the categories and their content fresh.

Spektr incorporates information from various dictionaries, directories and encyclopedias, including Wikipedia, to be aware of different meanings of words. 

Yandex SEO is in a way quite similar to Google SEO, but with a twist

Just a couple of years ago, before Snezhinsk, Yandex SERP was quite easy to manipulate. All you needed is links, and everything would do: footers, side bars, sites about dogs, sites about kitchen furniture or plastic windows. All you needed is quantity. Links were easy to get through link brokers like Sape.ru and alike.
 
In 2009 Yandex started to tweak their algorithm to get rid of spam and provide their users with good information, just like any other search engine. The algorithm has become very complex and, as they claim, intelligent. The technology behind it is called MatrixNet, which is in essence a technology of machine learning. Yandex learns what people wants and refines the SERPs based on the learning.

Just like with Google, nobody knows all the factors taken into consideration by Yandex. Just like with Google, there are best practices that work. Lets take a look into Yandex SEO Ranking Factors to optimize website for yandex search engine.

Onsite SEO for Yandex

Yandex SEO Ranking Factors: Onsite SEO is very similar to what you would do for Google: content is the king and all that…

– Relevance of the page to the search query: keywords in Title and Meta Description tags; keywords in Meta Keywords tag (does not really help much in my opinion, but some people would argue), keywords in ALT tags for images.

– Content: the content should be unique and of a good quality. It is vital to maintain good grammar, as Yandex is very good with understanding Russian language. Just like with Google, it is important to update the website with fresh content on a regular basis. And lastly, create clusters of pages for similar keywords to strengthen the relevancy.

– Internal linking: Yandex likes internal links in content. Do not rely solely on navigation and footer. Place internal links with optimized anchor texts into the content.

– Site quality: do everything to keep the website healthy. Make sure that there are no broken links, that all pages work and 404 error is configured correctly. Make a good use of your robots.txt. This does not only help Yandex to identify your website as a quality resource, but also provides good user experience for the visitors.

In the latest versions of the algorithm the weight of onsite SEO factors seems to be increasing.
Make sure to not over-optimize the page. Avoid keyword stuffing and thin content. Just like Googel, Yandex does not like that.

Offsite SEO for Yandex (aka link building)

Yandex SEO Ranking Factors: Link building in Russia is a pretty wild and aggressive area. Two years ago I attended an SEO conference in Moscow, where Yandex representative declared from the stage that they are aware of the fact that 90% of all links in RuNet (aka Russian internet) are paid, and that they are going to fight that.

Yet, this year browsing job listings in Moscow I stumbled on a well-paid SEO job in one of the leading Online Marketing agencies in Russia, where one of the main requirements was “profound knowledge of the main link brokers and their features”. Links are being bought openly via link brokers; and it works. I honestly prefer not to use platforms like Sape.ru and have a more personal approach, but nevertheless, what you need to keep in mind doing link building in Russia is: What should and What should not do for Yandex SEO Ranking Factors.
 
– Do not get links from low quality sites which are clearly made for the purpose of selling links. It does not really work anymore.
– Do not get links in footers and other spammy areas. That does not work either.
– Aim for on-topic websites, i.e. sites in your vertical. That will help to improve you rankings, build authority and increase TIC (aka Page Rank of Yandex).
– Aim for quality websites: good content, respectful domain age, good number of indexed pages, high TIC, no or very few sold links on the website.
– When getting links via brokers, you are often required to pay for a period of time (e.g. month, year etc.). That is generally not great. Try to get links that will stay on the website forever, e.g. in news and articles. It looks more natural both in terms of placement and stability of link growth.

From my experience, links from newspapers work pretty well. You can either approach their PR people and pay a lot of money to be placed in a good section; or buy articles in some hidden sub-categories via platforms like Miralinks.
 
– Make sure your links look natural, like they were placed by webmaster and for the readers, and not by SAPE script and for Yandex.
– Some Russian directories are still good, for example Yandex Catalog.

Behavioral factors taken into account by Yandex’s ranking algorithm

With implementation of Matrixnet, behavioral factors has become an important part of optimizing websites for Yandex. The SEO community is uncertain, which metrics Yandex looks at and where they collect the data.
Obviously Yandex has it’s Yandex.Metrika (analytics package, similar to Google Analytics) and Yandex toolbar, but I don’t know if this data can be reliable for them. I couldn’t find any numbers regarding the percentage of sites using Yandex.Metrika. For what I know, Google Analytics is quite popular in Russia.

Many SEOs speculate about behavioral factors, but the most common opinion is that the most important ones are: Yandex SEO Ranking Factors

– CTR from the SERP
– Average time spent on the page after the click from the SERP
– Bounce rate from the page back to the SERP
So the tips are classic: write compelling titles and descriptions, create interesting content and provide good user experience.
The quality of your SEO efforts, both onsite and offsite, will be rewarded by Yandex with trust and higher rankings! 

So you have learned Yandex SEO Ranking Factors now practice it well and Opyimize your website for yandex the biggest search engine from Russia.