How important is your visibility on Yandex?

This means that there are almost 37 million people who prefer Yandex to Google when searching for news, directions, devices, shops, places to go on holiday and all kinds of other information. So it’s hard to underestimate the importance of visibility on Yandex if your business is targeting the Russian market.

I’m a dedicated googler, but Yandex certainly has a few features which Google is missing – Yandex.Disk, for example (I finally got my invitation, by the way). To better understand how these features are used, I asked my friend and fellow blogger Kostja Novikov, who frequently uses Yandex, to name a few advantages of the Russian search engine. Here’s what he said:

1. Yandex is generally more effective for search in Runet. I don't know the technical details behind it, but it does give you more relevant results.

2. Yandex services are made for Russian speakers. For example, Yandex.Maps of cities in former USSR countries are more detailed than Google’s.

3. Yandex.Market is convenient for comparing different products by their characteristics and people's opinions. If you compare digital cameras there, for example, Yandex suggests that you look at photos made by those devices by giving you a link to Yandex.Photos.

4. Yandex has news and blogs fields on the main page which make it easy to follow hot topics in Russia and Runet in particular.

5. All the services are consistent in style, are interconnected and easy to navigate.

6. Yandex has an on-screen Russian keyboard.

7. For me personally, Yandex does not have the image of the all-powerful Big Brother that knows everything about you, which Google seems to have.

Yandex definitely has some advantages for Russian speakers.  As search results on Yandex are different from those on Google, even if your website is highly ranked by Google it may not be visible on the Russian search. And if your business is targeting Russia, it is essential for you to be found on Yandex since it is used for 3 out of 5 searches in Russia.