Additional signals to rank sites in Yandex search results
Yandex develops an approach where the consideration of various signals regarding companies’ activities becomes part of the algorithm that determines the rank of their corporate sites in search results.
Users will encounter dubious businesses less frequently, while honest businesses will gain more customers.
How it works
The algorithm can spot sites or businesses that act in bad faith. For example, those that deliberately avoid providing services already paid for by the customer or improperly provide such services. The algorithm relies on a multitude of factors and uses a combination of signals with cross-verification of data for decision-making. This lets you eliminate errors and make fake complaints about competitors or self-reviews online useless.
Example
Imagine “A”, a cleaning business that operates with 100% prepayment. A customer paid in advance, but nobody arrived or even intended to arrive. The algorithm will heavily influence the status of this business’s site. Yandex will scan the flow of signals about “A”, assess their regularity, and conclude that they are an unscrupulous business.
Now let’s imagine “B”, a furniture assembly business. Its staff usually performs their job well and on time, but on a single occasion there was a significant delay, and the customer was dissatisfied with the service. This will not affect the site’s ranking because no business is immune to mistakes, force majeure, or misunderstandings in customer communication. In this case, there was no malicious intent.
What to do if a site’s rank has changed
The only way to change the algorithm’s behavior towards a site is to change one’s own relationship with customers and start operating in good faith. Along with the accumulation of signals, the algorithm will assess the changes, and the site will be able to improve its rank in the search results.
A site page that duplicates the content of another page on the same site but has a different URL.