How do I improve the site's ranking in the search?

To make your site pages take the desired position in the search results more often and bring more visitors, track the following site indicators:

Quality

Look at what Yandex considers to be signs of a low-quality site and make sure that your site doesn't have violations (see the Website optimization → Security and violations page in Yandex Webmaster).

Also pay attention to the quality of services your organization provides. When ranking sites in search results, Yandex may take into account additional signals about the company’s integrity.

Security

Check if your site is safe for visitors. Go to Website optimization → Security and violations. If Yandex Webmaster detected a threat, follow the service's instructions and see the What should I do if a site security threat is found? section.

Convenience

Use the recommendations for creating a site. Create a mobile version of your site for mobile compatibility.

Specify the site region in Yandex Webmaster: go to Display in the search → Site region. Learn more in Site region.

Usefulness

: Utilize the Yandex Metrica tools. They help you test the visitors' behavior on your site and, for example, identify weak pages.

Site's representation in search results

In search, information about the site is displayed in different ways. Yandex uses various technologies to present the site in search results. For example, Yandex Maps may show your organization's details. This helps users find information faster.

To check out how the site is displayed in search results and what improvements you can make, go to the View in search results page.

Also, make sure that the pages relevant to the search queries:

Why does my site change its ranking in the search results?

The site ranking in the search results changes for various reasons, for example:

Reason

Description

Search algorithms changed

Ranking algorithms are constantly being updated in order to improve search quality.

The search database was updated

Site characteristics are continually updated based on the latest data about the pages as well as their popularity among users. In addition, machine learning algorithms and ranking factors are regularly updated. As a result, positions in search results can also change.

There were changes on other sites included in search by the queries you are interested in

Your site's position in search results might change if other resources increase their relevance for the same queries (as owners of other sites also update them). If top positions in search are taken by suspicious sites, use this feedback form to report it.

The site URL changed

After you change the site URL, its position in the search results may drop, since old pages disappear from the search index. If your site has a redirect with an HTTP 301 code set up, see the rules for how it's processed.

Pages that were previously in search results are no longer shown

To check if a page is included in search, use the Check URL status tool or enter a search query with the url operator(example). Check out the reasons for excluding pages from search.

To find out about changes to the page status in the search, use the Important page monitoring.

There are other changes on your site

Any change to a site can affect its position in the search results. For example, updates the site structure, URL or the content of the page that matched certain queries.

Users' interests or needs changed

The decision whether a site page will appear in the search results is made by special algorithms based on many factors. One of them is if the page can be interesting to users. If the algorithm considers that a page doesn't match queries, its position in the search results may decrease, or this page may not be included in the list of pages in the search.

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Tell us what your question is about so we can direct you to the right specialist:

Check out the reasons for changes in ranking, and check the site for security and violations. If Yandex Webmaster finds a threat or violation, follow the recommendations provided in the service.

There are no violations or threats on the site

Changes in the site's search ranking are acceptable in most cases. It may be due to constant adjustments of algorithms, the dynamics of search results, or fluctuations in site popularity.

Make sure that the queries for which your site held leading positions had sufficient impressions over time. To do this, compare the statistics on your search queries in Yandex Webmaster with the Wordstat query history.

When analyzing site rankings, keep in mind that search results are personalized. For example, for frequent site visitors a search query may appear at the top of the ranking, while for other search users your site may occupy other positions.

The site was a leader for a long time

Contact the support service if the ranking change is accompanied by all listed conditions:

  • The site was a leader for a long time.
  • The site ranking dropped by more than 30 points (with smaller changes, check if your site meets the recommendations set out in this section).
  • Site traffic decreased.
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If your site doesn't have high ranking for some queries, it may be that it didn't gain sufficient relevance yet. Check the site metrics described in this section.

The reasons for the site's low position remain unclear

Use the url operator (example) to check if a page is included in search.

  • The page may be a duplicate. For information about how to check and fix this, see Duplicate pages. Also, the page may not be included in the search or disappear from it for other reasons.
  • If the site changed its URL but the page is displayed in the search at the old URL, make sure you moved the site correctly.

A special algorithm determines if the page will be displayed in the search results or not. For example, for the page to be displayed, its content must match the search query. To learn more, see Stage 4. Generating search results.

The page in the search doesn't fully match the query

If you don't find new site pages in the search, go to the How do I add a site to search? section. If the pages were previously in the search, but are missing now, check out the reasons for excluding pages.

If you notice a decrease in website traffic, check it for any detected violations or security issues.

There are no violations or threats on the site

Traffic changes may be related to changes in demand. Check the dynamics of site visitors’ interests using the word selection history or the “Demand” metric in search query monitoring.

I checked. Demand hasn’t changed, but traffic has dropped

Traffic from search results may decrease due to changes in the site’s ranking.

Site positions for queries are constantly changing. Possible reasons for this are:

  • changes in ranking (formulas and classifiers are retrained, factors emerge and are updated), quality metrics (new aspects, changes in instructions), anti-spam and anti-fraud algorithms;

  • changes in user preferences (demand has fallen or shifted to other products or services, user expectations, navigation patterns, choices, etc. have changed);

  • changes in the competitive environment (new sellers, services, new types of content and sites have appeared, content, pricing, service, etc. have changed);

  • changes on websites: pages may have entered the search or dropped out of it, titles, meta tags, page content may have changed, other sites may have become more user-friendly, gained more audience trust.

Details on the reasons

I checked. The change in traffic is significant and affects a large portion of the site

If another resource only contains the content that is identical to yours, this is not enough to exclude the site from the search results.

To protect your copyright, you can file a complaint directly with the administrator of the site whose content you believe to be identical to yours, or use other legal means to protect your rights.

If you can't come to an agreement with the site administration, try writing to the hosting provider of the site.

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A snippet is a block of information about a document that is displayed in the search results. A snippet includes the header, description or annotation of the document, and may also contain additional information about the site. Learn more

A site page that duplicates the content of another page on the same site but has a different URL.

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