No matter how many search engines the Internet offers, the majority of users still Google or look for information in Yandex. These two giants have been fighting for supremacy in the Russian-language segment for many years now. Moreover, Google has been hot on Yandex’s heels for a long time, and in 2020 it began to outpace it at a steady pace. Thus, a report for December 2020 showed that Google’s share was 53.5%, Yandex – 42.7%.
Search engines work on similar principles, while each of them strives to improve the quality of search, but uses its own approaches to achieve this. That is why there are differences in rankings, sometimes very significant. Yandex and Google consider slightly different things to be important, so it can often be difficult to rank equally well in different search engines.
First of all, you need to take into account that Google is still a search engine originally American and speaks Russian much worse than Yandex. Like any foreigner, he is sometimes unable to understand what is on a Russian’s mind, so he spouts outright nonsense.
Therefore, you should not be surprised if Google considers some page of your site to be relevant to a request that is not at all for the request for which it was originally created (although Yandex is not ideal in this regard). SEO specialists constantly encounter situations where search engines consider the same query relevant to completely different pages.
In addition, Google, if the user’s intent (intent) is not entirely clear, offers him different options - both informational and commercial in nature, while Yandex in such cases is more inclined towards commercial results. And search engines can classify queries differently. Even the geo-dependence of some queries for Google is not always as clear as for Yandex.
But let's go through each aspect of ranking in order. Let's start directly with the appearance of the issue itself.
Issue page
Google and Yandex display search results slightly differently, and webmasters need to take these differences into account in order to present their sites in the most favorable light. For example, each PS offers webmasters its own micro-markup options to help them stand out among competitors and be the first to solve the user’s problem.
Some features of Yandex search results:
- Maximum title length: 50–55 characters.
- Maximum description length: about 160 characters. The system more often pulls the relevant part of the page text into the snippet than the content of the meta tag.
- Sites display icons.
- Using the “Products and Prices” module, you can show the prices of individual goods and services in the description.
- The PS snippet also pulls up Yandex.Directory data. When registering, you can specify up to 5 pages on which the company’s contact information will be displayed when ranking in Yandex.
- PS recently launched the Yandex.Dialogs service, and now you can start a conversation with a consultant without going to the company’s website.
- For many queries, aggregators dominate the search results (due to the specifics of ranking commercial sites - more on that later).
Some features of Google:
- Maximum title length: 70–71 characters.
- Maximum description length: 100 characters per line (up to 3 lines can be displayed). The meta tag is actively used to form a snippet.
- You can add prices in the “from” and “to” format to the descriptions of catalog pages in the search results using LD-json microdata. This does not work in Yandex yet.
- In the webmaster panel you can check the appearance of snippets and find out if there are errors.
In general, search engines are moving towards providing maximum information on their sites and not forcing users to make unnecessary (according to Yandex and Google) gestures. On the one hand, this prevents you from receiving clicks on the site, on the other hand, it helps to intercept clients from those who are ranked higher. Therefore, it is advisable to use the capabilities of each PS and monitor updates.
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Interface
We'll start our comparison with the appearance of the search page. Personally, I have always been attracted to Google's
. On the start page, in addition to the search bar, there are only links for quick access to services.
Yandex
Already on the main page, it rather intrusively offers its services, liberally peppering them with advertising. Perhaps this is a feature of Russian companies, since Mail and Rambler searches have a similar look.
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Some people, on the contrary, find it convenient to be able to find out the latest news, weather forecast, traffic congestion, etc. already on the start page.
Technical SEO
Speaking about the technical aspects of optimization that affect ranking, first of all it is worth noting adaptation to mobile traffic. Google's trick in this regard is mobile-first indexing. This principle is that Google now focuses primarily on mobile users and therefore uses the mobile version of the site for indexing and ranking. Therefore, for good ranking in Google, the site must be adapted for different types of devices. To do everything right, read our guide to adapting sites for mobile traffic or go through the checklist for auditing the mobile version.
Google is also strict about site loading speed and even stated its importance as a ranking factor. It’s not for nothing that he has his own analysis tool – PageSpeed Insights.
Despite the fact that Google is more specific in its requirements for the technical aspects of sites, this does not mean that for Yandex the presence of a mobile version and loading speed do not play any role. It’s just that for now the search engine is a little more tolerant of these factors. But do not forget that all these aspects are directly related to user experience, and Yandex pays special attention to convenience for users, especially in commercial search results (more on this later).
In general, search engines have quite a few minor differences in technical terms. For example, in relation to individual tags or elements on the site. All this is usually prescribed by PSs in their manuals. But, as a rule, all these aspects do not have much impact on ranking.
Google or Yandex, which is better? Comparison of leading competitors of the World Wide Web
The two companies have taken strong positions in the Russian-language segment of the Internet. This is where the long-standing debate about “Google” or “Yandex” is better comes from. It is quite difficult to answer this question; each has its undoubted advantages, as well as disadvantages. To a large extent, the use of each search engine is determined by habit. Today, Yandex covers 58% of users, the rest is divided between Google and other little-known search engines (naturally, the last ones left are very small percentages). In order to at least somehow compare these companies, we will review search engines and frequently used related programs and services.
Differences between Google and Yandex
Before proceeding directly to comparing each individual service, we note the main differences between the two systems:
- Yandex has a more complete and varied interface, while Google is prone to minimalism;
- from the point of view of web development, Google is considered more stable, so it is given more preference;
- Yandex is a Russian company, Google is an American company;
- Yandex has significantly more useful developments than its opponent;
- Google offers users great search suggestions;
- It is believed that the relevance of Google's search results is higher, however, one should not forget that Yandex was developed specifically for the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet and in it it is superior to its competitor.
Now we can move on to a more detailed comparison of competitive companies.
Google or Yandex, which is better: comparing search engines
The search bar is one of the most important services for using the Internet. Which one is better, Google or Yandex, has been debated since the moment competitors clearly appeared on the market.
If we compare preferences in using search engines, then for the most part everything will depend on the country, so we will compare companies within Russia and the CIS. In this case, Yandex is clearly in the lead, since the service was originally created and tailored for the Russian-language Internet. In this segment, he searches for information better, I climb into the most hidden parts of the network that Google has never heard of.
If we consider the issue of search speed, then the American search engine copes with queries faster than its Russian opponent.
Positive characteristics of Google include:
- relatively small amount of advertising;
- high degree of protection from dishonest users;
- relevant output consisting of up-to-date data.
It is also worth noting the obvious advantages of its competitor:
- a large number of additional support services;
- full compliance of the output with the specified request;
- more complete ranking of the Russian-language network.
Thus, again it is not possible to determine Google or Yandex, which is better. One thing is clear: if you need data from the Russian segment of the Internet, then it is better to turn to Yandex; in the case when you need data from foreign sites, then the best solution would be to use Google.
additional services
In addition to fulfilling the main purpose of search engines, each of them has many related services designed to help users in various situations. It is worth noting that Yandex has clearly succeeded in this matter; the company has a large number of useful developments. Although Google does not keep up with its competitor in this matter, it also has basic developments.
Google Maps and Yandex
The Maps application is useful and in demand not only among drivers, but also among pedestrians. Therefore, let’s start comparing useful programs from competitors with it. The application is similar in principle to a navigator and is available for every smartphone.
Most users claim that Google maps are more understandable and convenient. But it's worth noting. That the development from Yandex is much more functional. The service is more interactive than a competitor's app. While driving, the user has the opportunity to make notes, which are synchronized and reflected on the devices of other owners. Thus, drivers and pedestrians independently compile and maintain up-to-date data on the situation on the roads.
Both applications feature voice search. But the service from Yandex provides more accurate data on the coordinates of settlements in Russia and the CIS countries, while the latter are only indicated by borders in Google maps.
Google Maps or Yandex, which is better? Both services are convenient and in great demand. But the Russian service is more functional and interesting for drivers and pedestrians, as it provides more opportunities.
Cloud storage
To save information, photos and other important data, it is wiser to place them in cloud storage. This will prevent you from losing access to them if the device fails. Competitors offer users two services, Yandex.Disk and Google Drive. What are the conditions for each of them and which one is preferable.
What Yandex.Disk offers:
- free memory – 10 GB;
- Russian-language menu;
- convenient interface and menu;
- you can provide access to a specific file simply by passing a link to it;
- high data exchange speed.
The only drawback of the service is the lack of ability to work with Microsoft Office files.
What good things can you find in Google Drive:
- the ability to work with Google Docs (text files, tables and presentations);
- the ability for several users to work on one document online;
- 15 GB of free storage;
- Google Photos service, which optimizes work with images.
Both services are designed to be easy to use and have agents to make interactions easy. They are quite reliable and safe. Many people prefer Google Drive just for the ability to use office programs online.
Browser program
The last thing left to compare before making a final conclusion is Google or Yandex, which is better than the browsers of both companies. A program designed to access the Internet accurately characterizes each competitor.
The application interface is approximately the same, but Google adheres to a minimalist strategy, Yandex is trying to supplement it with various utilities. However, US browser extensions allow you to customize your browser to suit your personal preferences.
When it comes to the speed of information search and page loading, Google browser is clearly the leader in this. The competitor’s program is supplemented with Turbo acceleration, resulting in comparable performance. At the same time, the Turbo acceleration function is built on traffic compression, which has a great effect on the operation of the program on mobile devices.
Security is implemented at the highest level in all programs. But the Google browser will not be able to protect the user when going to a malicious site; the Yandex browser, according to the developers, completely blocks such resources and constantly updates their list.
As a result of the comparison, it is not possible to make a clear conclusion which of the competitors is better. Therefore, depending on your goals, you need to make a choice in favor of one or another search engine, which, by the way, is what most users do.
Local SEO
There are significant differences between search engines when it comes to geotargeting. If in the Yandex webmaster panel you can specify a specific region of the site, then Google is limited only by the country. For a site with a more precise regional reference, this can become a problem, since Google sometimes simply does not assign a region, and the site is not shown in the top for geo-based queries without a city name. Registration in the Google My Business and Google Maps services sometimes helps solve the problem, and sometimes it does not help.
If a site is promoted in several regions at once, subdomains are usually created for Yandex for each region. This strategy does not work in Google - here it is better to opt for regional subsections (folders) on the main site.
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Technical aspects
Websites with outright errors may feel great in Yandex, but they will never be among the leaders in Google results. True, there is one “but”: errors should not affect behavioral factors, content quality and other indicators.
The logic of the search engine is simple: if minor flaws on the site do not affect the performance of user tasks, then it is not worth paying attention to them. Google thinks differently and will definitely lower the rankings of a site with errors, no matter how good they are.
Content
High-quality and useful content works equally well everywhere. But when it comes to texts on commercial sites, you have to deal with banal and already pretty boring SEO texts. And it is precisely to these that the approaches of different PSs differ.
If Google perceives direct occurrences of keys and SEO texts normally (although you shouldn’t be impudent here either), then Yandex can punish you for this. As you can see from the picture, online stores can now get to the top of Yandex without SEO sheets. This was facilitated by the Yandex filter “Baden-Baden”.
If you want to rank well in Google and not fall under the Yandex filter, it is better to close SEO texts with the tag. So, Yandex will understand that the text does not need to be indexed, and Google will simply ignore this tag.
Another important difference is that Google loves long texts (Western experts especially often say this), and in the Yandex top, short notes still do well for many queries.
The picture is impressive, but you need to remember that the first place for any PS is still not quantity, but quality. 2.5 thousand useless words will definitely not lead the site to the coveted top of Google results.
Google also loves updates and responds quickly to them. Content should be periodically updated and supplemented. Yandex is not yet smart enough in this regard and is not always able to evaluate qualitative changes in texts, so sometimes content updates on the site can affect rankings even in a negative sense.
Commercial component
For a domestic search engine, this is one of the key indicators of website ranking. To greatly simplify it, in relation to all commercial requests, Yandex pays attention to:
- level of trust. The more information about a company on a website, the higher the position of its website in search results. We are talking about addresses, telephone numbers and other methods of communication; information about the organization - TIN, OGRN; marks on maps and so on;
- product range. Commercial sites with a larger selection of products rank better. This is both good and bad: on the one hand, it is possible to promote yourself through a wide range, on the other hand, it is difficult to compete with large retailers and aggregators;
- prices. Yes, the price level for goods and services is also taken into account when issued by a domestic search engine. The dependence is direct: the cheaper, the closer to the TOP;
- information about delivery, methods of payment, return, replacement of goods.
Here, Yandex adheres to a simple and clear policy: the user’s task in terms of making a purchase must be solved quickly and efficiently. He should easily and simply buy the product in the best and most trusted online store.
Site trust change schedule
There is no information about Google taking into account commercial factors , at least not official. Experience suggests the opposite: the American search engine also takes into account indicators of assortment, price and ease of purchase.
Commercial factors
Yandex first talked about commercial ranking factors back in 2011 (blog post). This was precisely the time when the Russian search giant decided to reconsider its approach to ranking and reduce the influence of links. From that moment on, great importance began to be given to the internal content of a commercial website.
Without going into details, commercial factors include everything that inspires confidence in the client (contacts, information about the company, products, delivery, prices, etc.) and allows him to solve the problem as quickly and conveniently as possible (design, structure, navigation , a wide range of).
Google has not made any statements regarding this group of factors, but it is clear that they are also important to it. The only difference is that working to improve commercial factors will give much greater results in Yandex (especially expanding the range). That’s why aggregators have such a big weight in Yandex’s search results – it’s difficult to compete with them in terms of breadth of assortment.
Search engine
Today, the search engine is quite complex, and allows you to determine in a matter of seconds what exactly the user is looking for and find the most relevant answer. To achieve this, search engines are constantly improving their search algorithms.
Let's compare the mechanism of operation of the two systems. Google is powerful enough to index sites in almost real time. This is why Google search results are updated daily. For users, this means that Google is able to provide the most up-to-date information.
For example, for the query “Turkey” (since this is now the hottest news topic in connection with the downing of a Russian fighter), Google displays current news on the situation with Turkey in the first lines.
In Yandex, for a similar request, news appears only closer to the middle of the search results page.
Google is better than Yandex for searching in other languages, as it is an international product and works all over the world. But there is a downside: the domestic Yandex produces much better results for regional queries.
Yandex servers is not enough to process data instantly, so most of the search queries are cached, and the user receives a pre-prepared search results page. This technology allows you to quickly and efficiently generate results for a user’s request, but this answer will not always be relevant. The frequency with which Yandex bots crawl sites depends on their topic, and for some resources it can be several days or more. For news and information portals, social networks, and Twitter, special fast robots are used that index sites every hour. The page caching method allows you to get higher-quality sites in the search results. But with the introduction of Minusinsk, the results for some queries began to be updated almost daily and its quality deteriorated.
Reference factors
In Google, links are one of the most important ranking factors along with content. If in Yandex you can achieve good results without links (for example, due to the above-mentioned commercial factors), then in Google it is very difficult.
If you look at the top of Google, then the leaders in the number of links are most often in the first positions.
Messing around with stock exchange links is especially dangerous for ranking in Yandex. It imposes more stringent requirements for the quality of links, and the procedure for rejecting them in the event of sanctions is much more complicated than in Google, which has a special tool for this.
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Link mass
As in the previous (and many subsequent) factors, Yandex is much stricter. After the closure of the TCI (thematic citation index) algorithm, the Russian search engine not only began to pay less attention to links, but also began to mercilessly ban everyone who tries to create them artificially. Let’s reveal our cards right away: you can take a place in the Yandex TOP without any links at all . It is better to pay attention to the behavioral and commercial components, as well as the quality of the content. If you decide to promote yourself through links, they must be organic, that is, obtained naturally. Purchasing links on the exchange threatens one of the filters.
Google also refused to directly count links in search results: the corresponding PageRank algorithm was closed back in 2016. However, the link mass still has a great influence on the formation of the TOP of this search engine - much more than that of Yandex. And there are no sanctions for cheating. This does not mean that you need to purchase links in huge quantities: concepts such as link trust and organic growth work great here. Most likely you won’t be punished for spam links, but they won’t be of much use either. And if you are aiming for promotion in both search engines, you shouldn’t play unfairly: you won’t advance in Google, but you will receive sanctions from Yandex.
Behavioral factors
Google specialists have repeatedly denied information that their search engine uses Google Analytics data to determine the relevance of pages. Google only takes behavioral factors into account in its search results. Everything that happens on someone else's site does not concern him.
But this is only in words. In fact, as many studies show, the connection between user behavior on the site and position in the search results can still be traced. Although there are no sanctions for cheating behavioral factors by Google.
As for Yandex, it decided to strengthen the importance of behavioral factors back in 2014. SEO specialists, as always, took this statement as a call for active action, and soon the search engine had to introduce sanctions for cheating behavioral factors. Simulating user actions in search results and on the website is still fraught with punishment from Yandex, so it is strictly not recommended.
Functional
In terms of functionality, both search engines offer approximately the same set of tools: search by maps, videos, news, pictures, etc., there is an advanced search filter with more fine-tuning. In my opinion, Yandex has a more understandable and visually pleasing interface.
Google, unlike Yandex, has voice search not only on mobile, but also on desktop PCs. Right there on the Google search page you can disable personal results (taking into account the previous search history for registered users); in Yandex, this function is disabled in the settings, which will require more time and effort.
Quality indicators
Both search engines until recently used quality indicators that were based solely on links (TIC and PageRank). Google stopped updating PR a long time ago, but this did not affect its consideration when ranking sites. In any case, this is what people directly related to the company’s work say.
In 2020, Yandex moved from the TIC to a complex ICS indicator, which depends on many factors. In one of last year’s studies conducted by Rookee specialists, no relationship was found between position and ICS, however, individual components of this indicator are still important when generating search results.
As for low-quality sites, Yandex has a very clear understanding of this. Signs of low-quality sites are even listed in the official search engine help.
start page
You can talk about taste, or you can just look at the screenshots. Google focuses on search; it also has voice search. No banners, tickers, exchange rates, news or other information noise that the national search engine literally bombards Russians with.
This is probably some kind of peculiarity of Russian consumption (or are they just used to it?), since the same Yandex.com for the world has a quite tolerable appearance and... a parallax donut.
But we remember about ya.ru and continue to test the performance of the Internet named after.
Score: Google:Yandex 1:1
Sanctions
Both Yandex and Google like to punish dishonest webmasters for their tricks, periodically rolling out all sorts of filters. Perhaps tougher in this regard is Yandex, which over the past few years has been steadily causing a stir in SEO circles.
You need to understand that different PSs emphasize different things, so the types and severity of punishments differ. You can learn more about all currently existing sanctions in our article “Search engine filters: a checklist for diagnosing Yandex and Google sanctions.”
Search results
We asked the search engines about Lobachevsky. Personally, I like Google's results better, but I'm just used to it. In terms of usefulness, they are all the same. The only thing is that the strangest output is in the project of the future Yandex - Islands. Judge for yourself and do not judge for taste.
Score: Google:Yandex 1:1
But in general…
We must not forget that search engines take into account a huge number of factors when ranking, so often the results may turn out to be completely different from what was expected, even if everything is done correctly for each search engine. This article is more of a guideline that allows you to understand what different PSs focus on and why the results of promotion in them may differ.
One thing is for sure: the main trend in the work of search engines is to improve the quality of search results. Bad websites will not rank well in any search engine. Comprehensive work on design, functionality, content, obtaining quality links, as well as the use of other marketing channels - all this will sooner or later lead to an increase in positions in Google and Yandex, regardless of what updates or punishments they come up with.
For effective SEO promotion, you can contact Texterra.
otlichiya-prodvizheniya-v-yandeks-i-google-kak-ugodit-vsem-i-ne-popast-pod-filtry
Google has more advertising. Depending on the request, it occupies not only the first three positions, but also the entire right column, including both text ads and banners.
In Yandex, advertising is concentrated in search results and occupies the first and last three places on the page, and is also located on the right in the form of a media-contextual banner.
How search engines work
How does a search engine work? Every search engine has robots that follow links and find information every day. Then it is entered into the database and stored until required (the moment when the user makes the corresponding request), and all the links found are used to follow the links further and find new information (this results in an endless cycle of links). When you enter a query (for example, wakeboard-Moscow-winch), the search engine accesses the database and arranges documents based on their relevance (the level of compliance of the document with the query). That is, the more a document responds to a query, the more relevant it is. The process of ranking documents by relevance is called search engine ranking. And it is the ranking that determines the top 10 sites that we see on the first page after we entered a query and were given the results.
Which browser is better
So now the most important question is, which web browser is better? There is no clear answer here. If we count the points that we gave during the test for each test, then Yandex.Browser took the lead. However, this does not mean that it is the best for everyone, because everyone has different needs and requirements for the browser. For example, Chrome positions itself as an efficient browser that does not chase new products, but provides stable operation. Its design is so minimalistic that some people describe it as a boring browser, but for those who value speed and are interested in a glitch-free experience, Google Chrome will certainly appeal to them.
In turn, Yandex cannot be called slow or unstable, but on top of that, it is more equipped with various “bells and whistles” and has a huge number of buttons on the panel for quick access to certain settings items, as well as a more varied and interesting interface. If your “favorite” is still Google Chrome, then simply improve it with additional extensions, including design themes.
Comparison of two programs
Before making your final choice, you should pay attention to:
- application launch speed;
- time spent on opening the resource;
- influence on working memory;
- flexibility of settings;
- availability of extensions;
- privacy and security.
When launching the Google Chrome and Yandex browsers, the same amount of time is spent. however, the speed of opening tabs with Internet resources and Chrome is much higher.
RAM resources
To decide which browser is better: Yandex or Google Chrome , it is necessary to characterize the effect on RAM. To do this you need:
- Launch both browsers.
- Open the same number of tabs.
- Launch task manager.
- Study the indicators in the “Memory” section.
When more than 10 tabs are opened at the same time, Google Chrome begins to “eat up” more RAM than Yandex. But if only a few sites are launched, Yandex Browser becomes more power-hungry.
Internal parameters
Browser settings play an important role. Often you have to change the “Default” items. Since the applications have the same engine, there will be no difficulties in settings.
For the user! Developers are constantly updating the capabilities of the desktop and mobile versions of Yandex.Browser. Therefore, it is much more pleasant to use.
Availability of extensions
If we talk about extensions, then everyone knows that Google Chrome has its own plugin store. The Yandex program does not have this option. At the same time, there are no restrictions on downloading add-ons from the Opera service or Google Chrome.
Security Features
Security comes first for both browsers. Malicious platforms are blocked before they can be launched in the browser. Infected files and installers will also be unavailable for download.
But still, Yandex Browser has its own security product “Protect”, which performs many useful functions, preventing malware and third parties from stealing any data about a person.
