Yandex Webmaster setup, Yandex-specific SEO, regional targeting, Turbo pages, and Russian market search optimization.
Verification methods:
<meta name="yandex-verification" content="XXXX" />Post-verification:
| Factor | Yandex | |
|---|---|---|
| Backlinks | Primary signal | Important but less dominant |
| Text relevance | Semantic, context-based | More literal keyword matching |
| Commercial factors | Implicit | Explicit ranking factors (prices, contact info, delivery) |
| User behavior | Moderate signal | Heavy signal (CTR, dwell time, pogo-sticking) |
| Regional targeting | IP + hreflang | Explicit geo-assignment per page |
| Content freshness | Important for news | Important across all content types |
| Site quality (ICS) | No direct equivalent | Explicit quality rating visible in Webmaster |
Yandex explicitly values these for commercial queries:
| Factor | Implementation |
|---|---|
| Contact information | Full address, phone, email on every page (or footer) |
| Prices visible | Show prices on product/service pages |
| Delivery information | Clear delivery terms and costs |
| Company details | Legal entity name, registration numbers |
| Reviews/ratings | Customer reviews on site |
| Wide assortment | More products/services = stronger signal |
| Secure payment | SSL + payment security badges |
Yandex assigns pages to specific regions. Critical for local businesses.
Set region in Yandex Webmaster: Settings → Regional targeting → Assign region per site section.
For multi-region businesses:
Turbo pages are Yandex's AMP equivalent — ultra-fast mobile pages served from Yandex cache.
RSS feed implementation:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss xmlns:yandex="http://news.yandex.ru" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/"
xmlns:turbo="http://turbo.yandex.ru" version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>Site Name</title>
<link>https://example.com</link>
<turbo:analytics type="Yandex" id="XXXXXXXX"/>
<item turbo="true">
<title>Article Title</title>
<link>https://example.com/article</link>
<turbo:content>
<![CDATA[
<header>
<h1>Article Title</h1>
<figure>
<img src="https://example.com/image.jpg"/>
</figure>
</header>
<p>Article content goes here. Use standard HTML.</p>
<h2>Subheading</h2>
<p>More content with <a href="https://example.com">links</a>.</p>
]]>
</turbo:content>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
Submit: Turbo pages → Sources → Add RSS feed URL.
Turbo page benefits:
ICS (Index of Citation for Sites) is Yandex's visible site quality score (0-10,000+).
Factors that improve ICS:
Check ICS: Yandex Webmaster → Site quality → ICS rating.
<!-- Verification -->
<meta name="yandex-verification" content="XXXX" />
<!-- Control indexing -->
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow" />
<meta name="yandex" content="noyaca" /> <!-- Don't replace description with Yandex Catalog -->
<!-- Original source (for syndicated content) -->
<meta property="article:source" content="https://original-source.com/article" />
import requests
headers = {"Authorization": f"OAuth {YANDEX_OAUTH_TOKEN}"}
host_id = "https:example.com:443"
# Get search queries
r = requests.get(
f"https://api.webmaster.yandex.net/v4/user/{USER_ID}/hosts/{host_id}/search-queries/popular",
headers=headers,
params={"date_from": "2025-01-01", "date_to": "2025-01-31"}
)
for query in r.json().get("queries", []):
print(query["query_text"], query["indicators"]["TOTAL_SHOWS"], query["indicators"]["TOTAL_CLICKS"])