Currently Yandex holds a 53% share of the Russian search market. Google, at 35%, handles a large volume of searches as well. For Yandex, the main success factors are better processing of Russian grammar and a range of unique local services. While not directly related to web search, it helps Yandex build visitor loyalty. Here we compare Yandex SEO with a Google one.

1. YANDEX SEO
vs.
GOOGLE SEO
Currently Yandex holds a 53% share of the Russian search market.
Google, at 35%, handles a large volume of searches as well. For
Yandex, the main success factors are better processing of Russian
grammar and a range of unique local services like Yandex.Probki
(an urban traffic monitoring tool). While not directly related to web
search, it helps Yandex build visitor loyalty.

2. 1. Remember that Yandex 'understands' Russian
language queries better.
2. When you build incoming links, Yandex prefers
keyword variety (alternating between exact and broad
matches and using keyword declension). Many case
forms of the same word are the foundation of Russian
grammar, and Yandex sees the connection between such
forms. Here, Google is not that fastidious. It is more
tolerant towards more exact matches in your anchors.
Still, don’t overdo it.

3. 3. Improving your Yandex rankings for business-related
keywords is easier if you target geo-related search
queries. Region-based SEO strategy for Yandex includes
creating a regional branch of your office and dedicating
a page on your site or a mini-site with a subdomain to
it. Then, you need set the relevant region for this minisite in Yandex.Webmaster panel. Local contact details
are essential.
4. In most cases, Google is much faster at indexing new
pages. Usually the difference is several days. The effect
of incoming links is more visible with Google, which
adjusts your position in five to seven days (in direct
relation to the quality and quantity of your links).

4. 5. Currently Yandex places more emphasis on user
behavior. For Google, external site factors still
seem to be more important for now. At least this is
what Yandex claims, and one can assume this is an
actual trend.
6. When it comes to SERPs, Google can show two,
three, even four results from one domain on the
same page, while Yandex shows only one.

5. Yandex SEO
7. Most SEO professionals agree that Yandex prefers
a ±5% keyword density while Google is usually OK
with ±10%.
8. Under similar circumstances, unique texts get better
rankings in Yandex. Google fights duplicate content by
penalising the site while Yandex just excludes it.
9. Google places more importance on internal linking.
In other words, your inner linking is more important for
Google than it is for Yandex.

6. 10. Page title is more important when optimising for
Google. Yandex does not see the title as particularly
important and can therefore sometimes give better
ranking to other pages than you have intended
despite exact keyword matches.
11. Google prefers sites that update with new content
more often. Yandex does not place as much
importance on this factor. With this, one can conclude
that Yandex likes static sites better while Google
prefers dynamic sites.

7. 12. Yandex.Ostrova (Yandex.Islands), a platform that lets
users interact with search results and site content without
leaving the SERP, is currently a much better developed tool
than Google Structured Data. A possible risk factor for SEO
professionals lies in the situation when news sites might
lose some of their visitors. Users will not need to visit the
site, preferring to obtain the content and/or services they
are searching for via Yandex.Ostrova instead.
13. With Yandex, if you face a difficulty, you can contact the
support department and, if your request is detailed and
well-formulated enough, get a prompt reply with relevant
tips. Google support department is much slower when it
comes to responding to webmaster questions.
The specifics of Russian language and
Cyrillic writing require businesses to hire
Russian-speaking Yandex SEO
professionals.
Google+