While most of us are talking to Alexa or searching in Google for inquiries, that’s not the case with the most significant Internet user in Europe – Russia.
If you are trying to reach the Russian market via Google, then you are missing out – big time. Even though Google is gaining popularity in Russia, the biggest search engine for many years remains Yandex with 2.6 billion visits monthly.
Yandex vs Google
Ironically Yandex stands for ‘’Yet Another Indexer’’ even though it was the only search engine in Russia for many years. It was created specifically for the Russian market and to be fair; Google is not able to handle user intent due to the Russian alphabet, Cyrillic.
Don’t blame Google alone. Russians themselves don’t make much effort in learning English. Russia has the lowest English proficiency in Europe. So, if you do not have a website in Russian, you are not visible to a potential 110 million Internet users. While Yandex is quite similar to Google, it handles ranking differently.
Ranking elements that Yandex considers are:
- search behaviour
- content quality
- backlinks
- commercial relevance
- domain age
- metadata
- turbo pages
To become a success, you have to create a strong Yandex SEO strategy.
Russian Voice Search
When it comes to enabling voice search, Alexa has a Russian sister called Alice, (as from wonderland). However, Alice is not as popular as Alexa in Western markets, with voice queries only accounting for 20% of search.
Russian Internet Censorship
We must also bear in mind that the Internet in Russia is highly censored. It’s essential to be aware of the specific regulations that apply, alongside the fact that all publicly distributed material receives an age restriction.
If your website is not in Russian – you are invisible to a market of 110 million internet users.
If you have a great product or service and you are ready to grow your business, then international markets can hold a lot of potential. ExtraDigital specialises in multilingual marketing services – including Russian, meaning we’ve got your back.
Reach out to us today to find out how our services can complement your Russian business goals. Our Russian expertise ranges from website design, SEO, PPC, social media and, crucially, multilingual marketing.
