Get best of the week

Yandex desktop attendance has fallen: what happened in 2019 and how it will affect in 2020

The main headache of all SEO optimizers is to find the reason if traffic has slipped. Sometimes this can be done quite quickly, sometimes it takes a long time to collect information bit by bit, leaving long posts on the forums.

One of the channels through which there were many questions from customers in 2019 was organic traffic from Yandex desktop. The decrease in traffic was recorded by both information and commercial sites for brand and non-brand requests: online stores, service sites, information sites. At the same time, the sites did not lose their position and did not fall under the filters of search engines. The reason for the drop in traffic was not obvious. Below is a list of factors that have been identified in the course of work. These factors can affect not only desktop Yandex traffic, but also on all substations.

Popular reasons for the fall of traffic from Yandex desktop


Reason # 1: Users are actively migrating to mobile search


What affects: information sites, commercial sites, mobile and desktop delivery, context and organics. The

main trend that this decline is usually justified is the massive migration of users to smartphones.
device types

Depending on the topic on many projects in 2019, 10-35% of the traffic went to smartphones.

In the screenshot below, one of the most stable sites with an adaptive version in the not very competitive services sector. The site has long occupied its niche and does not imply jumps in traffic or significant changes.

Dynamics for 2018-2019
Device traffic for 2018-2019
Traffic loss from PC is 12.7%, while traffic on smartphones increased by about the same 12.6%. Everything is clear and clear - the traffic has not gone anywhere.

The distribution of traffic for January-February for three years on the same project.
Distribution of traffic for January-February 2018-2020
Unlike previous years, in 2020 smartphones have taken a sharp start from the beginning of the year. And that means that in 2020 the subsidence of traffic from Yandex desktop search will be even greater.

How else can this be useful? In addition to understanding what is going on with your site as a whole, this is a trend that can and should be taken into account in forecasts. See how your conversion is different on mobile and desktop devices and draw conclusions:

  1. The conversion of the mobile version is beautiful (this does not happen in nature);
  2. We need to work on usability and speed of the mobile version;
  3. There is nowhere to finalize the mobile version, you need to make mobile applications (PWA).


Reason # 2: In Google Analytics, organic traffic has been counted as referral.


What affects: information sites, commercial sites, mobile and desktop delivery, organic

Since 2018, part of mobile and desktop traffic has been taken into account in yandex / referral. To see this, just go to the “All traffic” - “Source / channel” reports in Google Analytics.

organic as yandex / referral in google analytics

Source is the last resource a user visited before moving to your content, such as a search engine (e.g. google or yandex). Channel - a type of source, for example a regular search (organic) or a link from a website (referral).
A lot has already been written about this in great detail, for example: https://www.cossa.ru/news/218490/ .

organic as yandex / referral in google analytics

Therefore, if your client or manager prefers Google Analytics, you should take care to properly configure filters to rewrite traffic in the view.

Reason # 3: Carousels of search results and other impurities


What affects: commercial sites, mobile and desktop

search results , context and organics At the end of 2018 and during 2019, many impurities appeared in Yandex search - Yandex services that appear above search results and / or greatly dilute it. For example, for commercial sites, it’s a product gallery or a product sorcerer immediately below the search bar or Yandex Market, which often takes the first line immediately after the advertising block in the search results.

Screenshot 1. Issue, where the commodity witch is presented, 2 positions of the special placement Direct, Yandex.Market. On the first screen you can see the first organic search engine website - Leroy Merlin.


The screenshot attached above is not very clear - this is a screenshot with a greatly reduced scale. In fact, organic search in highly competitive topics on the Yandex desktop has almost completely gone to the second screen.

Screenshot 2. After refreshing the page - there are already 3 positions in the special placement, the organic search goes completely to 2 screens.


Many new tools that change search results were announced back in 2018 (Big update of the search algorithm - Andromeda ), in 2019 they passed an active beta test, and in 2020 they will be released to full use. So, such a picture will appear in many areas not previously touched.

Screenshot 3


Other factors affecting traffic from Yandex desktop


1. Cannibalize search traffic with contextual advertising


What affects: commercial sites, mobile and desktop delivery, context and organics

As practice shows, depending on the field, the inclusion of contextual advertising on brand requests eats 30-40% of organic traffic from search and leads another 10-20% from the top. However, the traffic that comes from Yandex.Direct on the search brand is usually more conversion, since the contextual advertising capabilities allow you to more accurately customize the ad to the client’s request, direct it to the conversion page, show more attractive snippets.

This factor affects mobile and desktop traffic in different ways, since changes in mobile issuance are not so frequent and issuance due to the small size of the screens of smartphones is quite stable: 3 special locations and organic issuance on the second screen. On the desktop, as the examples above show, there are much more distractions, more ad placement positions and more advertising space.

Changes in traffic after disabling and enabling contextual advertising for branded requests at equal time periods.

On average, after each inclusion, all channels grew by + 8%.

2. New algorithms, services and methods for their representation in the search



Most of the factors below were announced back in 2018, but active beta testing and implementation continued throughout 2019.

And though not all of the above directly affects Yandex desktop, each of the factors described below may have an indirect effect.

· Fixing special placement on the screens of a mobile phone


What it affects: commercial sites, mobile issuance, context and organics.
For some requests, when scrolling down a feed, an ad from Yandex.Direct follows you, tied to the edge of the screen.



Discovered on September 5, 2019. Source: https://vc.ru/marketing/82025-yandeks-zakreplyaet-pervoe-obyavlenie-v-direkte

· The sorcerer of turbo pages on the desktop issue


What affects: information and commercial sites with articles, desktop issuance, organic



In August 2019, a sorcerer of turbo pages on desktop issuance appeared. Many sites report an increase in traffic when this tool is enabled on the site.

· 5th position in special accommodation


What affects: information and commercial sites, desktop issuance, context and organics

The first news about 5 special placements appeared back in 2018, but throughout 2019 it was possible to catch 5 ads in various commercial requests.



Discovered on August 6, 2018. Source: https://yandex.ru/turbo?text=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.seonews.ru%2Fevents%2Fyandeks-direkt-testiruet-pyatoe-spetsrazmeshchenie%2F

· Search Ads Advertising


What affects: commercial sites, desktop issuance, context and organics



Discovered on April 24, 2019.

· Pages for related searches


What affects: information and commercial sites, desktop SERPs, organic.



Similar pages of steel are placed in a separate block, which is usually located to the right of the search results.

Discovered March 22, 2019.



Unconfirmed influence factors and hypotheses


During research and the search for the causes of traffic loss, there were many different theories. Something was partially confirmed, something remained in the form of assumptions and hypotheses. All these factors are collected in a separate block and are presented below.

The growing importance of behavioral factors in Yandex search.


What can affect: information and commercial sites, desktop and mobile issuance, organic

In 2018 and early 2019, some sites recorded a decrease in traffic. In 2018, informational, at the beginning of 2019 - commercial. After conducting a study and not finding obvious reasons for the fall, many optimizers agreed that the reason may lie in the growing influence of behavioral factors and Yandex's attempts to combat the wrapping of PF .

At the same time, Yandex desktop is more susceptible to the influence of PF (since, due to the characteristics of the devices, it leaves more opportunities for returning to search. For example, on a desktop it’s more convenient to open several sites at once in different tabs, each time returning to search results .

, (, e-mail ), ( , , , , ), . , , 404. , , , , .


What it can influence: information and commercial sites, desktop and mobile issuance, organics.

You can read more about the filter here.

There is an opinion that sometimes this filter is applied without any notifications or warnings, expressed in a decrease in impressions in the first positions. Yandex has long been declaring its focus on the usefulness and expertise of content. More than one Talmud has been written about the quality of content. Content should be unique, reliable, regularly updated.

Moreover, regular updating is a rather important condition precisely for Yandex. If new content is not added to the site for a long time and links are not made to old articles or pages, then any site, over time, begins to lose traffic in Yandex. In Google, such a picture, as a rule, is not observed.

2020 . , . , , , .

2019


What it can influence: information and commercial sites, desktop and mobile issuance, organics

In the summer of 2019 Yandex announced the testing of new Yandex advertising tools - super answers or interactive responses. This tool was prepared in response to Yandex’s accusations of monopolizing the search from large Russian companies Avito, CIAN, Profi.ru, 2GIS, ivi, Kassir.ru, Ticketland ...

It is believed that at this time, also because of accusations of monopolization, there was a redistribution of traffic for high-conversion brand and vital requests in favor of all market participants. Anomalously strong changes in search results were recorded.


https://tools.promosite.ru/updates/
Source:https://partnerkin.com/blog/novosti/ decidedyandeks>_testiruet_interaktivnye_karuseli_s_izobrazheniyami

Summary


Most often, traffic losses from Yandex desktop issuance occur due to general trends in the development of the search system: traffic redistribution in favor of mobile devices and targeted pushing of organic search to the second screen (in favor of advertising space).

Information sites crowd out Yandex services from issuance, such as Yandex Zen, Yandex Q, Collections, etc.

On commercial sites, the most common reason for the loss of traffic from any channel is most often the company's ill-conceived marketing policy. For example, when a popular product that is untwisted and collects traffic from various sources is abruptly withdrawn from sale, and the assortment that is replacing has not yet managed to gain popularity and brings less income. Or, when at the end of the promotion the page on the site simply turns off with the code 404, and people still continue to go to it from the search, bookmarks or links on the sites. Not finding the right information, people quickly close the site, thereby worsening its behavioral factors. Thus, the company may lose a large number of loyal customers. It is worth being more attentive to such users. You can always offer them alternative products or talk about a new promotion.

Posted by Madina Kultaeva , co-authored with me )

More articles:


All Articles