Yandex had a major leak that revealed its search engine algorithm factors. Why is this a huge news for SEO community?
In January 2023, a significant data leak involving Yandex exposed a document detailing 1,922 ranking factors. However, 244 factors were categorized as “unused” and removed from consideration. Additionally, 988 ranking factors are listed as deprecated, meaning 64% of the document is either inactive or replaced. Some factors appear outdated, with original creators no longer employed at Yandex.
The leaked document confirms Yandex uses PageRank as its first ranking factor. “Pessimization” is highlighted — when websites face penalties and their PageRank reduces to zero — aligning with theories about recovery difficulty from Yandex penalties.
The document includes information on user signals, clicks, and overall site performance impacting individual queries. URL construction serves as a ranking factor; too many trailing slashes or excessive numbers are viewed negatively, while country/city identifiers and semantic query relations are positive.
Yandex employs DSSM technology to predict product counts on webpages using URLs and titles. Page quality scores are influenced by host reputation.
Ranking factors address “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) topics — medical, financial, and legal information — plus traffic and TikTok link factors.
Host reliability and error-response URL counts impact webpage quality. Yandex Metrika data also influences rankings.
The leak reinforces established knowledge: Yandex is not Google, but either way, it’s interesting.