Yandex or Google? Which search engine should you prefer?

If Yandex is the undisputed leader in the audience of desktop computers, then Google is the largest resource on the Runet in terms of mobile audience (according to TNS data). In February 2015, 13.5 million people used Google mobile services. According to company representatives, voice search and voice commands help Google grow in popularity. But the main reason for its success is due to the pre-installed Google apps on Android mobile devices. In September of this year, the FAS already recognized that such actions by Google violate competition law. Let's see whether this will affect the further growth of Google's popularity, or whether Yandex will find other ways (other than legal ones) to gain a mobile audience. In our article we will compare the quality of Yandex and Google searches from a desktop PC.

Content

• What are search engines? How do they work?
• Which search engine is more popular in RuNet?
• Visual
• Traffic distribution
• Ranging
• Filters and sanctions

We use search engines every day on desktop computers and mobile devices. Thanks to search engines, we get answers to a variety of questions: from the ruble exchange rate to the structure of the universe. Have you ever wondered how search engines work? Why do they show different results for the same query? How do they determine which pages are relevant and which are not? We answer these and other questions in the article.

Table cards

The main thing in cards is not beauty, but functionality. It’s easy to get into trouble when giving in to deep analysis of cards, and we won’t do that. Let’s just pay attention to the sense of beauty of those who made these products, look for an arbitrary address in Moscow and pay tribute to the traffic jam functionality.

Look and feel

Google Maps looks modern and it’s not even clear what to add to them. Yandex maps are from the Stone Age.

Address search

“Russia, Moscow, Gogolevsky Boulevard, 12с4” where is this? Both products know this very well, and Yandex also suggested the nearest metro. This is useful if you are a pedestrian, right? But Yandex does not know how to build pedestrian navigation.

Traffic jams

Yandex is the king of traffic jams. Drivers say they have no equal. It is useless to compare with your eyes.

Score: Google:Yandex 1:1

What are search engines? How do they work?

Before you start comparing search engines, you need to understand their structure and operating principle. Essentially, any search engine is a set of programs created to find specific information in a huge collection of data. The system uses robots to collect them. They crawl sites every day, recording the presence of data in the database. In it, information waits in the wings - the moment when some user enters a query corresponding to the found materials in the search bar. On sites with internal and/or external links, robots visit every link they can get to. This way they not only check their performance, but also find new information.

How does a search engine decide which page to return? According to its relevance. The more accurately a page matches the query entered by the user, the more relevant the system will consider it. Since many, many pages can be found that match a query, they need to be arranged in accordance with relevance. First those that best match the request, then those that are smaller. Well, at the very end - with low relevance (for example, if only one word is used from the user’s request on the site page). This process is called ranking and it is what leads to the formation of the top search results list. Those sites that are the most relevant in comparison with others appear on the first page of search engines.

Mail

I know Yandex employees who use Gmail for personal purposes, but I have not seen Google employees who use Yandex.Mail.

Yandex mail has cute themes and an interesting interface, a lot of space and good Russification. Gmail has a modern interface, plug-in web plugins (for example Any.DO) and user scripts. Gmail is integrated with Google Drive and Google Docs.

Score: Google:Yandex 1:0

Which search engine is more popular in RuNet?

Which search engine do you prefer to use? 60.1% of Runet users choose Google. There are much fewer fans of the local product (we're talking about Yandex) - only 38.2%. An insignificant share of users ignores both systems in favor of less popular ones - Mail.ru (1.4%), Bing (0.1%), Rambler (0.1%). Rambler can hardly be called a search engine in the broad sense of the term, because it uses Google and Yandex algorithms. This platform is more of a portal, the additional functionality of which is to search for information on the Internet.

Bing is the brainchild of Microsoft, which claims competition with Google right in its name. The full name of the search engine sounds like Bing is not Google. In the USA it ranks second in popularity. We think you have already guessed who is in the lead?)

Just a few years ago the picture was completely different. Yandex was in first place for Runet users. The Russian search engine was used more readily than the overseas one. Its locality was captivating. To gain a leading position, Google has focused on mobile devices. On Apple and Android smartphones it became the default search engine, which immediately affected its position in Russia. It is pointless to compare the mobile search engines Google and Yandex, because Yandex has not yet released an operating system for smartphones and tablets. There was an attempt, but it was unsuccessful. But the desktop versions are worth considering in more detail.

start page

You can talk about taste, or you can just look at the screenshots. Google focuses on search; it also has voice search. No banners, tickers, exchange rates, news or other information noise that the national search engine literally bombards Russians with.

This is probably some kind of peculiarity of Russian consumption (or are they just used to it?), since the same Yandex.com for the world has a quite tolerable appearance and... a parallax donut.

But we remember about ya.ru and continue to test the performance of the Internet named after.

Score: Google:Yandex 1:1

Traffic distribution

After Google became the default search engine on smartphones and tablets, it became more interested in mobile audiences. While Yandex continues to focus on attracting desktop users.

If you analyze traffic in accordance with the subject of queries, Yandex is often asked about tourism, real estate, construction and business services. Moreover, in queries they most often use “buy”, “sell”, “order”, “price”. This is due to the fact that the search engine is initially focused on commercial queries, and therefore finds information on them better.

Google prefers to search for informational materials. That’s why finance is such a popular topic here. As a rule, they are looking for voluminous articles in the spirit of “How to pay off a mortgage early” or “What to do if I was fired.”

For greater clarity, we will show what the distribution of traffic on the web studio website looks like.

Most of the users come from Yandex, which is quite predictable for a commercial site.

A completely different picture on the news resource. To compare search engines, we specifically took an informational site that is popular in Novosibirsk and the region.

Readers most often get here from Google, which again corresponds to the theory described above. And if you look at the detailed report, it becomes clear that the lion’s share of visitors come to read news not from smartphones and tablets (then Google’s leadership would be easily explained), but from desktop computers and tablets. Coincidence? We don't think so! And in order not to be unfounded, we will show you another example.

These are traffic statistics for another news resource. And again we see significantly more readers coming from Google.

Well, in the next screenshot we show traffic to a commercial website. It falls into the “Tourism” topic, which, as we remember from the traffic distribution diagram, is in demand specifically in Yandex.

Search results

We asked the search engines about Lobachevsky. Personally, I like Google's results better, but I'm just used to it. In terms of usefulness, they are all the same. The only thing is that the strangest output is in the project of the future Yandex - Islands. Judge for yourself and do not judge for taste.

Score: Google:Yandex 1:1

Ranging

This comparison point between the Google and Yandex search engines will be of interest to those who are promoting their website or are just planning to do so.

The MatrixNet algorithm is responsible for scanning and indexing pages in Yandex. He has been actively working for our benefit since 2009. And every day he persistently increases the number of pages viewed. In addition to this algorithm, another 800 work in the search engine. Each of them has its own task, but they all take into account certain factors:

• hosting reliability

A site that is periodically unavailable, or a site that cannot guarantee user data security, has no place in the top. Even if it suddenly (which is unlikely) ends up on the first page of the search results, it won’t stay there for long.

• usefulness and uniqueness of content

If you prefer to steal texts, photos and videos from competitors and then post them on your website, be prepared to be disfavored by both Yandex and Google. They do not like such manipulations, and therefore all plagiarists are severely punished. For example, by applying filters that prevent the site from being displayed in search results.

• citation rate

The more often a link to your site is posted on the Internet, the better. Ideally, it should hang on resources of similar topics. That is, if you sell car parts, links to your website should be on car enthusiast forums, online reviews and resources in one way or another related to cars. And not on webcam model sites or online clothing stores.

• structured information

Every user who visits your site should understand how to find what they came here for. The menu simply must contain product categories and subcategories. If you sell products for the care of infants, then it is logical to place the subcategories “Breast pumps”, “Bottles”, “Nipples” in the “Feeding” category. At the same time, it is better not to overdo it with nesting. The user must reach the deepest nested page in 3 clicks. That is, first select the “Feeding” category, then the “Breast Pumps” subcategory, and then decide between the “Automatic” and “Manual” subcategories. And then the filter will help him.

• site loading speed

How do you feel when you go to a website and it takes half a minute to load each page? Dissatisfaction and irritation. Both Yandex and Google agree with you on this. That’s why they don’t give sluggish sites a ticket to the top.

• spammy

When the texts on the site contain keywords, the search engine is pleased. But everything is good in moderation. Therefore, when there are so many keys that they start to make you sick, users leave the resource. And the search engine concludes that users do not like such texts. Therefore, sites containing them should not be shown on the first page of search results.

Google also uses several algorithms for ranking. The most important among them is the link ranking algorithm called PageRank. It is used to determine the “authority” of pages. This indicator is calculated by the number of links to the site. The more there are, the higher the “authority” of the resource. The algorithm is also able to determine the quality of links, so it is extremely difficult to deceive it.

The search engine takes into account about 200 factors (Yandex is the leader in the comparison of search engines) that influence ranking. These include:

• reference factors,
• spam in external links,
• page factors,
• spam on the site,
• violation of algorithm rules,
• domain factors,
• social network factors.

The crawling of page content is most often done by a robot called Googlebot. His workday is incredibly busy, so the indexing of images and mobile versions of sites was entrusted to other bots. Each has its own specialization, its own list of responsibilities. Everything is like people)

To make Googlebot work better, it was equipped with two indexes. The duty of the first is to index and rank sites, taking into account the sanctions and filters imposed on them. The second one indexes absolutely all pages that come its way, but only returns inappropriate options with an advanced search.

Commercial component

For a domestic search engine, this is one of the key indicators of website ranking. To greatly simplify it, in relation to all commercial requests, Yandex pays attention to:

• level of trust. The more information about a company on a website, the higher the position of its website in search results. We are talking about addresses, telephone numbers and other methods of communication; information about the organization - TIN, OGRN; marks on maps and so on;
• product range. Commercial sites with a larger selection of products rank better. This is both good and bad: on the one hand, it is possible to promote yourself through a wide range, on the other hand, it is difficult to compete with large retailers and aggregators;
• prices. Yes, the price level for goods and services is also taken into account when issued by a domestic search engine. The dependence is direct: the cheaper, the closer to the TOP;
• information about delivery, methods of payment, return, replacement of goods.

Here, Yandex adheres to a simple and clear policy: the user’s task in terms of making a purchase must be solved quickly and efficiently. He should easily and simply buy the product in the best and most trusted online store.

Site trust change schedule

There is no information about Google taking into account commercial factors , at least not official. Experience suggests the opposite: the American search engine also takes into account indicators of assortment, price and ease of purchase.

Filters and sanctions

If there are rules, then there are those who will definitely break them. To prevent this from happening, a system of punishment is needed. Search engines have one. Considering each point by point is long and tedious, so we propose to compare the equivalence of violations and sanctions.

Text violations

If earlier search engines normally treated texts in which keywords appeared in every sentence, today such self-indulgence is strictly punished. For overspam, Google applies the Panda filter, and Yandex applies the Baden-Baden filter. Panda takes into account not only the number of keys, but also the content of the materials, their uniqueness, structure, as well as the content of the pages in general. Duplicate pages can also attract Panda. Yandex applies the Baden-Baden filter to sites that contain spam texts. And if they also have “crooked” keys, highlighted in bold, then good luck. Search engines apply these same filters if the quality of information on a site leaves much to be desired. Therefore, before attempting to emerge from the darkness, sensibly assess the weaknesses of the resource. Perhaps, in addition to spam, you will find a few more flaws.

You can also get caught with a filter if you try too hard to optimize your site. This phenomenon is called over-optimization and includes in this concept an oversaturation of factors that are important in ranking. For example, when you place too many keywords in meta tags or put an incredible number of internal links on one page. Google sends you under the Over Optimization filter for such things, and Yandex punishes you with the already familiar AGS filter. Both filters reduce the relevance of the site.

Reference violations

When comparing search engines, it is worth remembering their attitude to violations regarding links. If you decide to increase the link mass of a resource and take on this work with unhealthy enthusiasm, expect the Too Many Links at once filter from Google, and the AGS filter from Yandex. How to understand that a site is under a filter? Attendance drops sharply, individual pages drop out of the index in large numbers, and the ICS indicator becomes smaller (you can track this in Webmaster).

For link spam and spam in link anchors, search engines send you under the Penguin (Google) and Minusinsk (Yandex) filters. The first lowers the ranking of individual pages, and immediately after correcting errors makes it possible to emerge from the shadows. You can tell if Google has awarded you a Penguin by several signs:

• traffic from this search engine becomes much lower than usual;
• the resource loses several dozen positions in the search results.

“Minusinsk” limits ranking for at least a month, and for a maximum of 3. You can detect the application of a filter by analyzing traffic. There will be fewer visitors from Yandex, but the same number will remain from the competitor’s search engine as usual. Sites with a large number of links and/or low-quality links are at risk.

Behavioral disorders

To create the appearance of active user activity on the site, some SEO specialists inflate behavioral factors. If the search engine recognizes this, the Panda (Google) and/or AGS (Yandex) filter is applied to the resource. The risk zone includes sites where each visitor spends no more than a minute, and the failure rate is about 70%. How does filter overlay appear? A drop in traffic in a particular search engine. If you receive a punishment from Google, then your positions in Yandex are saved. If you catch AGS, then nothing changes in the competing search engine. Young sites may not receive any traffic at all for several months. When diagnosed with AGS, there may be not only a drop in traffic, but also pages that drop out of the search results.

Pornography-related violations

Comparing search engines in the matter of dividing content into “adult” and public is meaningless, because both Yandex and Google have the same attitude towards such materials. Both search engines don't like it when sites with pornographic content are included in public results. Therefore, this is strictly punished with filters. These filters are called adult and work according to the same scheme: they exclude the resource from the general search results and show it only for “adult” queries.

Advertising Violations

If a site has too many ads or is too intrusive, the search engine may lower its ranking and relevance. As punishment, they use the already familiar Panda and AGS filters. It will be possible to get rid of them only after giving up aggressive advertising. And if, in addition to this violation, the resource is also guilty of non-unique content or link spam, you will have to work hard on its content before getting to the top.

Deception of search engines

Not all websites are created to sell goods/services and provide users with useful information. Some have other goals. For example, doorway acts as an intermediate resource that gets to the top using black hat SEO methods. It itself is not useful, because it contains only incoherent text, which the visitor does not even have time to properly read. He is immediately redirected to the resource promoted using doorway.

The use of cloaking sites is also considered fraudulent activity. They are characterized by the presence of several versions of the same page. One option is shown to users, and the other to robots.

Search engines perceive clones of well-known sites and pages with lists of queries no less negatively. When such resources are detected, Yandex and Google apply a filter to it, as a result of which they drop out of the search results. Yandex uses the AGS filter for such sites, and Google uses Panda or “-30”.

The list of violations is regularly adjusted and penalties are changed. In addition, search engines release new filters, the application of which to the site is not always obvious.

Regionality

If you compare search engines based on geotargeting, it turns out that Yandex and Google have very different approaches to it. In Google it is impossible to set the region accurately down to the region and city. The maximum that it allows is to designate the country. Sometimes you can change the situation using the Google My Business and Google Maps services. However, this does not always give the desired results.

Whereas Yandex is more geo-oriented. It allows you to link your site to any region. And then display it when entering geo-dependent queries. If a resource is simultaneously promoted in several regions in Yandex, it is worth creating a subdomain for each region. Those who are trying to win Google's love should not use such a system. The search engine will not appreciate your efforts. It would be better to make regional subsections on the site.

Domain age

Both search engines love old sites equally. But, attention: only other things being equal. That is, of two pages of the same quality and with similar content, search engines will prefer the one that is older. But if you have just created a website that is head and shoulders above your competitors in all respects, the search engine neglects the age of the domain. A site can easily jump right off the bat, that is, to the TOP of search results.

Determining the age of a domain using the Whois service

Speed

As for speed, there is almost no difference between the Google and Yandex browsers. They work on the same code, so the differences in bench tests showed minimal differences. The only thing worth clarifying is the availability of some browser features.

Thus, Yandex has a special “Turbo mode” that allows you to compress streaming traffic on the search engine’s servers, thereby saving its consumption. For owners of USB modems, this functionality came in handy.

Google does not have a similar “trick,” but when it comes to opening serious and “heavy” web pages, it has succeeded here with its caching. But such a decision greatly affects RAM. Many users have repeatedly called Chrome the most voracious browser. Therefore, if you have less than 4 GB of RAM, then it is better to install a domestic browser.

Interface

Here we have a similar situation described above. Google Chrome is characterized by minimalism and the absence of “extra” buttons. Moreover, if you are not satisfied with the classic look of the browser, then in the settings you can always add a couple of panels and other “chips”.

In addition, the browser is not at all against integrations with its competitors, so you can always make “Yandex” the start page in Google Chrome. We also mentioned the dominance of the “American” on all mobile gadgets running the Android platform, so many users are simply “forcibly accustomed” to Chrome.

The Yandex Browser interface is very similar to its American competitor. But unlike the latter, it is more understandable and any beginner who has discovered the Internet for the first time can understand it. The specificity of the domestic audience probably played a significant role here: it is easier for us to understand “ours” than to study “theirs.”

Functional

Let's look at how Yandex differs from Google in terms of functionality. The capabilities of both search engines are approximately the same. Both there and there you can find a similar set of tools: news, roads, maps, videos, music and other related surroundings.

As for ease of use, Google is worse than Yandex, although not by much. The latter's advanced search, as well as other functionality, looks more clear and beautiful. The pleasant visual component of the Yandex advanced search allows you to quickly navigate through all the columns, drop-down lists and markers. While with Google you will have to work hard to find the right tool. But here again, this is largely a matter of habit, and everyone decides for themselves what is better - Yandex or Google.

It is also worth noting that the American search engine has a competent voice search for landline systems, and not just for mobile ones. Yandex, although it has launched its similar service, Alice, is still too crude to compete with the Google lady.

Summarizing

It probably makes no sense in this article to list all the services provided by the two companies. The fact is that a huge number of them have been created. For example, both companies offer cloud space on roughly equal terms (though you could argue with that). Yandex has a schedule of buses and trains. This information is also stored in the depths of Google, but the American company does not have a separate section with schedules. But the search giant owns the online store of applications, games, books and films, Google Play, which is used by absolutely all owners of smartphones running Android. The Russian company also has an application store, but almost no one in their right mind installs it. It is also impossible not to note the best work of Google with the press, which can be read in a special program.

As a result, the conclusion suggests itself that Google copes with its task better; the services of this company are most often more informative and convenient. The only exception to the rule is “TV Online” - the competitor has nothing similar (however, YouTube successfully replaces watching television).

The Russian search engine is trying to attract the attention of the audience through Yandex.Taxi. However, experts know that this enterprise only brings losses, so it is impossible to say how long it will last. It’s not encouraging - its smartphones have previously failed, and in 2022 the smart speaker “Yandex.Station” risks becoming the same failure.

What do you think is better to use: Yandex or Google? Or do you prefer to combine the services of these two companies? Share your opinion in the comments.

Ease of navigation, usability, UX

You need to understand that the task of a search engine is to satisfy the needs of users. And not just to satisfy, but to do it as efficiently as possible. Therefore, in SEO promotion, factors do not work separately. You can offer as much useful content or low prices as you want, but if the site is inconvenient, you can forget about good traffic.

Everything is important here: page design, search or filter settings, block placement, and so on. This affects, first of all, behavioral factors that search engines vigilantly monitor. CTR also plays a role in search results: the more users click on links, the higher the page rises in the search. This entails the design of meta tags, snippets, and the like.

An example of a convenient and original online store design

Considering user intent

Yandex has a clear division of requests into commercial and informational. Google gives preference to pages that best match common queries. This difference affects the structure of the pages, the criteria for evaluating the content posted on the pages, and its volume.

If in the commercial segment there may be no auxiliary text at all on the page of product categories or cards, this is good for Yandex, which considers such texts as search spam. What is appropriate in a product card (in the title, description, etc.) is punishable in the SEO text area. In this case, Google will prefer additional content that it considers appropriate: it is absolutely indifferent to which zone of the document it found the keyword in.

The takeaway here is quite simple: if you want a category or product to rank equally well in both search engines, it's worth working on the quality of your supporting content. It should be relevant and useful, no “fluff” or attempts to manipulate algorithms.

Cloud services

Let's consider cloud services from domestic and American search engines - Yandex Disk and Google Disk. Both options are excellent alternatives to flash drives and memory cards, so let’s figure out why they are good or bad.

The Yandex service provides its users with 10 GB of free storage for any information. The Disk web interface was distinguished by its clear and convenient menu branches, as well as its attractiveness. In addition, the speed of loading data into the cloud is slightly higher than that of a competitor from Google. The only critical drawback that users often complain about is the lack of at least some built-in tools for working with the Microsoft office environment.

Google Drive already offers 15 GB of space for storing files versus 10 for Yandex. The storage interface may not be as clear as in the first case, but you can still figure it out. One of the main advantages of the “cloud” from Google is the built-in editors for everything you can: documents, spreadsheets, photos, etc. It should also be noted that there is excellent synergy with office products from Microsoft.

If you only need cloud services for storing files, then you can, in principle, choose any “Disk”. For more versatile work, the Google product is still more attractive. As for the security of your data, there are no differences here: both are strict with this, so no one will steal anything.