Links are Dead! According to Yandex, which will launch a new algorithm in 2014

yandexYandex will launch a complete new algorithm in the first months of 2014. During the Internet Business Conference (link) in Moscow, Alexander Sadovsky, Head of Web Search at Yandex, announced the introduction of a update algorithm which doesn’t rank website based on linkprofiles anymore.

As most people know, Russian search engine results pages are easily to game by creating a lot of spammy links. During extensive testing, Yandex found a solution for this problem by eliminating the value of external linking to websites.

This change within the algorithm will focus mainly on commercial queries and SERPs due to the fact that informative website have a more natural link profile, looking to overall data. The algorithm has been tested thoroughly and returning decent and sometime even better results as the current algorithm, according to Sadovsky. They will not count external link signals anymore.

He told the public that this termination of links, only affects 50 factors on a total of about 800 factors that make up the ranking algorithm of Yandex. So there are enough things you can optimize and differentiate to maintain or get top positions within the Russian search giant.

I’m curious how the results of this update algorithm will be! What do you think of this move by Yandex?

Update: people have been asking about what signals Yandex does use. More information about their algorithm can be found in one of my previous posts: The other search engines?

4 Comments

  1. I’m very curious about it, whether this new yandex search algorithm will deliver good results or not.
    And I really ask myself, how will small website owners have the possibility to compete against big brands!

    Reply
  2. Yandex is moving towards user behavior signals. This is great but… I don’t believe in full devaluation of external links, this seems to be Utopia for them (but not for SEOs).

    Reply
  3. Avi

    Good read, however, I agree with Kristina that it won’t be possible to completely devalue external links. Perhaps, it won’t have as much ranking value as present.

    Reply

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