Yandex post filter. Texts were optimized, re-optimized, but not optimized

Yandex is constantly striving to improve the quality of search results and is constantly working on developing new algorithms for determining quality content. Recently there were reports that a new text filter has appeared, which does not even have a name yet. That is, it probably exists, it’s just unknown to webmasters.

Apparently, the “New” filter (we will call it that) appeared in the summer of 2014, the algorithm of its actions is not exactly known. Some SEO specialists, for example, Dmitry Sevalnev, drew attention to the fact that suddenly some pages of sites promoted or under their supervision began to sharply lose their positions, even dropping out of the TOP1000. But most often the page is within 100 – 400 positions, although the 100th or 1000th position is no longer important: no one will ever go to the page.

Graphically it looks like this:

(To enlarge any picture, click on it)

For a certain request, the text was previously in second place in the search results, then the page fell under the filter and flew out of the TOP100. As a result of some measures taken, it briefly regained its position, after which it again fell under the filter. Then it rose again - and all this as a result of the actions of the webmaster. For other control requests, the site's positions did not change.

But what a shame it is to lose second position in the search results!

The most annoying thing is that Yandex, as usual, remains silent, leaving webmasters to only guess. They are trying to guess: some of the reasons for applying the filter will be clear after you wail about the order of exit from under the filter. More on this below.

How to find out if the “New” filter is applied to the pages of your site?

Dmitry Sevalnev has developed a special online service, which is currently free, but how long it will remain free depends on us, I will go into detail on this below.

Specify the desired region. The URL of your site and the necessary queries - one in each line. Click “Submit” and after a very short time a table with the results appears:

We see that first the service goes to your website and selects the most relevant URL and then compares it with competitive pages. For my first request, the service did not find anything (although there is a corresponding article), for the second request a filter was applied, but for the third - no, it was not applied.

Let's look at the second request. We see that the service identified 101 positions in the search results, and if the filter were removed, the position would probably become 75th. The test results can be checked by clicking the appropriate link. Just keep in mind that it is in your search results that Yandex will mix the results of your preferences in accordance with the algorithms. Therefore, your results will differ slightly from the service data.

Without any doubts. I'm especially pleased that the service is free. But since the operation of the service requires a fairly large number of XML limits, then a big request to all webmasters: if you yourself do not use XML limits, then give them to this service. How to do this is written in detail above the table - under the “Description” button. This, in my experience, will take no more than 2 minutes, but now, when you start working with the service, maybe my XML limits will be used :)), and then yours.

Now a few words about how to remove the applied filter.

It is clear that all data was obtained exclusively experimentally and was presented by the service developer in his report “Search engine sanctions - a new round of struggle” at the IBS Russia 2014 conference (November 2014). You can read his report in full; for those who don’t want to, here is a slide from his presentation:

Naturally, when writing new articles, all these recommendations should be used in full.

But recently Yandex has become more active. Unlike Google, which at best will send an example of a spam link, you can still negotiate with Yandex.

So let's get down to business. One of the projects had a successful increase in traffic and transactions, but the next month, visibility on Yandex dropped to 30% and continued to fall severely. TIC fell from 450 to 425.

1. It was decided to write to Yandex technical support. 2. The technical support representative said on the same day that yes, we were filtered.
3. After this, I wrote a letter asking him to indicate what exactly we did wrong. The response letter contained a link with spammy SEO text and a small inscription “No products were found with the specified criteria.” We could not pay attention to such pages earlier, since they were not in the site structure. 4. As it turned out, the client had a little more than ten such pages on the site, links to them came from blog posts for 2011. We quickly discovered all such pages using Netpeak Spider and with the help of the client. Links to these pages were removed from the entire site, the texts were cleaned, and the pages themselves were given the following:

5. After this, we wrote another letter to Yandex, where we reported on the work done.

We were pleased that we had done everything right, “but there was a nuance” (C). The automatic filter is removed only after a month, so I had to wait...

6. All this month we continued to storm Yandex support with letters, in order to be aware of the following: Is it possible to remove the filter faster?

The answer is no. The process is automated, Yandex could not have any additional impact.

Is traffic dropping because we make new mistakes or because of an existing filter?

Traffic continued to drop due to the filter.

Why were there no noticeable changes after the letter lifting sanctions?

Positions should be returned within two weeks.

7. June 30 was exactly two weeks since the letter about removing the filter arrived. Positions began to return:

Traffic from Yandex began to return more actively:

Yandex, which, we recall, is the leading search engine in Russia, can apply certain text filters to queries and documents on commercial topics. Many people know about this, but not everyone can accurately determine whether this happened in each specific case. Not only optimizers who have only recently joined the ranks of SEO conquerors, but also some experienced professionals are sometimes unable to diagnose the application of a text filter. What can we say about newcomers? These comrades may not even know that methods for determining sanctions exist, since, frankly, there is very little detailed and truthful information on this topic on the Internet.

So, the time has come to help optimizers and clarify this interesting issue. I would like to believe that the article will help those fighting for a place in the TOP 10: they will learn not only to diagnose, but also to promptly eliminate problems that arise during the promotion of one or more commercial requests due to the application of appropriate filters.

The information presented below, including technical methods for identifying sanctions, is relevant from the very time they appeared until the moment the material was prepared (mid-November 2012). I would like to hope that further information will be useful.

Yandex: the fight against “pseudo-optimization”

At various industry conferences, Yandex representatives have repeatedly emphasized that no one is purposefully fighting with optimizers. The search monster has a clear position published on the official Internet portal. The meaning is simple and clear: there is not only well-known site optimization, but also “pseudo-optimization”. It’s the second problem that experts are struggling with.

The battle is being waged on several fronts. So, filters are applied to:

manipulation of the values of text factors (in fact, these are what we will talk about further);
attempts to cheat behavioral factors;
attempts to cheat link factors, as well as the use of spam and link rings.

There are other filters: AGS, adult, doorways, affiliates, and so on.

Types of text filters

Today there are only two main text filters. Yandex applies them to documents containing unique content, which greatly prevents optimizers from living without any major shocks and getting queries into the TOP 10 without stress.

We will not now consider “filtering pages for adults” and the “You are the last” filter imposed for non-unique content. They are not particularly common in commercial areas and, you see, are extremely rare when ranking decent websites in the TOP for high- and medium-frequency queries.

Sanctions differ from each other: each has its own reasons for imposition, its own manifestation and, accordingly, definition. Recommendations regarding actions to get rid of these sanctions are also different. So, their types:

Filter "Over-optimization".

It was officially announced in September 2011, but started working a little later.

“Overspam” filter (aka “-20” and “footcloth”).

It was not officially announced, but has been working with some changes since February 2010. The discussion of this filter stretched over more than 150 pages in the corresponding topic on “Search” (SearchEngines.ru forum).

Manifestations of “Over-optimization” and “Overspam”

How can you understand which of the Yandex filters has been applied to a document or a promoted request? Review Table 1 and compare the situations described there with the actual situation in your particular case.

Table 1 - Signs of the “Overspam” and “Over-optimization” filters in Yandex and their manifestations

Differences between filters

It will be easier to understand the difference between these two filters if you look at Table 2.

Table 2 - Difference in sanctions and drop in positions, dependence on requests

How to diagnose and identify the problem

It is clear that work on the project should be accompanied by competent monitoring of how the site is doing in gaining a place in the TOP 10. Having studied the signs and manifestations indicated in Table 1 and the differences noted in Table 2, the identified problem should be accurately diagnosed and promptly eliminated. In the general case, it will be enough to compare the positions of an Internet resource for a specific request “before” the Yandex update and “after” it.

It is very important to approach the issue wisely. It is necessary to distinguish situations in which we can talk about the imposition of sanctions by a search engine from:

changes in the ranking algorithm, which resulted in a change in the positions of a considerable number of web portals, including your site;
falling out of the index of the promoted page, which happens quite often even when the level of its nesting is small (this can be checked using a query of the form ).

What needs to be done? Comprehensively compare the first 10 positions in the search results for the query you are interested in “before” the update and “after” it and analyze the results. Did your document alone “sag” significantly? This is apparently a sanction. Has the TOP 10 changed noticeably, several web resources have dropped out of it, sites in first place have changed, and so on? These are probably changes in the algorithm.

Have you discovered that the page you are promoting continues to be in the search results, while the position in the top has changed significantly only for your Internet portal? Well, most likely you have come under some kind of sanctions.

What to do if the site has just come to you for promotion?

Of course, cases are different. It is also possible that a situation may arise when a project that is already under sanctions comes to an SEO company for promotion. Everything is complicated by the fact that it is impossible to track the dynamics of his positions “before” and “after”. We work with what we have: the filter has already been applied to some documents or queries. All we have to do is apply the diagnostic methods described below.

Method 1: detecting “Overspam”.

A filter, as you know, is applied not to the entire document, but to one or several queries. Accordingly, all that needs to be done is to modify the queries and see if the positions in the search results change (again, pay attention to Table 1).

Not so long ago, it was possible to remove the filter by applying a query modification like [search query/] or [search query ~~ set of letters223234hgf]. After this, the position of the document improved noticeably and quickly. But at the moment such methods are not effective.

Method 2: identify “Over-optimization”.

If you use the advanced search, this filter is removed. This means the need to compare the relevance in the search results of two Internet sites - yours and the one that is 2-5 positions higher than yours. This is done using both search query language and advanced search.

Is your project ranked lower than your competitor in the overall search results, and are documents from your site more relevant when you use advanced search? We are almost certainly faced with over-optimization.

What measures should be taken

Only after you have, with a high degree of probability, identified the presence of a specific problem and learned how this or that filter manifests itself, can you eliminate the possible reasons for the project’s loss of traffic and positions.

Below, in Table 3, are the measures that will have to be taken in order for the filter to be removed. Almost certainly, these actions will be enough, and Yandex will lift all sanctions. The measures outlined are aimed at eliminating the main reasons why sanctions may be imposed.

Table 3 — Measures to eliminate text sanctions “Overspam” and/or “Over-optimization”

As a conclusion

I would like to believe that the information will be useful for as many optimizers as possible. There is also hope that the quality of website pages in general and the text component in particular will constantly improve. Actually, the Yandex developers launched the filters discussed above precisely for this purpose.

Our specialization is working with different volumes and topics. Business card sites, portals, online stores.

We have successfully implemented more than 113 projects.

Every year, famous search engines are optimizing search and making it better for people. Search engine robots learn to work not only with keywords and headings, but also with the content itself that the visitor will view. That is, SEO optimization is already beginning to fade into the background. Search engines are adjusting to the fact that the main thing in ranking is now the quality of the text. Yandex is no exception to this new search engine policy. There are already quite a few search robots of the Russian search engine that work exclusively with the text of a website page.

This is why the pages of your website, even the most optimized for keywords and headings, may begin to sharply lose positions in search results, and all because of the new Yandex text filters. These filters can lower the ranking of a page or remove it altogether if they consider the content to be of poor quality for users.

How to find out if your site's pages are under a text filter

1. The site begins to lose positions in search results or disappears from search altogether. Competitors who have not optimized their titles and keywords rise above you.
2. Not the entire site began to lose positions, but some queries, while in other areas of the site everything is fine with the results. Sometimes this is due to the fact that the algorithms check the site page by page and some of them it simply hasn’t checked yet.
3. Well, if you modify the request. Even slightly, but it will not affect the ranking, then your site definitely fell under the Yandex text filter. The fact is that the rest of the search engine filters work exclusively with queries and headings, and changing them would definitely affect the ranking. But if nothing happened, then it’s all about the content.

If you are sure that pages are losing positions in search engines due to low-quality text, then you should not give up. There are several ways to solve the problem that may help.

Removing the Yandex text filter from website pages

1. In the title meta tag, you need to reduce the length and number of keys.
2. Recently, Yandex has begun to love short texts that carry only the necessary information. Therefore, you need to reduce the text by 20-30%, and, if possible, reduce the amount of water.
3. Keywords need to be distributed evenly throughout the text.

If these actions did not help promote the site in the search results, then there is nothing left to do but write the text again, taking into account all the above rules. There is no need to rush; you need to wait a couple of weeks before starting to write a new text. Today text filters are still very slow, so you need to wait a little. If you see that after a few weeks the site’s pages have risen slightly in the search results or fallen completely, then you need new text.

In the fight for quality content, the Yandex search engine is taking new measures. The “New Text Filter” has already been added to the sanctions for overspam, over-optimization and non-unique texts. If sanctions are imposed on a site or its individual pages, first of all, it is necessary to make an accurate diagnosis.

In this article we will look at the differences, ways to identify the problem and remove it from Yandex filters.

"You're the last one". It was introduced in the fall of 2006, and showed itself most clearly in May 2007.
Perspam. Not officially announced, supposedly came into force in February 2010. Also sometimes called “footcloth” and “-20”.
Reoptimization. Officially announced in September 2011, it came into force some time later.
"New Yandex text filter". There has been no official announcement yet. The first signs were noticed in the summer of 2014. Also called “text antispam”.

You're the last one

According to one version, “You are the last” replaced traditional pessimization.

Causes: The main risk factor is the placement of non-unique or low-quality content: generated, meaningless and outright nonsense texts. Due to incorrect operation of the algorithm, the original source may be subject to sanctions.

Symptoms: The site remains indexed, but disappears from the search results. At the same time, it can be easily found in a search using excerpts from texts. Even at its own address, the site may not appear in the first position. Other features of the Yandex “You're Last” filter include disabling link ranking and the influence of static weight.

Treatment: Complete content update, only unique texts with a minimum number of key queries. For additional protection, it is recommended to add each text to the “Original Texts” of Yandex. After finishing the work, wait 2-3 updates. If there is no positive dynamics, write to the support service.

Now let's look at the most common text post filters and their features. Unlike “You are the last,” such sanctions can affect pages with copyrighted content, even with 100% uniqueness.

Overspam or over-optimization?

Signs of Overspam	Signs of Overoptimization
One of the queries sharply loses position, dropping by 15-35 points. It is possible to replace a relevant page in the results; the old page under the Yandex filter still remains in the index.	A group of queries leading to 1 page loses from 5 to 20 positions. It is possible to replace relevant pages for a group of queries, while all of them remain in the index.
Positions increase with a slight change in the promoted query: change of declension, case, number, rearrangement of words.	When the queries promoted to the page are modified, the positions do not change significantly.
The document stores positions for several words. The traffic does not change, but the position for the main request worsens.	The document loses traffic, and there is a drop of 1-3 tens in the search results.

Thus, the main differences can be highlighted. The Yandex spam filter applies to 1-3 phrases, is request-dependent, the subsidence is more significant. Re-optimization, in turn, is applied to the entire page and is not query-dependent.

Examples of changing positions when applying/removing filters

For an accurate diagnosis, it is enough to analyze the positions “before” the update and “after”. It is important to exclude other possible causes:

Changing the ranking algorithm
Page dropped from index

To determine over-optimization or Yandex spam filter, you should pay attention to the dynamics of changes in positions. If only the page being analyzed is down, this is a sanction. If several sites drop out of the top ten at once, most likely an updated algorithm has come into effect.

Filter removal methods

If there are no doubts left, you can start working on the mistakes. Let's consider the main measures that will help remove the site from sanctions.

Overspam	Reoptimization
Reduce redundant pure occurrences of a query in a document. In some cases, changing the declension/case/number may help.	Rework the text. It will require careful rewriting or writing from scratch.
Reduce the text by 10-20% (depending on the initial volume), get rid of foot wraps.	Get rid of redundant key allocations, use tags ,, , at a minimum. Reduce occurrences in headings. Carry out editing.
Remove external incoming links that include a request in a direct entry. Focus on diluted anchors and non-anchor links.	Determine the optimal percentage of entries, focusing on competitors, and develop the content.
Use formatting, headings and tables. Add photos, videos, diagrams and other materials.	Make information more organized and clear. Use graphic elements.

If none of the above steps help, your site may be the victim of a new sanction.

New text filter

Is your site rapidly losing positions for some queries, disappearing from visibility? Does it continue to rank normally for the remaining queries? Changing the phrase (declension, case, number) does not help regain lost ground? If the answer is yes, you should proceed to a detailed check.

Diagnostics

Firstly, it is necessary to track the dynamics of changes in positions and compare them with the overall change in the results for this request. If the “New Yandex Filter” has come into force, the overall output of the PS will not change significantly, and the site in question will completely disappear from visibility (a drop of several hundred positions is possible).

Secondly, you can use advanced search. There are several stages:

The initial request is entered into the line - the current position of the site in question is checked.
The current position corresponds to the position occupied before the likely sanctions came into force.
A pair of sites is selected for control. It is necessary to find resources that were in lower positions compared to the site in question before the alleged application of sanctions, but are now 1-3 lines higher.
A query is entered using the advanced search operators: “site:” and “|”. Thus, the results come down to comparing the analyzed and control sites.
If the position of the site in question is higher, most likely there is a text filter at work. To confirm, you can repeat the sequence of actions with other control sites.
During Reoptimization, the check will also pass. You can distinguish “New” by a more significant drop in positions (50+).

If the site check for Yandex filters was successful and the diagnosis was confirmed, you can start working on the content.

Treatment

Reduce the length of the Title to approximately 60-70 characters, reduce spam, and completely eliminate repetition of words.
Reduce the number of direct occurrences of the query in the page text by approximately half. Reduce the overall percentage of occurrences, distribute the keys more evenly.
Carry out a complete editing: eliminate all inconsistencies, punctuation and spelling errors.
Reduce the total amount of text on the page: on average by 20-30%.
Get rid of unnecessary highlighting and formatting, in particular tags , , , , etc.

After finishing working on the errors, you should wait for a couple of updates; if the document has been re-indexed, but no positive changes have occurred, it is best to completely rewrite the text. At the same time, it is important to avoid an overabundance of cognate words; they can also cause the filter to be applied.

Results

Thus, in this article we looked at the 4 main Yandex text filters that appeared before 2015. Despite the external similarity, each of them has its own characteristic features and differences, and the removal of each sanction requires a special approach. We hope that the proposed material will help you make a correct diagnosis and quickly rehabilitate your site.