Digital Marketing in Russia and Yandex

Not all of the world uses Google for online searches. Yandex, the most popular search engine in Russia, is the access door for foreign companies to become visible in this large market.

To support exporting to Russia with digital marketing, you have to take into account two main issues: the Russian language and the Yandex search engine. Approximately 60% of Russian internet users do online searches with Yandex, with Google having a share of less than 30%.

A digital marketing campaign on Yandex has to be created in Russian, as English is generally not very well spoken or widely used. Consequently, the choice of keywords must also be accurate and precise, as keywords are vital in guaranteeing a good SEO ranking on Yandex. To understand what the most common queries of Russian internet users are, there are many useful tools, like Yandex.Wordstat, Mail.ru Keyword tool, Yandex.Metrica, and others.

The content a company publishes should be of high quality too, avoiding literal translations that would only damage the trust of a native Russian speaker. Furthermore, low-quality translations are not indexed by Yandex, which means they are not easily visible in search results.

If your company takes part in trade fairs or events in Russia, a location-based digital marketing campaign is an excellent solution to gain visibility, find new Russian clients, and increase sales. Thanks to this strategy, your company’s advertising at the fair will appear on the smartphones of potential leads located in the vicinity, which means you will be targeting a specific audience, thereby bringing a constant flow of visitors to your stand.

A digital marketing campaign in Russian is not only relevant to potential Russian customers. Russian is the world’s sixth most-spoken language and is also the official language of not just Russia, but also Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Russian is also widely spoken in Georgia, Ukraine, the Baltic countries, Armenia and Uzbekistan, further increasing your potential visibility in these markets.

Multilingual digital marketing and a correct use of Yandex and of the Russian language are therefore the keys that open the door to a dynamic market with many opportunities for foreign companies. Do you want to jumpstart your business in Russia and find new potential customers? Mintense has over 12 years of experience planning multilingual strategies in 25 countries, helping companies boost their international sales by using the most advanced tools and techniques in existence.