Yandex's Cunning Algorithm — "Multi-Armed Bandit"

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The "multi-armed bandit" is an algorithm that helps Yandex test new sites and improve search results. Its job is to mix sites in search results and check how they work. If a site's position in Yandex falls, but everything is fine in Google, it seems like "the bandit has let his hands go." Sites rise and fall in search results, and all this is to determine how useful they are to users.



If the "Multi-Armed Bandit" were a person...

The name is related to slot machines, which in the West are called "one-armed bandits". The principle is similar: the algorithm sort of pulls the "hands" and looks at what comes out in the results. But unlike a casino, where everything is random, in the Yandex algorithm it is a test: which sites work better, those remain in the top.

Yandex raises new or less noticeable sites to high positions and observes how users behave. If people stay on the site, read materials, follow links, the site can remain at the top. If users quickly close the page, the site goes down.

This increases the quality. If previously only "old" sites that everyone already knows were in the top, now young projects have a chance to break into the first lines. This makes the search results more useful and diverse.

Sign

What does it mean

What to do

Example

Sharp fluctuations in positions

The site rises or falls sharply in the search results. This means that Yandex is testing it.

Monitor your positions using SEO services. If your positions fluctuate, it's the work of a "multi-armed bandit".

Yesterday the site was in 3rd place, today in 20th place, and tomorrow again in the top 5. This is a typical fluctuation of positions.

Sudden changes in traffic

Website traffic rises or falls sharply due to changes in rankings.

Analyze where the traffic comes from. If there is an increase or decrease without any apparent reason, it could be an algorithm.

On Monday, traffic increased by 50%, but on Tuesday it bolivia whatsapp number database dropped sharply.

Unexpected improvement on new queries

The site began to rank high for new keywords.

Improve your content for these queries to stay on top.

The site unexpectedly got to the top for the query “buy a phone”, although there were no such positions before.

Positions jump for different keywords

The site's positions are constantly changing for different queries. The algorithm checks how relevant the site is.

Update content and make the site user-friendly to improve behavioral factors.

The site occupies top positions for some queries, but falls for others, and this happens regularly.

If you think that you can simply avoid being seen by the "bandit", then you are mistaken. The algorithm works constantly, in the background, to regularly test sites. It does not run on a fixed schedule, but is used to dynamically update search results. That is, testing can happen at any time, especially for new and lesser-known sites.

The only thing that can be noticed is large-scale changes in positions after major Yandex updates, when the algorithm actively checks the relevance of sites in the new search system.