As we fought the “multi-armed Bandits” of Yandex and won

What is the best “gangsters”, you can read in the publication of Yandex at the conference in Italy Gathering Additional Feedback on Search Results by Multi-Armed Bandits with Respect to Production Ranking (translation).

Why this algorithm come from? the Lack of a positive user experience for the new website means that to apply for ranking resource beyond the 10-key from the point of view of the authors of the “multi-armed bandits” to the lack of references is simply nothing. In the end we have "stagnation", when the market and products are changing with customer needs, while the top remains unchanged.

As a result, the quality of search results decreases. The algorithm, which has been operating for more than two years, give a chance to new sites and places them in the top. This allows you to collect user experience and change the situation. But! Not yet give any chance to the optimizer to influence the “random” results.

In order not to worsen in the long term, the quality of issuance, the search engine makes this "a La carte". So you can see daily changes to the search results, and the improvements occur gradually, without spoiling the main picture.

No need to think that Yandex is ahead of the rest. Experiments on the effect on user experience in search results, there is a video of Rand Fishkin, where he reveals the results of his experiment with Google.

Today I will share with you a case that illustrates a landslide victory in the struggle with the “multi-armed bandits.” It's not about the spam or cheat. Is that how it works now. And I really hope this battle will be a precursor to the emergence of new technologies, white hat optimization.

the

Case

In April of 2017 passed SEO Marathon, which was attended by about 600 people from different cities of Russia and CIS.

During the answers to the questions we are talking about the hidden ranking factors in Yandex, asking them to demonstrate a lively and fresh case. The speaker jokingly suggested to bring in the top 3, the site of one of the students on any query. Was offered the online shop software (https://softmap.ru), and zaprosthat did not manage to position in top 3 efforts of the optimizer.

Evgeny Smirnov asked the audience: go to Yandex with mobile phone to find the online store on selected request, to view 2-3 pages, including contacts and copy phone to clipboard.

The job performed with 40 participants of the webinar, a few — after watching his record. Here we specify that the region is set from Soft Map in J. Webmaster — Moscow, and in the webinar was attended mainly by residents of other regions and even abroad.

Within 2 hours after the experiment, the site was moved to position 3 and then at first. We caught the bandit.


sites in the top of Yandex on request “buy archicad”

Other actions are performed, and the online store still stands firmly in the top 3 SERP:


sites in the top of Yandex on request “buy archicad”

Traffic for the phrase:


Screenshot from Ya. Metrics


Search traffic for the phrase “buy archicad” by region

Think about the difference with the classical optimization when the first results are really to receive in 2-3 weeks (and company does indicate in KP a month or two), and even then, it often is just “positive dynamics”!


And here — only a couple of hours, and you're ahead of the game. Moreover, for a long time! It seems that in the near future we should expect significant changes in this area.

What examples can you share? Do you need the publication on habré about “multi-armed bandits” and how you can use them in your website?

Article based on information from habrahabr.ru