Tips for using Yandex Webmaster

Interface conveniences. Nothing here changes how a site ranks; it changes how long it takes to find the number you need, which on a weekly routine across several sites is not nothing.

Interface

• Theme — dark, light or system, from the foot of the menu. The choice also applies to Yandex Search.
• Account switching — from the avatar at the bottom of the side menu, including logging out or creating another account. Useful for anyone holding both an agency account and a client-delegated one.
• Workspace size — collapse the side menu to widen the tables, which matters on the wide reports where columns otherwise wrap.

Managing sites

Pinning puts the sites you touch most at the top of both the My sites page and the main menu dropdown. On an account holding thirty client domains this is the difference between a weekly check that happens and one that does not.

The habit these support

A short weekly pass over the portfolio: pinned sites first, anything whose error count or in-search count moved gets opened, everything else left alone. Ten minutes if the interface is arranged for it, half an hour if it is not — and the half-hour version quietly stops happening after a month.

The export detail worth knowing

Most reports export, and the exported file often contains more rows than the screen shows. Analysis built on the visible table can miss the long tail entirely, which is a real analytical error rather than an inconvenience.

Scope

Yandex is honest that this page is about comfort rather than results. We keep it in the knowledge base for one reason: the practices that survive an engagement are the ones that are quick, and arranging the console so the weekly check takes ten minutes is what makes it survive.