When embarking on any SEO campaign, a core starting point is keyword research.
Keyword research enables you to identify the phrases that users are searching in relation to your client’s products and services, and then help you do some form of traffic forecasting based on search volume – or as Wordstat calls it, impressions – data.
It is worth noting that in order to use Wordstat, you’ll need a Yandex account. Wordstat as a tool, and Yandex accounts are both free to make, and only take a few minutes.
Wordstat is also available in both English (on .com) and Russian (on .ru), and both return the same results for the same phrases (regardless if you’re .com searching in Russian, or on .ru searching in English).
Using Yandex Wordstat
After entering the keyword “SEO услуги” (SEO Consultant) you will be given two sets of results.
On the left hand side, you can see the amount of the impressions for the keyword per month. On the right hand side, you will be presented with similar searches and their impressions per month.
As you scroll down the impressions for SEO услуги, you will be presented with all keywords including SEO услуги in decreasing order of the volume of impressions.
This is a good way to identify further relevant search phrases for your campaign.
You can also filter impressions by Desktop, Mobile, and Tablet devices.
Multiple Keywords At Once
By entering multiple keywords and separating them with a pipe, you can view the search volume for the combined words.
In addition to keywords, this is a great way to get a good sense of a particular market industry.
Filter By Region
To get a better sense of the areas of the world, or more specifically Russian areas, where a selected keyword gets a lot of impressions, you can filter data by region.
When searching by region you will be presented with a list of places by continent, country, region, and city. The list can then be reduced to region or city, which is particularly useful for very specific geo-targetting.
In map mode you can focus on a particular country which will then separate statistics by regions to shower the affinity index of the keyword.
The darker the area on the map, the greater amount of impressions in that region.
View Query Data Changes Over Time
The keyword history function dates back two years from the current month, and displays the change from month to month and also a keyword statistics for the week.
By hovering over the blue and red lines, you can view the absolute amount of impressions and the relative impressions to all Yandex searches.
Yandex Wordstat FAQ
Common Yandex Wordstat questions that I’m frequently asked.
Are Wordstat Search Volume Estimates Accurate?
Wordstat data is used heavily by Direct advertisers (paid search), and from experience it does tend to be more accurate than a number of third-party tools.
This being said, you can filter by region and just by phrase which will affect the numbers being returned – and we know that some third-party keyword tools “bundle” similar search phrases together rather than provide a number for that search phrase as exact match.
According to Yandex Wordstat’s tool tip:
The figures next to each query in the results are a provisional forecast for the number of impressions a month you’ll receive if you use the query as one of your keywords. So the number next to the word “telephone” denotes the number of impressions for all searches containing the word “telephone”: “sell telephone”, “buy telephone”, “second hand telephone”, “but a new polkadot telephone” etc.
Meaning it does the same as third-party tools and consolidates data for similar queries.
How Often Does Wordstat Data Update?
From using Wordstat frequently, the data being return both at keyword and research level I believe updates every few days. For example, SEO услуги was show 2,821 on January 12th 2021, and then showing 3,008 on January 16th.
Given this is a relatively lower search volume keyword, I’d expect greater update frequency the more searched the keyword.
