Commercial Ranking Factors and E-E-A-T¶

Commercial factors assess service quality as seen by search engines. E-A-T/E-E-A-T measures expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Both critical for commercial sites and YMYL niches.

Commercial Factors (Yandex)¶

Definition¶

Indicators designed to assess quality of service provided by a site. Scored by formula - more factors covered = better ranking on commercial queries.

Why Introduced¶

Commercial sites provided no additional value beyond selling
Text and link signals became noisy
TOP-10 dominated by low-quality sellers/scammers

Key weighting: Trust and Service factors are 2x more important than other parameters.

Factor Categories¶

General Factors¶

Price - primary factor
Currency shown (not just numbers)
Availability status
Ability to order product/service online

Product card lifecycle (availability states): 1. Product will be in stock -> keep page (HTTP 200) 2. Product is in stock -> keep page 3. Available in warehouse -> keep page 4. Product absent but has search volume -> keep page 5. Product absent, no search volume -> only delete in this case

Assortment Factors¶

Structured catalog: sections, subsections, products each on separate pages
Minimum 10 products per listing
Artificially expand assortment if needed
"Similar products" section required
Services also have assortment (e.g., car buyout has service types)

Listing Page Factors¶

Correct quantity of cards
"Buy" / "Add to cart" button anchors
Images for each product
Correct text quantity
Text fragment in snippet

Trust Factors¶

Contacts page (URL: contacts, kontakty): - Phone numbers, working hours, location map, email, callback form - Branches on separate pages - Open company details - Multiple phones: 495 number, 8-800, and regional number - Alternative contacts: WhatsApp, Telegram

Company information: - Listed in directories (Yandex, Google) - Company review page and product review functionality - Payment information, social media links - "About company" section: personnel, history, mission

Client Service Factors¶

Delivery information
Free consultation/site visit/measurement
Payment methods
Credit or installment plan
Service and warranty information
Price list download
FAQ / Q&A section

Other Factors¶

Site search functionality
Popular products, new arrivals sections
Filters on listings (mandatory)
Human-readable URLs
Review system
News section (active)
Blog/reviews section
Mobile version or adaptive design

E-A-T / E-E-A-T¶

Google's Framework¶

E (Experience) - direct first-hand experience with topic
E (Expertise) - expert-level knowledge of subject
A (Authoritativeness) - authority of author and site in niche
T (Trustworthiness) - site reliability

Critical for YMYL Niches¶

YMYL (Your Money Your Life): health, finance, legal, safety. Strictest E-E-A-T requirements since Google Medic Update (2018).

What to Work On¶

Reputation improvement: - Links on niche-relevant and authoritative resources - Links on sites with identified individual authorship: forums, review sites, news sites

Author content competence (especially medical): - Professional education credentials - Academic degree - Awards, certificates, diplomas, licenses

Author page elements: - Author photo and social media links - Biography and achievements - Diplomas and certificates - Publications list - Conference appearances / publications on trusted resources

General quality signals: - Language of page matches site language - Absence of prohibited content - Page load speed - Clear page purpose - Content quality and quantity - Supporting/supplementary content

E-A-T Recovery Case Pattern¶

Technical audit
E-A-T corrections: add authors to articles, update professional profiles, improve review visibility
Link building: quality expired domains, recover lost links, add from trusted resources

Yandex Medical Update¶

Content classification (via Yandex Toloka): - OK: content without treatment advice - Medicine: content with treatment advice, dosages, medication descriptions (even with "consult specialist" disclaimer) - Folk medicine: content promoting alternatives to official medicine

Medicine verdict triggers: - Author pushes medical services/drugs without specialist consultation - Step-by-step treatment procedures (verdict = Medicine even WITH disclaimer) - Advertisement promoting medical products with trade names

Document Commerciality¶

Commercial vs Informational Documents¶

Commercial: little text, product/service listing, prices, goal = conversion
Informational: much text, little commercial content, goal = inform

Determining Query Type¶

Commerciality is not binary - queries have mixed intent
Geo-dependency or toponym = strong commercial signal
Wikipedia presence = non-commercial signal
Query type can change over time
Rule: can promote commercial site if minimum 3 commercial URLs are in top-10

Commerciality check tools: - tools.pixelplus.ru/tools/geo - ru.megaindex.com/a/wordinfos - just-magic.org

Gotchas¶

Trust and Service factors are 2x weighted - prioritize these over cosmetic improvements
"Call for price" = no ranking - visible prices are mandatory for commercial factor scoring
Only delete product cards with zero search volume - all other unavailable products should keep their page returning HTTP 200
E-A-T is not a direct ranking factor - it's a quality framework used by human assessors whose ratings train algorithms
Medical content is classified aggressively - even "consult your doctor" disclaimers don't prevent Medicine verdict if you describe treatments
Good commercial factors also benefit E-A-T - significant overlap between the two systems