Should I just block Yandex bot UA?

[born2run]

So I checked my adsense and I make close to nothing from Russia and Ukraine traffic.

I suppose Yandex is popular in the above nations. I'm thinking of blocking this bot as it has logged (latest week) around 300,000 hits in a week to my site! That's a significant number, more than google bot i think, and a waste of my resources.. Any advice? Thanks!

[keyplyr]

You really need to read the discussions on the subject. Use the Search utility located in the upper-right corner of every page.

Yandex, while Russian owned, is an International search company just like Google, Bing, Duck Duck and others. Yandex's Western headquarters is in Silicon Valley just down the way from Yahoo.

Judging a SE by direct traffic only is a limited view. Having your site in as many SEs as possible benefits you in other ways. I'll let you discover how.

Block who you want, but be informed.

[wilderness]

Yandex is robots.txt compliant. don't need to block anything.

[born2run]

Ok thanks!

[TorontoBoy]

I let Yandex scrape me because I encourage diversity in search engines. This is a price that webmasters need to pay for an internet not dominated by just Google. Yandex is not malicious and, unlike Microsoft, they seem to not test my security every once in a while. They are well behaved, so I let them in.

[NickMNS]

Duckduckgo uses Yandex.
[duck.co...]

[born2run]

Yes but these search engines or countries don't show up in my GA / Adsense stats... I'll re-check after a few weeks of tests.

[keyplyr]

Yes but these search engines or countries don't show up in my GA / Adsense stats.

Ask yourself why.

[born2run]

True keyplyr but it's a cultural thing.. my site content doesn't appeal to these countries.

[not2easy]

I block a lot of bots, but Yandex gets a pass, they are a well mannered bot that helps your site be found.

Having your site in as many SEs as possible benefits you in other ways. I'll let you discover how.

Or not.

[keyplyr]

I get a little traffic from Yandex directly, but that's not the whole story. Even if you don't see direct traffic coming from a SE, it is highly beneficial to be listed. Here are just a few of the reasons:

• Branding & name recognition. Users see your site listing even if they don't click through. Eventually your site becomes familiar and they may click.

• Do well in many SERP and other businesses may want to utilize your service or link to you.

• Advertisers may gain knowledge of your site by seeing it listed in SERP.

• Marketing bots may discover your pages and add them to products they bundle and promote to Advertisers. If you publish ads, this is how you gain more advertisers.

There are many more reasons to be listed in as many places as possible.

Point is... just because you do not see a *direct* benefit does not mean there is none.