Traffic quality is speed.
In reality—as you surely realize—this technology is far from new. The aggressive zeal with which Yandex pushes its "Turbo" pages via Yandex.Webmaster speaks volumes: it is a ploy to promote their own service—one that will eventually render you obsolete, since all your content will end up in their hands—content that you, yourself, will have personally handed over to the beast.
In short, all the hard work currently being invested in creating unique, high-quality content could go completely down the drain. The scheme works like this:
- You are giving your site to be eaten,
- The service displays *your* content on *its own* platform; consequently, when users click on links embedded within these documents, they are repeatedly directed back to Yandex services—and never visit your websites!
- Moreover, traffic to the site is declining in favor of ads on rudimentary Yandex Turbo pages—even though, for the vast majority of users today, connection speeds are no longer dial-up!
I stopped using Yandex.Metrica a long time ago for simple reasons: Yandex leaks all information to third parties and also uses it to promote its own services. Furthermore, they are now rapidly rolling out this technology with the aim of reducing the number of independent websites on the Russian internet, thereby bringing all content under their own control.
The website is our server.
Let's imagine a hypothetical scenario: you invest time, money, and other resources into high-quality content, yet one day—after having previously enabled Turbo Pages—you find yourself receiving nothing in return other than so-called monetization that yields mere pennies. Furthermore, your website essentially becomes obsolete, as Yandex possesses other resources of its own. If your online store operates exclusively within Russia, you might as well write it off entirely should you choose to integrate this service from such a renowned company.
Yandex has now realized that many webmasters have already experimented with this technology—and were clearly dissatisfied with the results. Consequently, the moment you log in to Yandex.Webmaster, you are immediately greeted by pop-up windows and banners across the top of the screen, touting just how convenient this initiative is—and implying that you simply cannot imagine what you are missing out on! However, if you actually search for reviews of "Turbo Pages," you will find the unvarnished truth about this technology.
Nonsense - After all, no one in their right mind would simply hand over their proprietary developments or content to outsiders without good reason—and everything Yandex has been implementing lately involves the leakage of information. That is precisely why hardly anyone abroad uses this search engine—and as for Yandex.Metrica, that data has already been compromised...
Detecting Deception
Now, let's review the official data drawn from open sources—specifically, from the documentation provided by Yandex itself regarding the usage and implementation of these pages.
So...Loading such pages takes approximately 15 times less time than loading the originals. This speed is achieved through the use of layouts optimized for mobile devices, as well as Yandex’s network infrastructure: the data used to assemble Turbo Pages is stored on the company’s servers. In search results, News, Zen, and other Yandex services, they are marked with special rocket icons.
You can enable Turbo Pages in a few simple steps by following the instructions found in the documentation.
Regarding the loading of *such* pages: loading speed depends not only on minimizing the number of CSS files, JS scripts, and similar assets—a minimalist approach that results in a rather lackluster appearance, as evidenced by Yandex Turbo pages—but also on factors such as the server infrastructure, the physical proximity of the hosting provider, and so forth. Of course, all these parameters fall into the realm of debatable variables regarding web page loading performance; however, what *truly* determines your site's traffic is the template design and the content itself! And it is precisely this content that Yandex seeks to appropriate, offering you—in exchange—the option to retain the template and its design on your own server. I don't know how others feel about it, but I’m already thoroughly fed up with those endless feeds of schoolkids on Yandex.Zen—not to mention the *supposedly* minimalist design of Yandex Turbo pages, which only serves to suggest that the content itself is even worse. Surely not *everyone* has to be on YouTube, right? "15 times faster"—are you serious? What if I include just a single CSS file and one JS script? Or maybe just write plain text directly in the HTML? Will it *still* be 15 times faster? Don't make me laugh!
According to them, enabling the "Turbo" technology is easy! It reminded me of a seminar on deploying 1C-Bitrix to a hosting environment—specifically, how "easy" it is for a grandmother to configure a PHP script for her grandson and explain the difference between HTML markup for comments and PHP comments... No comment. If you haven't enabled RSS yet, get ready to spend some time figuring out how this technology actually works...
Those rocket badges—holy shit! It’s the best thing they could have come up with; now, badges aren't just for search results, reviews, and the like—they’re available for Turbo Pages, too! No further comment is needed—this is perfect for anyone who loves earning points for free!
Summary
So, what are the takeaways?
Simply stick to sensible solutions; however, if you wish to lose some—or all—of your website traffic, feel free to try enabling these Turbo Pages on your site.
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