Yandex has recently completely stopped displaying the thematic citation index (TIC) on all of its resources. It has been replaced by a new indicator that can take into account modern ranking algorithms — the site quality index. Now the new indicator will completely replace the thematic index, which will no longer be displayed or calculated. Users and site owners will be able to find out the quality of their and other sites in Yandex.Webmaster only with the help of the TIC.
Yandex introduced the citation index in 1999. For almost 20 years, the TIC was used to obtain information about the authority of a site in relation to other Internet resources. The calculation took into account the quality and quantity of links from other sites pointing to the resource.
Today, the Internet is not at all what it was many years ago: social networks are actively developing, new mobile sites are appearing, the number of new users is growing daily, etc. Along with the Internet, new ranking algorithms are changing and appearing. Links are no longer the only popularity indicator that all website owners need to rely on. Now all modern search engines rely on many different signals when generating search results. There is a need for a metric that would take into account not only links but also other quality aspects known to Yandex when determining the quality of a website.
The new indicator is called IKS or site quality index. The quality of a website means its popularity and demand among the audience. A modern website is useful when it solves user problems and satisfies their needs as much as possible. In this case, not only the number of satisfied visitors is important, but also the level of their trust in the website.
When calculating IKS, various data about websites that Yandex has will be used. Such data can be obtained from Search, Metrica, Zen, Maps and other services. Taking into account the information received, the algorithm for calculating the quality index, which is currently presented in beta form, will be changed.