Web Visibility And Impact Of NAAC-Accredited Indian Universities (4th Cycle, CGPA 3.5–3.8) Using SEO Metrics: A Webometric Study

69 International Journal of Advance and Applied Research www.ijaar.co.in ISSN – 2347-7075 Impact Factor – 8.141 Peer Reviewed Bi-Monthly Vol. 6 No. 39 September - October - 2025 Web Visibility And Impact Of NAAC-Accredited Indian Universities (4th Cycle, CGPA 3.5–3.8) Using SEO Metrics: A Webometric Study Smt. Ramyia Shreejesh Librarian, Nalanda Nritya Kala Mahavidyalaya Corresponding Author – Smt. Ramyia Shreejesh DOI - 10.5281/zenodo.17266931 Abstract: The Present research paper analyses the web visibility of over 17 NAAC Accredited Universities having A++ grade, falling within the CGPA of 3.5-3.8 in the 4th Cycle. These are high performing Universities having a consistently brilliant performance over the multiple cycles of NAAC. The aim is to measure the webometric parameters of these universities as these are not directly measured by the NAAC, the ranking body set up by the UGC for maintaining the Quality in Higher Education. To study web visibility, various SEO metrics like Domain Authority, Page Authority, website traffic, Mobile-friendliness, Backlinks, SEO score, Web impact factor etc. are measured. Collection of data was done using various free tools like small seo tools, Dupli checker, Accessibility checker etc. Number of webpages were collected using BING search engine. The Research Method involved observation method. Collection of Data for the Library websites of these universities were done using Chrome Web browser and Google Search Engine. Official websites of each of these universities were visited to examine the library websites. The results show that though they are high performing universities but in terms of web-visibility, the webometric parameters need proper implementation of SEO strategies. There is significant and evident difference in the performance of webometric parameters of these universities affecting its web-visibility, web-impact and rankings over search engine results. Keywords: Web visibility, NAAC, Webometrics, SEO metrics, Backlinks, Accessibility Checker. Introduction: The Paradigm shift in higher education due to digital revolution has placed the university websites at the focal point of academic communication, knowledge dissemination and accessibility over web. Webometrics is the measureable study of web and Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the set of techniques to increase the visibility of website on the search engine results. (Yalçın & Köse, 2010).In the Digital landscape it has become essential for the institutions like universities to enhance their digital web presence using this SEO techniques. Library websites of these universities holds a special importance as they provide gateways to intellectual resources, scholarly communication, and institutional transparency. In India, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), is responsible to maintain quality in higher education. It evaluates the higher education on multiple parameters, with library and research contributions playing a major role in quality assessment. Indian Universities that have reached the fourth cycle of accreditation with CGPA scores between 3.5 and 3.8 represent the high performing institutions of sustained excellence in quality education. The present study attempts to understand how IJAAR Vol. 6 No. 39 ISSN – 2347-7075 Smt. Ramyia Shreejesh 70 library websites of these high performing universities, use digital platforms to leverage their scholarship and international standard services. Literature Review: Sandip Patel (2021) et al did a webometric analysis of NIRF-2019 ranked 15 Indian universities covering domain extension, domain age, backlink ,website traffic ,referring domain ,Alexa Traffic rank etc. The study also focused on research productivity of the said universities through Scopus Database. They concluded that NIRF ranked university have low visibility in terms of external link and have very poor External Web Impact factor. They recommended that the Webmasters of Universities should prepare a long term plan for the promotion of web presence to improve web visibility. Ghosh and Roy (2021) carried out a webometric study of NAAC-accredited general degree colleges in West Bengal, focusing on web-based ranking and link analysis. Their findings revealed substantial variation in visibility and connectivity among college websites, with only a few demonstrating strong linkage structures and digital presence. The study highlighted the importance of link analysis as a measure of academic visibility and recommended systematic improvements in website design, accessibility, and interlinking to enhance institutional impact. Vállez and Ventura (2020) investigated the SEO visibility of university library websites and their contribution to the overall web visibility of universities. The study demonstrated that well-optimized library portals significantly enhance institutional visibility, acting as key drivers of academic impact in the digital space. The authors argued that poor SEO practices limit the reach of library services and diminish a university’s global standing, underscoring the strategic role of libraries in shaping digital reputation. Verma and Brahma (2018) examined the websites of Indian universities with Potential for Excellence (UPE) status using webometric indicators such as size, visibility, rich files, and scholar metrics. Their study revealed wide disparities in digital presence, showing that even elite universities often lacked optimization and consistent maintenance. The authors stressed that improved SEO practices and richer academic content are essential for enhancing global visibility and research impact. Objectives: The main objective of this study is to evaluate webometric parameters of Library websites of NAAC accredited Universities of India. The objectives are as Follows: 1. Identify and compile a list of NAACaccredited Indian universities with a CGPA between 3.5 and 3.8. in the 4th cycle. 2. To analyse SEO indicators such as Domain and Page Authority, Mobile friendliness, backlinks, website traffic and accessibility to check digital visibility and impact. 3. To find out the Internal and External links of the library websites these universities. 4. To find out the Simple Web Impact factor, External Web Impact factor and Internal Web Impact factor of the library websites these universities 5. To find out the SEO Score of these websites. Significance of the Study: The study is significant because it focuses on top performing Indian universities IJAAR Vol. 6 No. 39 ISSN – 2347-7075 Smt. Ramyia Shreejesh 71 that have consistently demonstrated excellent grades across multiple accreditation cycles in all the parameters of NAAC. The research focuses on the credibility of these top-notch universities emphasising their digital presence through library webpages/websites. Methodology: This study adopts a descriptive and analytical design focusing exclusively on NAAC-accredited Indian universities that have completed their fourth cycle of accreditation and achieved a CGPA between 3.5 and 3.8. And having A++ Grades. This study is webbased research and the research method used is observation and survey. The Details of these universities were obtained from the official website of NAAC under the tab “Information for Institutions”, where the hyperlink for Accreditation status is provided. On that Webpage “Institutions with Valid Accreditations as on 14-08-2025” is given. On clicking this link, a excel file gets opened, in which worksheet of university, college and transition college details are provided. Details in the University worksheet is further filtered out using filter option by Grade and CGPA. Apart from these, following tools and techniques were used for this study: Details Details of the tools Mobile Friendliness https://smallseotools.com/mobilefriendly-test/ Domain Authority and Page Authority smallseotools.com External links, Internal links and Total links Duplichecker.com SEO Score smallseotools.com Backlinks https://smallseotools.com/backlinkchecker/ Accessibility https://www.accessibilitychecker.org / Website traffic https://app.neilpatel.com/en/traffic_a nalyzer Number of Webpages BING Search engine Scope and Limitation: The Present study focuses on 17 NAAC accredited Universities out of 24 Universities listed in “Institutions with Valid Accreditations as on 14-08-2025” Microsoft Excel file. These Universities are all A++ graded and falls under the high CGPA category. They are highly performing universities as per the parameters of NAAC. Results and Discussion: 1. Table 1 reflects the list of NAAC Accredited Universities with their respective library websites along with their Mobile friendliness. This tool measure the responsiveness of a website on mobile phones as most of the users use mobile phone for any search and also it improves website’s ranking on search engine ranking. As per the table most of the enlisted universities are passing mobile friendly test except AVINASHILINGAM INSTITUTE FOR IJAAR Vol. 6 No. 39 ISSN – 2347-7075 Smt. Ramyia Shreejesh 72 HOME SCIENCE AND HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN having the lowest mobile friendly test score. Table 1: Mobile Friendly Test of University Library Websites Sr. No Name of the University Library Website Mobile Friendliness Test 1 GURU NANAK DEV UNIVERSITY https://library.gndu.ac.in/ 88 2 ANDHRA UNIVERSITY https://andhrauniversity.edu.in/ library/dashboard.html 86 3 THAPAR INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY https://cl.thapar.edu/ 81 4 PANJAB UNIVERSITY https://library.puchd.ac.in/ 77 5 BHARATI VIDYAPEETH (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY), PUNE http://elib.bvuict.in/moodle/co urse/view.php?id=42 76 6 MADURAI KAMARAJ UNIVERSITY https://mkuniversity.ac.in/mku lib/index.php 75 7 SHIVAJI UNIVERSITY https://www.unishivaji.ac.in/li brary/Library-Collection 70 8 UNIVERSITY OF JAMMU https://jammuuniversity.ac.in/ Library/Introduction 67 9 BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE https://library.bits-pilani.ac.in/ 65 10 UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS https://www.unom.ac.in/webp ortal/uploads/library/mcl/ 62 11 SHANMUGHA ARTS, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH ACADEMY (SASTRA) DEEMED-TO-BEUNIVERSITY https://www.sastra.edu/infrastr ucture/library.html 60 12 MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY https://library.mgu.ac.in/ 59 13 SRM INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY https://www.srmist.edu.in/libra ry/ 49 14 BANGALORE UNIVERSITY https://librarybangaloreuniversity.in/ 47 15 KURUKSHETRA UNIVERSITY https://kuk.ac.in/library-page/ 44 16 BHARATHIAR UNIVERSITY https://b-u.ac.in/166/library 40 17 AVINASHILINGAM INSTITUTE FOR HOME SCIENCE AND HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN https://avinuty.ac.in/library/ho me-page 20 2. Domain and Page Authority is the search engine ranking score developed by MOZ (Search Engine Optimisation Tool) to determine how well the website and webpage respectively rank on search engine result pages (SERPs). Domain authority (DA) predicts the ranking of a website on search engine result pages (SERPs) whereas Page Authority (PA) predicts the ranking of a webpage on search engine result pages. Domain & Page Authority score falls between the ranges of 1 to 100.From the table 2 its clear that BIRLA IJAAR Vol. 6 No. 39 ISSN – 2347-7075 Smt. Ramyia Shreejesh 73 INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE,SRM INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY,PANJAB UNIVERSITY are having the highest number of Domain Authority(DA) and Bangalore university having the lowest. In terms of Page Authority, most of the universities have a good scoring except for Bharati Vidyapeeth having the lowest PA amongst the other universities. Table 2: Domain Authority and Page Authority of Websites Sr. No Name of the University DA PA 1 BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE 54 41 2 SRM INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 52 32 3 PANJAB UNIVERSITY 51 46 4 UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS 50 29 5 MADURAI KAMARAJ UNIVERSITY 48 24 6 THAPAR INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY 46 38 7 SHANMUGHA ARTS, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH ACADEMY (SASTRA) DEEMED-TO-BE-UNIVERSITY 45 30 8 BHARATHIAR UNIVERSITY 45 30 9 GURU NANAK DEV UNIVERSITY 43 37 10 KURUKSHETRA UNIVERSITY 43 29 11 ANDHRA UNIVERSITY 42 30 12 SHIVAJI UNIVERSITY 41 28 13 AVINASHILINGAM INSTITUTE FOR HOME SCIENCE AND HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN 40 25 14 MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY 39 39 15 UNIVERSITY OF JAMMU 33 25 16 BHARATI VIDYAPEETH (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY), PUNE 28 21 17 BANGALORE UNIVERSITY 8 28 3. Table 3 presents the website traffic of these universities. The collective number of visitors to a particular website within a specified time is called website traffic. Having a high website traffic determines the institution’s web-visibility. As per the table BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE is having the highest number of website traffic followed by THAPAR INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY and Panjab University whereas MADURAI KAMARAJ UNIVERSITY and ANDHRA UNIVERSITY are having the lowest website traffic. Table 3: Website Traffic Sr. No Name of the University Monthly Traffic 1 BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE 5362 2 THAPAR INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY 4990 3 PANJAB UNIVERSITY 3963 4 MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY 1699 5 BHARATI VIDYAPEETH (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY), PUNE 1548 6 BANGALORE UNIVERSITY 612 7 SRM INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 487 8 GURU NANAK DEV UNIVERSITY 394 9 KURUKSHETRA UNIVERSITY 223 10 UNIVERSITY OF JAMMU 96 IJAAR Vol. 6 No. 39 ISSN – 2347-7075 Smt. Ramyia Shreejesh 74 11 UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS 23 12 AVINASHILINGAM INSTITUTE FOR HOME SCIENCE AND HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN 17 13 SHANMUGHA ARTS, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH ACADEMY (SASTRA) DEEMED-TO-BEUNIVERSITY 7 14 BHARATHIAR UNIVERSITY 7 15 SHIVAJI UNIVERSITY 7 16 MADURAI KAMARAJ UNIVERSITY 3 17 ANDHRA UNIVERSITY 2 4. SEO Score: An SEO score is a metric that measures how well a website is optimized for search engines (SEO) and its performance in technical aspects, content, user experience and mobile responsiveness.A good SEO scores range falls between 80 and 100. SEO scores below 30 are bad. From the table 4, it is evident that BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, BHARATHIAR UNIVERSITY and BANGALORE UNIVERSITY are having the highest SEO score while BHARATI VIDYAPEETH and AVINASHILINGAM INSTITUTE FOR HOME SCIENCE AND HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN are having the lowest SEO Score. Table 4: SEO Score of Library Websites of Universities Sr. No Name of the University SEO Score 1 BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE 75/100 2 BHARATHIAR UNIVERSITY 75/100 3 BANGALORE UNIVERSITY 71/100 4 SHANMUGHA ARTS, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH ACADEMY (SASTRA) DEEMED-TO-BEUNIVERSITY 66/100 5 GURU NANAK DEV UNIVERSITY 59/100 6 SRM INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 59/100 7 ANDHRA UNIVERSITY 58/100 8 KURUKSHETRA UNIVERSITY 58/100 9 SHIVAJI UNIVERSITY 58/100 10 UNIVERSITY OF JAMMU 54/100 11 MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY 54/100 12 PANJAB UNIVERSITY 51/100 13 UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS 50/100 14 THAPAR INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY 47/100 15 MADURAI KAMARAJ UNIVERSITY 45/100 16 AVINASHILINGAM INSTITUTE FOR HOME SCIENCE AND HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN 39/100 17 BHARATI VIDYAPEETH (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY), PUNE 38/100 5. Backlinks: They are the links from other websites pointing to host’s website. The more backlinks the website has the more will be the high rankings on the search engine. As per the table 5,Guru Nanak Dev University is having the highest number of backlinks followed by Panjab University and BHARATHIAR UNIVERSITY. BANGALORE UNIVERSITY is having the lowest number of backlinks. IJAAR Vol. 6 No. 39 ISSN – 2347-7075 Smt. Ramyia Shreejesh 75 Table 5: Number of Backlinks Sr. No Name of the University Backlinks 1 GURU NANAK DEV UNIVERSITY 6168775 2 PANJAB UNIVERSITY 2278096 3 BHARATHIAR UNIVERSITY 1310524 4 BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE 1232146 5 MADURAI KAMARAJ UNIVERSITY 842066 6 SHIVAJI UNIVERSITY 764000 7 THAPAR INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY 600630 8 MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY 466031 9 SRM INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 109226 10 ANDHRA UNIVERSITY 108386 11 KURUKSHETRA UNIVERSITY 85672 12 UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS 59239 13 BHARATI VIDYAPEETH (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY), PUNE 56363 14 UNIVERSITY OF JAMMU 37166 15 SHANMUGHA ARTS, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH ACADEMY (SASTRA) DEEMED-TO-BEUNIVERSITY 24888 16 AVINASHILINGAM INSTITUTE FOR HOME SCIENCE AND HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN 15490 17 BANGALORE UNIVERSITY 203 6. Accessibility checker: It is an automated tool that evaluates digital content like websites for easy accessibility for the disabled. It scans for issues like missing alternative text for images, poor colour contrast, or incorrect tagging of elements and provides suggestions for how to fix them. An accessibility score, often expressed as a percentage from 0 to 100.Score above 90 is considered to be compliant. As per the table 6 given below most of these universities are semi-compliant but rest are under noncompliance. Table 6: Accessibility Score of these Universities Sr. No Name of the University Accessibility Compliance Score 1 SRM INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 75 semi-compliant 2 ANDHRA UNIVERSITY 74.86 semi-compliant 3 UNIVERSITY OF JAMMU 65.48 semi-compliant 4 PANJAB UNIVERSITY 63.74 semi-compliant 5 SHANMUGHA ARTS, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH ACADEMY (SASTRA) DEEMED-TO-BEUNIVERSITY 59.58 semi-compliant 6 KURUKSHETRA UNIVERSITY 59.36 semi-compliant 7 AVINASHILINGAM INSTITUTE FOR HOME SCIENCE AND HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN 54.48 semi-compliant 8 GURU NANAK DEV UNIVERSITY 53 semi-compliant 9 SHIVAJI UNIVERSITY 51 semi-compliant 10 MADURAI KAMARAJ UNIVERSITY 45.11 semi-compliant 11 THAPAR INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY 44.06 non-compliant IJAAR Vol. 6 No. 39 ISSN – 2347-7075 Smt. Ramyia Shreejesh 76 12 BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE 39 non-compliant 13 BHARATHIAR UNIVERSITY 38.62 non-compliant 14 BANGALORE UNIVERSITY 37.45 non-compliant 15 MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY 17 non-compliant 16 BHARATI VIDYAPEETH (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY), PUNE 11 non-compliant 17 UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS 6.6 non-compliant 7. Web Impact Factor (WIF) is a webometric tool to measure the value of a particular website based on the numerous link it receives from the web divided by the total number of webpages of that particular website at that time. A website with the higher impact factor is said to have higher standing and visibility on search engines research results (SERPs).There are 3 types of Impact factor a. Simple Web Impact factor (SWIF) is calculated using the ratio of all links to the number of web pages of that particular website. b. Internal Web Impact factor (IWIF) is calculated using the ratio of internal links within the website to a number of web pages of a website. c. External Web Impact Factor (EWIF) is calculated using the ratio of external links to the website by a number of web pages of a website. Table 7: Web Impact Factor and Various Link study Sr. No Name of the University Total Webpages Internal links External links Total links SWIF IWIF EWIF 1 PANJAB UNIVERSITY 42100 40 32 72 0.001 0.009 0.007 2 BHARATHIAR UNIVERSITY 41800 291 31 322 0.007 0.006 0.0007 3 BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE 15400 42 59 101 0.006 0.002 0.003 4 THAPAR INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY 12100 61 29 90 0.007 0.005 0.002 5 BHARATI VIDYAPEETH (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY), PUNE 4390 226 183 409 0.09 0.05 0.04 6 BANGALORE UNIVERSITY 602 54 38 92 0.1 0.08 0.06 7 MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY 602 198 8 206 0.3 0.3 0.01 8 GURU NANAK DEV UNIVERSITY 235 108 108 216 1 0.4 0.4 9 AVINASHILINGAM INSTITUTE FOR HOME SCIENCE AND HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN 233 231 38 269 1 0.9 0.13 10 SHIVAJI UNIVERSITY 117 70 4 74 74 0.5 0.03 11 MADURAI KAMARAJ UNIVERSITY 48 14 0 14 0.2 0.2 0 IJAAR Vol. 6 No. 39 ISSN – 2347-7075 Smt. Ramyia Shreejesh 77 12 ANDHRA UNIVERSITY 31 20 3 23 0.7 0.6 0.09 13 SHANMUGHA ARTS, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH ACADEMY (SASTRA) DEEMED-TO-BEUNIVERSITY 19 132 34 166 9 7 2 14 UNIVERSITY OF JAMMU 10 221 32 253 25 22 3 15 UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS 9 15 0 15 2 2 0 16 SRM INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 7 439 112 551 78 62 16 17 KURUKSHETRA UNIVERSITY 1 90 86 176 176 90 86 As per the table 7 Panjab University and Bharathiar University is having the largest number of webpages while Kukukshetra University is having the lowest number of webpages. BHARATI VIDYAPEETH (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY) have the highest number of external links while SRM INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY is having the highest number of internal links. SRM INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY is having the highest Simple Web Impact factor. Findings and Suggestions:  More than average of these university library websites have a good Domain Authority though improvement over Page authority needs to be done.  Only few of enlisted university library websites are having satisfactory organic website traffic.  Library websites having low SEO Score needs an enhanced optimisation of above mentioned parameters for better visibility and increased ranking over Search Engine Result Pages (SERPS).  Almost all the library websites of these universities are behind in terms of accessibility checkpoints which needs to be fixed for the better inclusivity amongst the disabled users.  Library staff should be trained in basic SEO metrics.  Periodic Audits of these websites measuring SEO metrics by using Free/Paid SEO tools should be done to increase rankings over SERPS. Conclusion: The study also offers an overall perspective on the web visibility of prominent university library websites and highlights their crucial role in enhancing the search engine ranking of their parent universities. It reveal that there is substantial variation in SEO metrics of these library websites and require enhanced digital visibility by applying appropriate SEO practices. The study findings further emphasised that the library websites should strengthen their digital presence through optimised content, regular updates, external links and rich SEO metrics to match the academic excellence of these universities on the web. References: 1. Björneborn, L., & Ingwersen, P. (2004). Toward a basic framework for Webometrics. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 55(14). https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.20077