Analysis of the SEO visibility of university libraries and how they impact the web visibility of their universities

Abstract

This article comparatively analyzes the web visibility of 20 libraries corresponding to the top 10 universities in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the 10 largest Spanish universities, and explores whether a correlation exists between the web visibility of libraries and of their respective universities. To study web visibility, a search engine optimization (SEO) tool called Sistrix Toolbox was used. It analyzes a large amount of data, the most notable of which is the visibility index, which combines different data indicators to analyze web visibility. The results are checked with Xovi, another SEO tool that offers its own visibility index. Both tools allow us to observe similar trends in the visibility of library websites. The results show that university library visibility is generally low and that there is no direct correlation between the visibility index of libraries and that of their universities. Some revealing exceptions were identified, in which libraries have made significant contributions to the web visibility of their universities. The results would suggest that higher education institutions need to implement SEO strategies in order to increase their visibility more effectively.