Get Permission Manhas and Kaur: Unraveling the digital landscape: A study of web impact factor and link analysis of state law universities of India


Introduction

We are living in the age of a digital world, where the resources available in digital form and accessible through the web are the key source of information for academic and other research activities of any higher educational institution. The university websites are authentic and major information providing windows about universities’ academic activities such as admission, requirement links, examination links, result links, circulations, etc. The current study’s objective is to assess the web visibility of Indian law universities by looking at their online presence. The report also offers recommendations for raising awareness in order to have a greater impact and increase the level of online presence.

Review of Literature

Mehrotra (2024) conducted a study using tools like web impact factor (WIF), internal, external, and backlinks for every State Government University’s website of Madhya Pradesh State of India and further provided ranking the websites as per WIF. The results indicate that Pandit S.N. Shukla University, Shahdol was on the top. According to the study, websites with higher WIF should be built by Madhya Pradesh State Government Universities using a sufficient number of backlinks.1

Nowkarizi et al. (2022) conducted a study to investigate web visibility and the collaboration rate of the websites of the IU (Iranian universities) within the purview of the Science, Research, and Technology Ministry. The websites of Tehran, PN (Payame Nour), and Elmosanat were the most popular, according to the results. The Zabol Universities, Industrial JS (Jondi Shapoor), and MA (Mohaghegh Ardabili) received the highest WIF (web impact factors) for their websites. As per the results of the in-link analysis, the websites under investigation had collaborated in six groups, and five clusters were represented on a multidimensional scale.2

Meghwal et al. (2022) conducted a study to find the criteria to rank Indian universities’ websites as per NIRF-2021. The parameter analysis of online impact factors, ATR, and other website metrics are all examined in this web metric analysis. Additionally, it was noted that every institution’s website included a variety of tiny tools, such as SEO tools on their website. The website with the highest DA (Domain Authority) score of 62 was IISc University, and as per the study, it was in first position among all the universities, while the AVV (Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham) University website has the oldest domain. The survey further reported that, as per the NIRF rankings, there were three institutions at Karnataka State which were among the top 10 universities in India.3

Patel et al. (2021) carried out a study to find the top 15 ranking websites of Indian universities as per the NIRF. The study examined the websites of Indian universities covered by it and collected data using several technologies tools, including Alexa and Ahrefs SEO. The results of the study indicate that the website of AU (Anna University) has the greatest page ranking score, web traffic, backlinks, and referring domains. The study further indicates that as per ATR, the University of Delhi’s website scored the highest rank, while Savitribai Phule Pune University’s website scored the largest Indian ATR.  The results further revealed that Bharathiar University’s website scored first rank in all three WIFs (Web Impact Factors), i.e., the outward, internal, and basic.4

Lahkar and Sonitpur (2021) investigated the websites of 10 central universities located in India's northern region and determined each website's 3 distinct Web Impact Factors. The results of the study depicted the status of those websites that detect varying numbers of backlinks to and from the web pages. The study also compares the number of distinct links to the amount on a web page.5

Shayegan and Kouhzadi  (2020) conducted an applied study in which a sample of 75 university websites were included. The investigators used a descriptive cross-sectional methodology and webometric methods to carried out this work. The results demonstrated that a few SEO (Search Engine Optimization) variables, including backlink count, AR (Alexa rank) and PR (page rank), directly and significantly affect university websites' rankings. As a result, several intriguing guidelines have been derived.6

Ahmadi and CheshmehSohrabi (2019) conducted a study using a descriptive methodology to compare the online status of five Islamic Azad University units using webometrics, ATR, and an estimated Sinium value. Results indicate that when it comes to webometrics databases, Alexa website traffic ratings, and anticipated website value, Shiraz units outperform other Islamic Azad University units. It is believed that national and international universities are of a higher caliber when they include features and components like the active presence of professors and researchers, promotion of graduate programs, credibility, up-to-date, user-friendly, open access to documents, appeal, etc. It receives high rankings for its web page accessibility, size, rank, tracking, traffic rating, and enhanced quality.7

Meisam, Somayeh, and Masoumeh (2019) examined the 41 websites of Iranian medical sciences universities by using the webometrics method. The results show that there are some universities that have a good quality of websites.8

Jeyshankan (2019) conducted a webometric of 125 Deemed universities in India. The results of study indicate and suggests that websites of some universities under study be improved to provide effective information to their users.9

Stephen (2019) in his study evaluated central universities of the North East Region, of India, using the ATR tool. The findings indicated that North Eastern Hill University and Tripura University are best-ranked with 8484 and 8,511 ranks, respectively.10

Parmar and Mandalia (2016) conducted a webometrics study to the analysis of the 43 state government universities' websites in Gujarat. The study revealed that one-third of university websites have '.ac.in' (31.57%) domain extension. It further revealed that there are some universities under study that are required to work on their websites to get ranks like Alexa Traffic Rank and furthermore to increase the usage of rich files for the purposes of effective communication.11

Dhanalakshmi and Rao (2016) investigated 228 PU (Private universities). The study revealed that domain names, internet. in, gov. in, and. nic. in sites are the least preferred by the PU, particularly after 2001. These PU websites' size ranges from 1 KB to 8529 KB. The IL (Internal Link), EL (External Link), and size of the website for these universities were obtained using the web optimization tool for the measurement of IL, EL, and size of the website for these universities.  The websites of these universities are active and fairly extraordinary due to their nominal internal and exterior links, despite having many images. 228 PU are operating in 22 states in India, with Haryana state ranking first with a web impact factor (WIF) of 0.12. It is followed by Orissa, Tripura state, and Assam, which are ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively. Nagaland has the smallest amount of WIF with 0.0112.12

Kargar (2011) conducted a study on the websites of four universities. The findings showed a strong correlation between SEO variables and usability criteria; institutions with websites with inadequate usability and visibility scores also had poor rankings. This indicates that usability improvement initiatives can significantly raise the university website's position. Further, it was revealed that a website's reputation can be enhanced by community and user count; hence a high traffic rank cannot be used as a factor for ranking a website.13

Scope of the Study

The scope of the present study is limited to twenty-four state law universities (SLU) in India (approved by the University Grants Commission, New Delhi) mentioned in Table 1.14

Table 1

State-wise distribution of law universities

University

URL

DSNLWAP

https://dsnlu.ac.in

NLWUJAA

http://.nluassam.ac.in

CNLWU

http:// cnlu.ac.in

HNLUC

https:// hnlu.ac.in

NLUD

https://nludelhi.ac.in

GNLUG

https:// gnlu.ac.in

HPNLUHP

https://shimlauniversity.online

NUSRLJ

http:// nusrlranchi.in

NLSIUK

https:// nls.ac.in

NUALSK

https:// nuals.ac.in

NLIUM

https:// nliu.ac.in

DNLUM

https:// mpdnlu.ac.in

MNLUM

mnlumumbai.edu.in

MNLUM

https:// nlunagpur.ac.in

MNLUM

https:// mnlua.ac.in

NLUO

https:// nluo.ac.in

RGNULP

https:// rgnul.ac.in

NLUR

http:// nlujodhpur.ac.in

DBRANLUH

http:// dbranlu.ac.in

TNNLUT

http:// tnnlu.ac.in

TDALUT

http:// tndalu.org

NULT

http://nalsarpro.org

DRMLNLUUP

http:// rmlnlu.ac.in

TWBNUJSWB

https://nujs.edu

Aims and Objectives of the Study

The current study is conducted to establish the following objectives:

  1. Indian State Law Universities’ rankings based on the GPR and ATR.

  2. Rankings of the Indian State Law Universities based on the rich files.

Methodology

The present study used the ATR of each website for the study. GPR was calculated using the website https://checkpagerank.net/.15 The researchers used the Google Search Engine to calculate the rich files of the universities under study: e.g., site https: //nludelhi.ac.in/., file type: ppt: https://nludelhi.ac.in/file type: doc; https://nludelhi.ac.in/ file type: pdf.

Alexa Traffic Rank

ATR is also famously known as Alexa Rank.16 It is used to know the popularity of a website to comparison other websites and the Global Rank of a website by Alexa Internet. It is calculated particular website traffic recorded of users, on daily-base and page viewers on a website from the last three months.

Google Page Rank

Google search engine provides results of web pages rank. It is an algorithm. It is a method of 'measuring' the significance of website pages. To know the popularity of websites it uses the counting method and examines the quality of links of a page.

Table 2

ATRs (State Law Universities)

University

ATR (as on 31-08-2020)

Rank

NLUD

160310

1

NLSIUK

190823

2

GNLUG

395660

3

RGNULP

446859

4

TWBNUJSWB

484495

5

NLIUMP

524773

6

NULT

612268

7

NUALSK

612869

8

NUSRLJ

731469

9

NLUR

751428

10

HNLUC

764093

11

NLUO

993206

12

DRMLNLUUP

1020957

13

NLUJAA

1125305

14

CNLUB

1184614

15

TNNLUTN

1350848

16

DSNLUAP

1480637

17

MNLUM

1527898

18

DBRANLUH

1663100

19

MNLUM

3219483

20

DNLUMP

3384681

21

HPNLUHP

5008192

22

MNLUM

9991504

23

TDALUTN

Not enough traffic data

24

Table 3

GPRs (State Law Universities)

University

Rankings of the Universities as per GPR (Scores are out of 10)

Rank

NLSIUK

GPR:5; cPR Score: 4.9; EB:11107

1

NLWD

GPR:4; cPR Score: 4.8; EB:309108

2

TWBNUJSWB

GPR:4; cPR Score: 4.6; EB:13663

3

GNLUG

GPR:4; cPR Score: 4.3; EB:187693

4

CNLUB

GPR:4; cPR Score: 4.0; EB:173,784

5

NLUR

GPR:4; cPR Score: 4.0; EB:10029

6

NLUJAA

GPR:4; cPR Score: 3.9; EB:171,191

7

HNLUC

GPR:4; cPR Score: 3.9; EB:7,279

8

NLIUMP

GPR:4; cPR Score: 3.9; EB:2963

9

RGNULP

GPR:4; cPR Score: 3.9; EB:- 00

10

DSNLUAP

GPR:4; cPR Score: 3.8; EB:169,606

11

DRMLNLUUP

GPR:4; cPR Score: 3.8; EB:5029

12

NLUO

GPR:3; cPR Score: 3.7; EB:2167

13

NUALSK

GPR:3; cPR Score: 3.6; EB:1826

14

NULT

GPR:3; cPR Score: 3.5; EB:4866

15

TNNLUTN

GPR:3; cPR Score: 3.2; EB:3368

16

MNLUM

GPR:3; cPR Score: 3.2; EB:1531

17

NUSRLJ

GPR:3; cPR Score: 3.2; EB:657

18

MNLUM

GPR:3; cPR Score: 3.2; EB:283

19

TDALUTN

GPR:3; cPR Score: 2.9; EB:2691

20

DNLUMP

GPR:2; cPR Score: 2.6; EB:1907

21

MNLUM

GPR:2; cPR Score: 2.5; EB:620

22

DBRANLUH

GPR:2; cPR Score: 2.0; EB:844

23

HPNLUHP

GPR: 0; cPR Score: 0.1; EB:00

24

It is evident from Table 2 that NLUD ranked at the top for Global ATR, NLSIUK state secured the 2nd position followed by GNLUG.

Table 3 indicates the status of Indian State Law Universities under study as per the GPR, cPR score, and external backlinks. To calculate the rankings of the universities' understudy, firstly, the researchers took into consideration the GPR; if the GPRs of the universities were the same, then the cPR score and external backlinks were taken into consideration, and accordingly, ranks were calculated. The results of the study indicate that NLSIUK leads in this category, followed by NLUD and TWBNUJSWB.

Table 4

State Law Universities and number of rich files

Name of the University

.pdf

.doc

.ppt

Total

Rank

NLSIUK

2930000

15800000

1290000

20020000

1

NUALSK

30000

13600

127000

170600

2

TWBNUJSWB

37100

20000

49700

106800

3

NLUO

8290

11800

45540

65630

4

HNLUC

44800

7150

6180

58130

5

NLUD

19600

14500

20000

54100

6

CNLUB

19200

22000

10500

51700

7

NLIUMP

13900

26300

9930

50130

8

GNLUG

11800

19800

14000

45600

9

HPLUHP

7630

8920

10400

26950

10

NLUR

7810

7510

5770

21090

11

DBRANLUH

18200

319

123

18642

12

DRMLNLUUP

6910

2210

6720

15840

13

MNLUM

12800

1610

610

15020

14

RGNULP

6610

5450

12060

15

NUSRLJ

3190

1650

1120

5960

16

DSNLUAP

2120

1030

736

3886

17

TDALUTN

1790

513

725

3028

18

NULT

929

893

1160

2982

19

NLUJAA

1170

840

260

2270

20

TNNLUTN

860

830

398

2088

21

MNLUM

694

1170

174

2038

22

MNLUM

726

369

61

1156

23

DNLUMP

515

156

74

745

24

Table 4 depicted the rankings of state law universities of India as per their rich files. To evaluate the rankings in this category, the researchers used only three types of rich files viz. Portable Document Format (.pdf), Document Files (.doc), and PowerPoint Presentation (.ppt). In this category, the NLSIUK is on the 1st position, followed by NUALSK and TWBNUJSWB.

Conclusion

The webometric study provides researchers with new content for research with the use of technology. There are more possibilities for future research in this area as this study is limited to only state law universities in India. The result of the study shows that NLSIUK leads to an impact factor. It is suggested that universities should improve their websites so that they can fulfill their users’ needs and provide more informative and valuable content.

List of Abbreviations

  1. DSNNLUAP: Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University

  2. NLWUJAA: National Law University and Judicial Academy

  3. CNLUB: Chanakya National Law University

  4. HNLUC: Hidayatullah National Law University

  5. NLUD: National Law University

  6. GNLUG: Gujarat National Law University

  7. HPNLUHP: Himachal Pradesh National Law University

  8. NUSRLJ: National University of Study and Research in Law

  9. NLSIUK: National Law School of India University

  10. NUALSK: National University of Advanced Legal Studies

  11. NLIUM: National Law Institute University

  12. DNLUM: Dharmashastra National Law University

  13. MNLUM: Maharashtra National Law University

  14. NLUO: National Law University

  15. RGNULP: Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law

  16. NLUR: National Law University

  17. DBRANLUH: Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Law University

  18. TNNLUT: Tamil Nadu National Law University

  19. TDALUT: Tamilnadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University

  20. NULT: NALSAR University of Law

  21. DRMLNLUUP: Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University

  22. TWBNUJSWB: The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences

  23. EB: External Backlinks

Source of Funding

None.

Conflict of Interest

None.

References

1 

B Mehrotra Web impact factor and link analysis of state government universities in Madhya PradeshInt J Creative Res Thoughts2024123d16274

2 

M Nowkarizi F Soheili F Danesh M Ryazipoor F Mesrinejad Webometrics of Iranian universities dominated by the Ministry of Science, Research and TechnologyIran J Inf Process Manag201227120926

3 

J Meghwal K Joshi N Chaparwal PS Rajput NIRF ranking 2021: A webometric analysis of top 10 university websites of IndiaInt J Res Libr Sci202282191205

4 

SS Patel D Trivedi A Bhatt C Shanti Web visibility and research productivity of NIRF ranked universities in India: A webometric studyLibr Philos Pract20215326

5 

R Lahkar Web impact factor and link analysis of Central University websites of North Eastern States of India Libr Philos Pract2021

6 

MK Seyfabad MJ Fard An analysis of the impact of SEO on university website rankingIran J Inf Process Manag20193441787810

7 

O Ahmadi M CheshmehSohrabi Comparison of websites based on webometrics index, Alexa's traffic rating and estimated value of Sinium Case study: Islamic Azad University (IAU), five unitsLibr Philos Pract2019

8 

M Dastani S Panahi M Sattari Webometrics analysis of Iranian universities about medical sciences' websites between September 2016 and March 2017Acta Inform Malays201931712

9 

R Jeyshankar Webometric analysis of deemed university websites in IndiaLibr Philos Pract20192266NA-NA

10 

G Stephen Webometric analysis of central universities in north eastern region, India. A study of using alexa internetLibr Philos Pract20193041

11 

SD Parmar SH Mandalia Webometric analysis of universities in GujaratJournal of Advancements in Library Sciences20163210311

12 

S Dhanalakshmi PN Rao Web link structure analysis of private universities websites in India: A studyInt J Libr Inf Sci2016535476

13 

MJ Kargar University website ranking from usability criteria perspective; A case study in IranInt J Adv Comput Technol2011

14 

UGC approved state law universitieshttps://www.ugc.ac.in/stateuniversity.aspx



jats-html.xsl


This is an Open Access (OA) journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.

  • Article highlights
  • Article tables
  • Article images

Article History

Received : 07-01-2024

Accepted : 08-03-2024


View Article

PDF File   Full Text Article


Copyright permission

Get article permission for commercial use

Downlaod

PDF File   XML File   ePub File


Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

Article DOI

https://doi.org/10.18231/j.ijlsit.2024.010


Article Metrics






Article Access statistics

Viewed: 281

PDF Downloaded: 78



Medical Abbreviation List