Visibility of Moodle applications in Central Asia: analysis of SEO

Abstract

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an important tool that can predict the number of website visits, and good SEO strategies can help increase the visibility of educational resources. In the current article, the relevance between Search engine optimization (SEO) characteristics and the number of Moodle users in four Central Asian countries was examined. The analysis of learning management systems covered 38 Moodle websites. Analysis was conducted using semi-automated tools. Results suggested that although there is no difference in general SEO scores of Moodle installations, page structures and link structures in websites of different countries were dissimilar. Also, server configuration practices were different. In addition, there was a positive correspondence between the number of visits to a website and the number of external factors; the duration of users’ visits was correlated with page structure. As for the normalized number of visits, the analysis revealed that in Kazakh universities, students use the Moodle system more frequently in a day than in other countries, while visits to Tajik universities’ Moodle platforms were the lowest; the difference was 53 users per day.