Table 1 Comparison of HBCUs to comparable institutions by web presence and popularity, current as of January 2018
Web presence and popularity metrics: (backlinks, keywords, traffic, cost, size) | HBCU metrics | Peer(s) metrics |
|---|---|---|
Public, 4-year (n = 39) | ||
 Mean (standard deviation) | ||
  Backlinks | 97,269 (203,057) | 158,847 (248,274) |
  Organic keywords | 23,425 (17,790) | 67,316 (71,034) |
  Web traffic (in hits, yearly) | 793,200 (511,164) | 2,580,000 (2,040,684) |
  Web cost (in dollars, yearly) | $147,323 ($116,651) | $240,917 ($242,576) |
  Web size (by webpages) | 2467 (1729) | 8424 (8264) |
Private, 4-year (n = 50) | ||
 Mean (standard deviation) | ||
  Backlinksa | 474,760 (2,869,910) | 120,668 (202,258) |
  Organic keywords | 8924 (14,602) | 38,290 (56,022) |
  Web traffic (in hits, yearly) | 326,376 (505,263) | 742,241 (773,352) |
  Web cost (in dollars, yearly) | $130,186 ($198,346) | $142,182 ($161,768) |
  Web size (by webpages) | 951 (1387) | 4948 (6356) |
Public, 2-year (n = 10) | ||
 Mean (standard deviation) | ||
  Backlinks | 15,400 (23,234) | 11,961 (10,668) |
  Organic keywords | 19,030 (33,498) | 14,276 (15,117) |
  Web traffic (in hits, yearly) | 678,360 (1,375,997) | 468,480 (420,269) |
  Web cost (in dollars, yearly) | $326,710 ($630,178) | $126,730 ($134,110) |
  Web size (by webpages) | 1419 (2407) | 1958 (2398) |
Private, 2-year (n = 1)b | ||
  Backlinks | 220 | 4400 |
  Organic keywords | 200 | 4100 |
  Web traffic (in hits, yearly) | 16,800 | 115,200 |
  Web cost (in dollars, yearly) | $7900 | $50,300 |
  Web size (by webpages) | 25 | 676 |