  Today, ranking systems in universities have been considered by the academic
community, and there is a tight competition between world universities to
achieve higher ranks. In the meantime, the ranking of university websites is
also in the spotlight, and the Webometric research center announces the ranks
of university websites twice a year. Examining university rankings indicators
and the Webometric ranks of the university indicates that some of these
indicators, directly and indirectly, affect each other. On the other hand, a
preliminary study of Webometric indicators shows that some Search Engine
Optimization (SEO) indicators can affect Webometric ranks. The purpose of this
research is to show how far the SEO metrics can affect the website rank of the
university. To do this, after extracting 38 points of the significant SEO
metrics of the extracted universities using various tools, data analysis was
conducted along with applying association rules on the data. The results of the
research show that some of the SEO metrics, such as the number of backlinks,
Alexa Rank, and Page Rank have a direct and significant impact on the website
rank of universities, and in this regard, interesting rules have been
extracted.
