“Interest in universities based on search queries on the Internet”

The improvement of global Internet access and the COVID-19 pandemic, which ne- cessitated mass testing of online teaching methods, have forwarded the competition between higher education institutions from the regional level and the struggle for the rich student into the competition for students in all countries. The paper aims to determine the influence of the rating of higher education institutions on the interest of Internet users by conducting a comparative analysis of the popularity of the official names of higher education institutions in search queries in Ukraine and Poland. To do this, a comparative analysis of the change in the interest in leading higher education institutions in Ukraine and Poland in search queries in the Google search engine is carried out. The analysis is performed using the Google Trends web application. As a result, it is found that a high position of the university in the national ranking does not guarantee more search queries about it on the Internet by both national Internet users and users from the neighboring country. In general, Internet users continue to be most interested in universities located in their region at the time of the search. reposts, cross-browser, high rankings intensifies. Higher education institutions have not been left out either, as the competitive struggle from the category of competition among one another by a territorial criterion has moved to the global arena. Another important argument, which has increased the level of competition between universities around the world, was the spread of COVID-19, which created the preconditions for the transfer of universities to online learning. The only restriction on the international competition of higher education institutions is the language of teaching. This formed a base for the need to find their way of presenting the university on the Internet, to identify new forms and methods of communication to raise awareness among potential customers of educational and research services.


INTRODUCTION
International integration, globalization, and scientific and technological progress are processes that dominate world politics, economy, affect various areas of society, and change all the spheres of human life. It is scientific and technological progress; globalization has contributed to the development and spread of the World Wide Web, which, in turn, has created the conditions for the emergence of new ways of communication between people, business, social sphere, etc. After all, the development of the Internet has opened up new opportunities for the representation of any organization that seeks faster successful development, additional benefits, mutually beneficial cooperation anywhere on the planet, etc. Under such conditions, at the same time, there is a competitive struggle for the number of queries in search engines, likes, subscriptions, reposts, cross-browser, high rankings intensifies. Higher education institutions have not been left out either, as the competitive struggle from the category of competition among one another by a territorial criterion has moved to the global arena. Another important argument, which has increased the level of competition between universities around the world, was the spread of COVID-19, which created the preconditions for the transfer of universities to online learning. The only restriction on the international competition of higher education institutions is the language of teaching. This formed a base for the need to find their way of presenting the university on the Internet, to identify new forms and methods of communication to raise awareness among potential customers of educational and research services.
Today, most universities in the world develop their strategic directions of development, attracting both domestic and foreign highly qualified personnel, open various educational areas, including training of foreign students, or enter into partnership agreements with other foreign universities for student exchange, etc. The popularity of obtaining education in Polish universities by Ukrainians, and by Polish students in other EU countries has become an important confirmation of this fact. In addition, many Ukrainian students enter higher education institutions that have a double degree program and study at Ukrainian and Polish universities in parallel. Thus, educational migration promotes the development of international integration processes, opens new opportunities for residents; however, it increases competition between universities and puts the level of education in the foreground. Therefore, the intensification of competition between universities in the world and within countries encourages them to find ways to improve not only the educational process but also the use of innovative online tools to increase their strengths, enhance their image, and raise interest among prospective applicants (Zharska, 2020).
With each subsequent stage of the development of the Internet, new challenges arise for anything that has the desire to develop and go in tandem with innovation. Thus, improved search engines and their search engine optimization (SEO), which is based on the site analysis, allows raising the rating of the official name in search queries, improving the site and promoting it, increasing the number of potential visitors. SEO directs the development of potential in the right direction, finds new opportunities, and promotes overall development. That is why most HEIs in the world are extremely successful in using this tool in their marketing strategy.
Ukraine and Poland are two independent neighbors of the post-socialist camp. Most of the processes of formation and development take place in the same way and with similar stages. However, in Poland, these processes took place several years earlier. This is partly because Poland had already been an independent state in Europe before the collapse of the socialist bloc and in 2004 became a member of the European Union. This event led to an even greater gap in the economic, social, and public development of the two countries. However, the neighborhood and similar mentality between Ukrainians and Poles allow drawing certain parallels in the organization of the educational process.

LITERATURE REVIEW
The turbulent changes of the last two years, which have resulted from the pandemic and the sharp increase in the digitalization of all spheres of society, have caused a real boom in the education sector. The Internet and modern technologies, in general, have opened up many new opportunities in this area. The search for new effective innovative strategies for the development of higher education institutions is being actively pursued. Traditional marketing strategies in the context of digitalization are no longer suitable for attracting new generations of applicants and do not always take into account the specifics of education (Elken, 2019). Brand, reputation, and image are the main issues of higher education marketing (Chapleo & O'Sullivan, 2017).
Based on the modern concept of interaction marketing, which involves building long-term relationships with customers based on an effec-tive system of cooperation, it is necessary to use modern means of communication: any Internet tools, including Internet marketing tools. Štefko et al. (2015), Shaltoni (2016), Zahirnyak et al. (2020), and Tawfeq and Musa (2020) are engaged in studying the role of Internet marketing and its tools, identifying new trends in Internet marketing, using SEO to succeed in raising the ranking of HEIs, and promoting the site of HEIs. In particular, Iddris (2018) notes that higher education institutions can use SEO as a digital marketing strategy to increase their internationalization. Improving SEO is extremely important because, according to Johnson (2019), every tenth of potential students uses only Internet resources to explore their university opportunities, and the number of search queries related to education is growing every year. At the same time, Google is the most popular search engine. The reason for this is that organizations use popular and con-venient search engines to increase their chances of increasing profitability, and many search engines use Google search templates. This is confirmed by other scientists. In particular, Krstić (2020) confirmed that Google prefers its platforms, as universities with a symbiotic presence on all of them have recorded the highest SEO rankings.
However, speaking of university rankings, it should be noted that most higher education institutions in Central and Eastern Europe remain invisible (unrepresented) in the international and European academic world (Boyadjieva, 2017). This, in turn, reduces their competitive attractiveness.
Hrynkevych (2020) indicates that it is beneficial to develop various types of applied models for the analysis of the HE system competitiveness and corresponding sets of indicators that depend on the level of analysis (institutional, regional, national) and stakeholder priorities. A valuable and critical review of the research based on a comparative analysis of the competitiveness of HEIs on the Internet and the works published in Scopus and Web of Science databases was conducted by Khlaisang (2015), who researched and developed the guidelines on the user interface of HEIs and the prototype to evaluate the education service website. This analysis was based on 3 perspectives: technology, pedagogy, and accessibility. At the same time, Ifenthaler (2017) showed that not all educational institutions are ready to perform analytics, in particular, their search engine rankings. This question is especially interesting in the context of international comparisons, which make it possible to identify certain patterns and differences much more widely and thoroughly. Because of this, there is a need for further study of the peculiarities of Internet users' perception of higher education institutions, both on the example of one and several countries.

AIM AND METHODS
The paper aims to determine the influence of the rating of higher education institutions on the interest of Internet users by conducting a comparative analysis of the popularity of the official names of higher education institutions in search queries in Ukraine and Poland.
The choice of the Google search portal is determined by its greatest popularity among Internet users compared to analogs. Today, Google is showing an impressive rate of growth in popularity in the world (Marketer, 2019). One of Google's public web applications is the Google Trends platform, which is based on Google search and shows how often a certain term is sought concerning the total volume of search queries in different regions of the world and different languages. Google's algorithms determine a point on the graph for the selected period when the query is most popular, and take it as 100. The rest of the points on the graph are determined as a percentage of the maximum.
Accordingly, based on Google Trends platform, the Top 200 Ukraine 2020 rating, Best private HEIs in Ukraine rating, and Ranking of best Polish universities in 2020 prepared by Perspektywy educational foundation (Osvita UA, n.d.; Eurostudy, n.d.; Google Trends, n.d.), the number of queries made on the twenty HEIs in Ukraine and Poland (five state and five private universities from both countries) in 2006 and 2020 is analyzed and compared. The number of queries by the official name of the HEI in the regions of Ukraine and Poland in 2010-2020 is also compared.
Ukrainian and Polish universities were divided into two groups of HEIs, five in each according to the rating (the first five are state universities and the second five are private universities) ( Table 1). The analysis took into account the possible change of the name of the higher education institution and its web domain.
Thus, the study develops the following hypotheses: H1: The higher the ranking of the university, the higher the number of search queries.
H2: Internet users are most interested in the universities that are located next to them at the time of the search.
H3: The higher the ranking of the university, the higher the level of interest in the neighboring country.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
An important piece of output information is the date of registration of the first domain because it is since this time that the university has become available to Internet users and allowed receiving information to a wide range of applicants, which made sense to enter search queries to obtain information directly from the university. This date also indicates when the university management realized the need to communicate with internal and external audiences via the Internet. Of course, the speed of dissemina-  After all, the development of the Internet and related search engines has allowed not only to collect information but also to compare it with each other. For HEIs, it is an opportunity to present their strengths, compare their curricula, get acquainted with the achievements of other universities, and see their position among the universities of the whole country and the world.
The largest increase in percentage points among Ukrainian state-owned universities is demon- strated by the number of queries regarding LPNU. Thus, LPNU managed to overtake the most popular place. It is important to note that state universities are positioned higher in all national and international rankings of Ukrainian universities. However, the popularity of queries on the highest-rated private universities in Ukraine remains high: by this indicator, in the top five, there are 2 private universities and 3 state ones. As for private universities, a significant increase in queries was observed at PUET and UCU. It was only in the "Covid" year of 2020 when the interest in private universities dropped significantly, which could be attributed to declining the income of the population and their unwillingness to pay for tuition at that time.
The trend of the queries on HEIs in Poland, where a group of state universities took the leading position in 2006, turned out to be interesting ( Table  3). The exception is SWPS, which is almost twice ahead of the number of queries on private universities and even is ahead of the leader among state institutions -UW. However, the trend of the predominance of interest in state universities remained in Poland until 2020. As for private HEIs, UL and CCW show a tendency to reduce interest in them. ALK holds a stable position with slight fluctuations, in WSB there are constant fluctuations, the nature of which must be investigated separately.
In general, it can be argued that there is no clear correlation between the university's ranking and the number of queries on it in the Google search engine. It can be said that there is more interest in state universities compared to private ones in Ukraine and Poland.
It is interesting to note that in Ukraine and Poland from 2018 to 2019 there was a decrease in the interest in HEIs in search queries. A possible reason for this was the declining birth rate in both countries.  Poland -26 th position, which was 72.4%. As it can be seen, the trend for two years indicates that the population of Poland is joining the Internet faster than Ukrainians. This explains the lower number of queries about HEIs in Ukraine compared to the queries in Poland.
Based on the analysis of queries at Ukrainian and Polish universities, it is certainly predictable that in 2006 the level of queries in Ukraine and Poland differed significantly (by half), as at that time the level of coverage of the two countries was at different stages. However, since 2010, this gap has narrowed significantly and the difference has become slight.
An important point in the analysis of market opportunities of HEIs is to determine the target au-dience of the university. Table 4 and Table 5 present the comparison of the popularity of the official name of HEIs in the oblasts of Ukraine and the provinces (województwo) of Poland. The analysis of this information allows determining the target groups of entrants and tracking their queries in oblasts or provinces, which will allow HEIs to model and adjust the overall marketing strategy to promote their services. In both countries, it is a territorial feature that the preferences of the population in various parts of the state differ significantly. This can be explained by the influence of neighboring countries on the worldview of the population, especially in border areas. Thus, this is important information for HEIs, which must be used to meet the needs of potential consumers of their educational services. The uniqueness of the Note: the information presented is as of December 2020.
formed table is that it reflects the interest of potential entrants in the dynamics. In general, the analysis on the Google Trends web application was conducted in 25 oblasts of Ukraine and two large cities. As for Poland, the analysis was carried out in 16 provinces. The analysis data are presented in a ranked order and three areas in which the interest rating in this term is the highest are selected (Table 4).
Analyzing Table 4, it can be argued that H2 is asserted: the territorial affiliation of Internet users significantly affects the interest in a particular university. The reason for this may not be the desire of parents or children to go to study in other regions if there is a university in their oblast that meets all the previously set criteria. To confirm this, it can be observed that in each university, private or state, in the top three there is an area where the university is located, except for KNU.
In the case of IAPM, it should be noted that this is a private university, which has one of the most extensive networks of branches throughout Ukraine, so those interested have the opportunity to study in their oblast or the neighborhood. The reason for the higher interest in KNU in other areas may be explained by the location of this university in the capital of Ukraine. It should also be noted that the central regions and the annexed territory of Crimea showed their interest in KPI and KNU, both in 2010 and in 2020. The changes in the preferences of the eastern and central regions have not changed, remaining true to KhPI, the universities located in Kyiv attract the center and east of Ukraine, and LPNU attracts the western regions. As for private universities, there are the same trends, but in part, the contingent of popularity is changing in the other areas. The decline in the interest of the population of the eastern regions in universities located in the western part of the country has become quite predictable. Thus, Zaporizhzhia region in 2010 with the level of 100% of views of the Catholic University website and 39% of Lviv Polytechnic, unfortunately, did not maintain its trend in 2020 -this is due to the hostilities in eastern Ukraine, which negatively affects the ability to train applicants from these and contiguous territories in HEIs of the other regions. In general, these trends, namely territorial affiliation and military action, have made their adjustments in the choice of educa-tional institutions and formed the demand of the population for education in universities that are located near the place of residence.
A similar analysis is conducted in the provinces of Poland (Table 5).
After analyzing Table 5, it is established that the trends in the choice of the place of study in Poland are identical to those in Ukraine, i.e. by the territorial criterion. Accordingly, H2 is confirmed for Poland as well. Most of the queries that were recorded at the address of the official website of HEIs are from the regions bordering directly on the HEI. Examples include AGH and UJ, which are located in Krakow (Lesser Poland województwо), which borders directly on Silesia, Subcarpathia, and Holy Cross Province. This trend remained throughout the study period, with a slightly different order in the structure and with little deviations, and sometimes with a change of the province, which is located nearby. However, it should be noted that the area of Ukraine is 603,548 km 2 (State Statistics Service in Ukraine, n.d.b) with the population of 42.2 million, which does not include the population of the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, and Poland, with an area of 312,679 km 2 with the population of 38.5 million people. It is obvious that the territory of Ukraine is twice as large, but the population is almost the same. Thus, Ukrainians cover a greater distance when choosing an educational institution and this introduces certain special features, both in Ukraine and Poland.
To test H3, the popularity of queries by the official name of HEIs in Ukraine and Poland in 2010 and 2020 (in Ukrainian and Polish, respectively) in the neighboring country is compared (Table 6). Table 6 shows the level of popularity of certain Polish universities on the part of Ukraine and Ukrainian HEIs on the part of Poland in 2010 and 2020. Among Ukrainian state universities, the most popular in Poland was and still is LPNU, which ranks 5 th among state universities. In general, the trend shows the popularity of LPNU among applicants and the interest of potential partners from Polish universities to conduct research and educational activity in 2010 and 2020. The reason for this interest on the part of Poles can be considered the high world rating of this university (BBC News Ukraine, 2020), common historical past, and border location. The first two ranked universities (KPI and KNU) are also of some interest in Poland. The changelessness and at the same time the lack of interest of Poles in the two leading Ukrainian universities (KhPI and SSU) are interesting trends. The reason for this may be the territorial remoteness of these universities from the borders with Poland. In addition, there is an obvious lack of interest in private Ukrainian universities, both in 2010 and in 2020, except for UCU, which in 2010 received the maximum number of queries from Poles.
In addition, it is worth noting that Internet users from Ukraine did not show their interest in Polish private HEIs in 2010. However, in 2020 the situation changed. Given the steady increase in Ukrainian students in Poland, it can be assumed that they are now equally interested in both state and private universities.
In general, there is no clear relationship between the national rating of the university and its popularity in the neighboring country.

CONCLUSION
Due to the spread of the Internet to more areas, the increase in its speed, the increase in the number of users, the convenience and speed of information, most of the human accents have changed, more actively and more often using the means of Internet communications. In particular, this is facilitated by the global pandemic of COVID-19, which has significantly affected the organization of the educational process, and especially the dissemination and gaining experience of online learning, which has simplified access to learning and has allowed developing appropriate online curricula, thus increasing competition among universities in the market of educational services. All this was reflected in the number of queries for information by official names of leading universities in Ukraine and Poland.
However, this study does not confirm H1: the higher the ranking of the university, the higher the number of search queries, and H3: the higher the ranking of the university, the higher the level of interest in the neighboring country. It can be argued that there is more interest in state universities compared to private ones in Ukraine and Poland.
At the same time, H2 is confirmed: despite the physical accessibility of the educational offer of universities around the world, Internet users continue to show the greatest interest in universities located in their region at the time of the search. Note: the information presented is as of January 2021.