Trade Union Website League Table 2023
I’ve been carrying out my annual analysis of trade union websites to update the league table for 2023.
Previous results can be see for 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2012.
The league table measures the Domain Authority of TUC affiliated trade union websites. Domain Authority is a leading industry metric that attempts to measure how influential and authoritative a website is.
It does this by looking at factors such as how often the website is linked to from other sites and social media, weighted to consider high profile backlinks, such as a BBC story.
The obvious drawback is that the Domain Authority doesn’t consider the actual quality of a website’s design, information architecture or content. It’s predominantly a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) tool, as it can predict how well a website will be ranking in search engine results.
| No | Union | New Domain Authority |
| 1 (1) | BDA | 70 |
| 2 (2) | Unite | 66 |
| 3 (4) | Chartered Society of Physiotherapy | 63 |
| 4 (3) | UNISON | 62 |
| 5 (4) | RCM | 61 |
| 6 (6) | UCU | 61 |
| 7 (6) | NUJ | 60 |
| 8 (8) | GMB | 60 |
| 9 (9) | PFA | 59 |
| 10 (10) | Equity | 57 |
| 10 (10) | NASUWT | 57 |
| 10 (10) | RMT | 57 |
| 13 (15) | PCS | 57 |
| 14 (13) | BALPA | 56 |
| 15 (13) | Musicians’ Union | 55 |
| 15 (15) | NEU | 55 |
| 17 (15) | BECTU (Section of Prospect) | 54 |
| 17(18) | CWU | 54 |
| 19 (19) | Prospect | 53 |
| 20 (20) | The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain | 52 |
| 20 (21) | NAHT | 52 |
| 20 (23) | USDAW | 52 |
| 23 (21) | FBU | 51 |
| 23 (23) | TSSA | 51 |
| 23 (24) | Society of Radiographers | 51 |
| 26 (26) | ASLEF | 49 |
| 27 (28) | EIS | 46 |
| 27 (29) | BFAWU | 46 |
| 27 (29) | Community | 46 |
| 27(31) | NSEAD | 46 |
| 27 (31) | Royal College of Podiatry | 46 |
| 32 (27) | Nautilus | 45 |
| 33 (31) | NAPO | 44 |
| 34 (35) | FDA | 42 |
| 35 (34) | POA | 41 |
| 36 (36) | NUM | 40 |
| 37 (38) | British and Irish Orthoptic Society | 39 |
| 37 (40) | HCSA | 39 |
| 39 (36) | Artists' Union England | 38 |
| 40 (38) | AEP | 38 |
| 41 (41) | Accord | 33 |
| 42 (42) | URTU | 26 |
| 43 (43) | NGSU | 25 |
| 43 (44) | UCAC | 25 |
| 45 (44) | NARS | 19 |
| 46 (46) | Advance | 17 |
| 46 (46) | Aegis | 17 |
Source: Moz.com June 2023
For the fifth year in a row, the relatively small specialist union, the British Dietetic Association (BDA), comes top. The union continues to impress, with good quality content on food and health likely to be encouraging back links. Unite again hold the second place.
UNISON slip down from third to fourth, with another specialist health union, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, moving up into third place.
The RCM slip down from joint fourth to fifth, while the UCU, NUJ, GMB and PFA take up the next places in that order.
Biggest risers
| Union | Positions moved up |
| NSEAD, Royal College of Podiatry | 4 |
| HCSA, USDAW | 3 |
The biggest risers this year are the NSEAD and the Royal College of Podiatry, who both move up four places from joint 31st last year, to joint 27th this year.
The HCAS and USDAW also both do well, climbing three places to 37th and 20th respectively.
Biggest falls
| Union | Positions moved down |
| Nautilus | 5 |
| Artists' Union England | 3 |
The biggest fall occurs with Nautilus, who drop down five places to 32nd. The Artists' Union England has the second largest drop, moving down three places to 39th.
Given the number of high-profile industrial action campaigns taking place, I had expected to see some movements reflecting the press coverage. Any changes look relatively modest though.
The NEU has also stayed at the same level for the first time. Since its foundation, the union has been moving up the table steadily, but have remained in 15th place this year. The NUT, one of the unions that formed the NEU, have been top ten regulars in the past, and so it will be interesting to see if the NEU ranking has plateaued.