07 Jun 2023

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
17 Apr 2023

Asking ChatGPT about trade unions


The rapid improvement in Artificial Intelligence (AI) is touted as the next paradigm shift in technology. Some predict it will have a similar impact on society as the internet or the printing press. A group of tech experts, led by Elon Musk, have even called for a temporary freeze on AI development to provide more time to understand it’s impact. Currently, the most famous AI system is a chatbot called ChatGPT. Developed by a company called OpenAI, ChatGPT is free to use, and has an AI language model that was trained on a large quantities of content from a variety of sources, such as Wikipedia
09 Nov 2022

CRM change projects and trade unions


As unions digitise more and more of their operations, new tech tools are becoming essential across all their functions. However, the systems used to manage membership data are still the most critical that unions rely on. I’ve been working on a new TUC Digital Lab report called Managing CRM change projects in unions . It’s now available to download from digital.tuc.org.uk . This new TUC Digital Lab report looks at Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems from the perspective of the union movement. CRMs are commonly used in the world of business, typically to manage customers or marketing
11 Jul 2022

Trade Union Website League Table 2022


It’s been ten years since I first complied my annual league table of trade union websites. Previous results can be see for 2021 , 2020 , 2019 , 2018 , 2017 , 2016 , 2015 , 2014 , 2013 and 2012 . For those of you not familiar with the league table, the main thing to be aware of is that it measures how authoritative a website is estimated to be. It does not attempt to judge the quality of the website site design, information architecture, content etc. In scope are all the unions affiliated to the TUC. I use the industry leading Domain Authority metric complied by Moz.com for the league table
03 May 2022

Mobile digital communications and trade unions


Mobile technology has been leading the charge of technological change for a decade, and it’s hard to exaggerate just how big an impact this has had. Mobile is now a key tool for digital communications. I’ve been working on a new report called ‘Making the most of mobile for union digital communications’ as part of my involvement with the TUC’s Digital Labs initiative. It’s now available to download from digital.tuc.org.uk. As of November 2021, it is estimated that about 54% of global web traffic came through mobile phones. Union websites are no exception – 65% of visits to the TUC website in
08 Feb 2022

Trade Unions and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)


Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the art of getting web pages to rank near the top of the results displayed in search engines like Google and Bing. SEO focusses on the natural - or ‘organic’ - search results, not the paid ads that appear in prominent positions on search engines. I’ve been working with the TUC’s Digital Lab on a new report into Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and trade unions. The report is now available for download at digital.tuc.org.uk . SEO is a big topic, but this report concentrates on why unions need to understand the importance of SEO and the advantages it can bring
02 Jul 2021

Trade Union Website League Table 2021


Every year I carry out an analysis of all the websites of the TUC affiliated unions, so see how they rank for Domain Authority. The focus is to see how authoritative the website is, as measured by the leading Domain Authority metric from Moz.com. Previous results can be see for 2020 , 2019 , 2018 , 2017 , 2016 , 2015 , 2014 , 2013 and 2012 . This metric reflects how often a website is mentioned and linked to across the web and social media and considers both quality and quantity of links. It’s important to note that Domain Authority doesn’t measure how good the actual website is. Search
09 Mar 2021

Joining a union online in 2021


Expectations around good quality online services and facilities have never been higher. This isn’t limited just to internet-based companies, but for all organisations with an online presence. This includes trade unions. Back in 2012, I carried out research into online joining facilities , looking at the offerings from all the TUC affiliated unions. I’d developed one of the first ever full union online joining systems for Prospect back in 2005 and had always been keen to see progress in this area. In 2012 I found that 18 unions offered full online joining, with a further 10 offering a partial
01 Dec 2020

Which unions are the most influential on Twitter in 2020?


Every year, I carry out an analysis of the TUC affiliated unions to see how they rank for influence on Twitter. I compile the results into a league table, so unions can monitor their movements over the last year. I have been carrying this out since 2012, with the previous results available on my blog ( 2012 , 2013 , 2014 , 2015 , 2016 , 2017 , 2018 and 2019 ). For this analysis, I’ve used a tool called Kred. Kred analyses tweets, retweets, followers, mentions etc. to gauge the influence of each active account on Twitter. No Union Name Kred Notes 1 (1) Unite @unitetheunion 968 2 (3) FBU
28 Aug 2020

Trade Union Website League Table 2020


Every July, I carry out an analysis to see how the websites of TUC affiliated unions compare for their perceived ‘authority’. This is a technique used in the Search Engine Optimisation industry to estimate how influential a website is. The previous years can be seen here: 2019 , 2018 , 2017 , 2016 , 2015 , 2014 , 2013 and 2012 . The more a union’s website is linked to or shared online, the more important it is seen by search engines like Google. This usually results in higher rankings when calculating search results. I’ve used the leading Domain Authority metric compiled by Moz. They actively