2020 Think Tank Search Performance Rankings

Summary

In the last 20 years, Google has gone from serving up 18 million searches per day, to over 5.6 billion.

Some think tanks have benefited tremendously from this growth in the power of search, seeing hundreds of thousands or even millions of monthly visitors from search results.

Yet others see relatively little traffic. Their research can’t have the impact it might otherwise simply because it’s not being found.

What explains this wide variance in think tank search performance?

We sought to answer this question the way a policy wonk would, by looking at data.

We compared the search engine performance data of 308 US think tanks and developed two metrics that reveal which think tanks are performing best given their budget and scope.

First, with a metric called “Search Efficiency,” we measure how efficiently a group grows its search traffic.

Second, with a metric called “Domain Efficiency,” we measure how efficiently a group grows its domain rating, a key determinant of search traffic.

Using this data, we show that groups with modest budgets regularly outperform their higher-budget peers in both metrics.

Based on our analysis, we found three methods high-ranking think tanks use to get outsized search performance results.

We also discuss how these findings underscore why search matters for think tanks, how think tanks can improve their rankings, and provide our data sources.

The Rankings

Search the ranking below and then read on for our explanation and analysis.

Note: You can find a specific group or filter results using the search box located above either table.

Search Efficiency Rankings

Search Efficiency measures how much more search traffic your think tank gets than would be expected given your expenditures and whether it is state or national in scope.

Monthly search traffic figures are estimated based on keyword ranking and estimated click through rates.

Here are the top ranking think tanks in Search Efficiency:

SE Rank	Name	Scope	Budget	Traffic	Top-100 Ranked Keywords	Domain Efficiency Score	Domain Rating	Referring Domains	Referring .gov Domains	Referring .edu Domains	Total Backlinks	Pages Indexed By Google	Google Pagespeed Insight Mobile Score	Google Pagespeed Insight Desktop Score	Search Efficiency Score
1	Ballotpedia	National	●●●	3,622,680	2,150,471	17.556	82	26,955	50	418	4,487,566	401,000	16	55	11.823
2	Federation of American Scientists	National	●●	663,816	1,042,740	28.132	85	62,412	217	1,272	7,876,454	78,200	49	58	10.378
3	Pew Research Center	National	●●●●●●	1,302,536	1,429,895	12.764	91	139,174	216	2,002	31,675,607	39,000	55	71	10.341
4	World Economic Forum	National	●●●●●●	1,809,659	1,617,787	0.312	91	113,492	456	2,288	7,637,434	237,000	5	62	10.257
5	Southern Poverty Law Center	National	●●●●●●	1,130,212	335,361	0.198	81	31,618	41	610	3,493,788	32,100	36	38	10.114
6	Human Rights Watch	National	●●●●●●	954,923	1,100,544	6.133	88	88,207	149	1,537	12,893,716	214,000	65	85	9.910
7	Tax Foundation	National	●●●	516,786	264,386	16.750	81	21,707	60	222	1,892,494	12,200	52	66	9.882
8	Center for Responsive Politics	National	●●	373,596	597,583	21.927	81	38,853	22	607	4,298,613	597,000	75	87	9.729
9	Brookings Institution	National	●●●●●●	829,235	1,565,441	3.889	88	83,893	279	1,915	8,189,706	153,000	62	74	9.695
10	Council on Foreign Relations	National	●●●●●●	627,136	723,599	0.854	83	44,751	87	1,026	8,038,525	48,000	26	33	9.481
11	Heritage Foundation	National	●●●●●●	483,992	674,863	-0.096	83	50,197	110	887	8,643,948	70,400	38	46	9.190
12	Bill of Rights Institute	National	●●●	184,993	115,754	6.574	70	4,589	32	131	339,869	3,550	16	2	8.882
13	Cato Institute	National	●●●●●●	252,507	522,347	5.547	82	43,705	71	862	7,381,146	86,500	59	91	8.760
14	Foundation for Economic Education	National	●●●●	166,763	339,906	11.781	77	15,984	10	225	5,459,346	43,300	77	88	8.719
15	Center on Budget and Policy Priorities	National	●●●●●●	246,662	288,006	3.960	81	22,189	76	436	1,884,982	24,100	65	83	8.717
16	CFA Institute	National	●●●●●●	392,772	217,169	-9.236	82	11,331	20	755	1,338,408	55,400	54	74	8.711
17	Center for American Progress	National	●●●●●●	256,398	637,838	4.776	84	43,604	91	689	5,190,896	47,700	43	52	8.683
18	Guttmacher Institute	National	●●●●●	218,729	182,785	3.898	79	17,527	50	426	522,583	14,800	63	7	8.661
19	Electronic Privacy Information Center	National	●●	114,207	123,199	24.779	82	18,321	33	586	2,723,328	14,300	48	4	8.606
20	Kaiser Family Foundation	National	●●●●●●	282,164	407,429	1.023	86	37,804	150	885	2,560,502	73,700	42	59	8.588
21	Center for Strategic and International Studies	National	●●●●●●	213,937	357,719	2.836	82	25,940	108	842	1,917,061	66,800	4	46	8.504
22	Economic Policy Institute	National	●●●●	138,563	262,744	14.453	81	25,190	57	628	2,526,807	13,400	-	15	8.489
23	National Bureau of Economic Research	National	●●●●●●	191,188	798,110	8.868	87	50,239	158	1,853	13,609,794	284,000	37	47	8.426
24	Union of Concerned Scientists	National	●●●●●●	158,298	212,886	6.076	83	34,198	71	761	2,642,539	12,400	41	37	8.278
25	RAND	National	●●●●●●	255,618	651,452	-5.960	86	45,055	236	1,616	8,872,458	107,000	4	55	8.257
26	Migration Policy Institute	National	●●●●	102,031	172,569	11.968	78	14,417	63	632	1,033,884	14,600	59	82	8.200
27	Peterson Institute For International Economics	National	●●●●●	113,246	119,840	6.484	78	12,135	53	440	1,058,564	16,700	23	67	8.122
28	Prison Policy Initiative	National	●	51,097	96,492	26.503	75	7,665	25	165	250,885	6,020	65	78	8.091
29	Institute for Family Studies	National	●	53,612	60,020	21.961	72	4,434	4	60	70,685	2,170	25	27	8.088
30	Brennan Center for Justice	National	●●●●●	94,723	159,102	5.007	78	13,806	48	230	787,780	17,000	49	53	7.895
31	Atlantic Council	National	●●●●●	96,224	260,405	2.151	78	14,185	44	310	1,261,920	68,000	52	78	7.815
32	American Enterprise Institute	National	●●●●●●	108,330	293,005	2.237	82	33,313	61	662	6,573,237	84,800	28	32	7.804
33	Middle East Media Research Institute	National	●●●●	67,127	120,125	7.074	73	12,340	5	130	2,492,123	81,800	1	-	7.785
34	Population Reference Bureau	National	●●●●	69,343	138,040	10.253	79	14,106	38	808	330,612	8,320	64	55	7.724
35	Carnegie Endowment for International Peace	National	●●●●●●	86,348	232,523	0.213	78	16,868	38	684	9,831,737	47,700	57	64	7.643
36	Center for Voting and Democracy	National	●●●	47,733	66,153	12.922	74	6,520	12	171	232,088	6,020	31	35	7.605
37	Sentencing Project	National	●●	40,177	40,041	17.938	75	8,254	31	267	686,916	1,270	39	52	7.566
38	New America Foundation	National	●●●●●●	79,282	139,144	1.445	79	12,005	33	326	560,766	23,700	65	82	7.565
39	Commonwealth Fund	National	●●●●●●	78,621	125,696	2.119	80	15,152	110	457	900,156	21,300	65	81	7.546
40	Center for Public Integrity	National	●●●●	49,877	191,670	12.879	78	20,867	27	295	2,841,571	13,800	46	65	7.515
41	World Resources Institute	National	●●●●●●	90,247	221,639	0.251	84	26,973	144	1,057	3,297,024	30,100	58	66	7.489
42	Judicial Watch Inc.	National	●●●●●●	65,293	32,655	-2.812	74	15,676	6	58	3,236,431	45,000	35	34	7.396
43	Urban Institute	National	●●●●●●	81,549	292,026	0.344	84	27,212	171	848	2,723,246	45,900	53	46	7.391
44	Illinois Policy Institute	State	●●●●	115,642	132,863	14.694	70	4,047	16	30	500,838	12,900	55	66	7.381
45	Center for Climate and Energy Solutions	National	●●●	40,274	47,414	12.085	76	8,197	55	325	4,339,204	2,960	46	61	7.341
46	Independent Institute	National	●●●	37,398	164,411	10.016	72	10,859	4	232	2,259,427	22,700	27	2	7.331
47	Freedom House	National	●●●●●●	61,592	108,485	2.958	80	25,271	53	607	2,038,764	7,660	43	56	7.330
48	Foreign Policy Research Institute	National	●●	34,300	100,390	7.727	68	5,182	13	205	449,346	12,000	32	38	7.302
49	Environmental and Energy Study Institute	National	●●	29,909	52,710	15.814	72	3,122	21	111	47,270	5,810	7	-	7.300
50	National Center for State Courts	National	●●●●●●	67,595	104,769	-6.141	75	4,183	132	232	10,443,933	12,900	47	59	7.286
51	Pew Charitable Trusts	National	●●●●●●	91,826	339,260	-6.454	85	35,884	171	821	7,049,712	36,300	31	34	7.250
52	Public Policy Institute of California	National	●●●●●	47,823	107,686	2.355	75	7,287	21	239	222,627	11,700	51	53	7.223
53	Common Cause	National	●●●●	36,987	35,105	7.433	75	8,580	18	185	822,169	10,800	58	77	7.135
54	Aspen Institute	National	●●●●●●	68,233	125,343	-5.130	81	15,008	84	770	722,381	37,800	22	23	7.130
55	Center for Reproductive Rights	National	●●●●●	46,525	44,813	-2.170	73	6,298	11	174	271,162	8,080	13	17	7.111
56	International Institute for Strategic Studies	National	●●	22,838	51,439	18.112	73	8,292	37	333	808,075	3,400	5	54	7.074
57	American Conservative Union Foundation	National	●●●	27,454	6,965	6.843	68	5,221	5	62	494,289	2,410	28	25	7.050
58	Student Free Press Association	National	●	16,102	27,320	24.657	70	7,691	3	99	5,569,521	20,100	57	72	7.042
59	Heartland Institute	National	●●●●	31,028	59,250	9.563	75	13,246	18	219	1,047,211	45,400	13	17	7.030
60	Hispanic American Center for Economic Research	National	●	13,293	13,197	3.275	44	1,828	0	40	232,827	7,840	47	59	7.003
61	Demos	National	●●●●●	35,432	54,032	3.644	74	6,763	15	139	984,294	8,470	59	79	6.999
62	Middle East Institute	National	●●●●	30,248	83,895	6.171	72	6,155	13	297	2,117,222	13,000	44	5	6.991
63	Project on Government Oversight	National	●●●	27,424	65,013	7.838	71	5,644	7	85	483,928	9,270	49	64	6.982
64	Carter Center	National	●●●●●●	54,460	63,169	-7.290	77	9,186	36	362	784,800	11,000	63	63	6.966
65	Washington Institute for Near East Policy	National	●●●●●	32,429	92,994	0.528	72	10,102	10	205	1,455,561	19,100	38	45	6.873
66	Public Citizen	National	●●●●	25,266	78,690	11.715	78	17,880	35	317	1,472,387	21,100	59	8	6.796
67	Manhattan Institute for Policy Research	National	●●●●●	30,979	58,203	1.620	75	9,738	18	163	1,086,685	8,520	24	25	6.764
68	Center for Global Development	National	●●●●●	29,115	102,098	6.071	78	11,304	35	457	1,156,496	30,600	5	4	6.750
69	Discovery Institute	National	●●●●	23,581	28,564	6.093	72	6,247	4	112	1,491,437	12,000	5	61	6.740
70	Institute for Policy Studies	National	●●●	21,341	75,811	9.755	73	7,763	8	194	1,536,148	19,800	53	74	6.728
71	Century Foundation	National	●●●	22,118	83,363	9.445	74	6,810	19	232	533,543	5,270	54	77	6.721
72	Human Rights First	National	●●●●●	26,687	42,738	2.784	73	8,488	16	197	1,034,805	10,600	68	91	6.720
73	Bipartisan Policy Center	National	●●●●●	30,117	53,197	3.131	77	7,643	44	214	269,278	5,870	84	94	6.720
74	Hudson Institute	National	●●●●●	28,096	65,300	1.133	73	8,458	24	230	742,968	10,400	24	25	6.717
75	Jamestown Foundation	National	●●	16,140	80,865	16.201	72	10,270	18	217	1,675,417	46,900	45	57	6.696
76	Mercatus Center	National	●●●●●	31,289	109,835	-0.832	75	9,876	35	176	1,093,287	25,100	5	63	6.693
77	Americans for Tax Reform	National	●●●	19,982	52,831	8.966	72	7,951	7	47	585,811	27,100	59	8	6.670
78	Young America’s Foundation	National	●●●●●	28,823	20,013	-4.866	70	3,405	0	68	189,002	4,920	39	35	6.643
79	Institute for Women's Policy Research	National	●●●	18,269	33,874	14.613	76	7,641	38	378	552,597	5,840	2	24	6.635
80	Institute for Local Self-Reliance	National	●●	15,659	52,456	17.769	75	7,311	38	117	457,735	9,640	8	43	6.619
81	Washington Center for Equitable Growth	National	●●●●	19,876	45,349	6.089	71	3,322	5	104	251,107	10,200	67	72	6.602
82	Competitive Enterprise Institute	National	●●●●	21,762	75,734	4.843	73	11,005	12	146	1,967,892	38,200	68	53	6.585
83	American Action Forum	National	●●●	18,800	50,211	7.320	72	4,267	8	56	130,871	9,550	48	5	6.554
84	Empire Center for Public Policy	State	●	30,734	26,414	18.212	59	1,446	2	5	60,411	4,450	67	84	6.538
85	Acton Institute	National	●●●●●	21,159	69,391	1.096	71	7,520	5	179	3,760,904	23,500	48	59	6.498
86	Center for a New American Security	National	●●●●	19,979	45,453	3.849	73	6,811	16	156	969,559	9,950	74	68	6.466
87	Roosevelt Institute	National	●●●●	17,178	31,475	3.966	71	4,215	6	95	268,536	6,540	32	36	6.385
88	Social Science Research Council	National	●●●●●	21,312	84,779	1.384	75	9,004	16	821	958,112	28,000	65	76	6.382
89	American Legislative Exchange Council	National	●●●●●	18,542	29,618	2.537	72	5,645	24	73	514,572	6,930	48	53	6.381
90	EdChoice	National	●●●●	17,347	24,421	-1.621	66	2,485	6	43	213,883	3,780	2	24	6.376
91	Institute for Science & International Security	National	●	9,717	10,393	12.801	65	4,070	3	80	259,225	2,880	63	52	6.309
92	Mackinac Center	State	●●●●	37,062	81,519	16.444	70	4,898	5	72	1,933,651	29,500	76	9	6.301
93	Santa Fe Institute	National	●●●●●	17,033	24,661	6.272	76	8,801	8	794	510,387	19,200	65	84	6.287
94	R Street Institute	National	●●●●	15,185	47,159	2.115	69	2,762	8	41	47,480	10,300	65	79	6.267
95	Institute for Justice	National	●●●●●	19,335	46,397	-1.469	73	7,532	25	74	1,167,695	17,700	45	43	6.257
96	Economic Innovation Group	National	●●●	12,481	14,619	10.294	72	2,911	55	36	18,326	3,180	34	36	6.243
97	National Taxpayers Union	National	●●●	13,178	20,643	2.327	66	4,311	7	41	308,746	3,620	21	27	6.232
98	MDRC	National	●●●●●●	23,458	35,161	-10.196	72	2,878	38	184	47,040	5,910	42	54	6.193
99	International Food Policy Research Institute	National	●●●●●●	26,846	66,145	-8.318	78	8,642	47	582	1,936,135	62,900	6	81	6.191
100	Association of American Educators Foundation	National	●	8,115	10,844	8.472	59	914	2	83	34,984	1,560	4	47	6.184
101	American Press Institute	National	●●●	11,928	33,845	12.739	75	4,851	5	210	212,893	4,530	55	64	6.179
102	FreedomWorks	National	●●●	11,418	29,718	6.863	69	7,074	5	46	733,447	23,400	65	76	6.140
103	Capital Research Center	National	●●●	11,731	22,908	-0.976	63	3,599	4	30	227,369	5,960	29	34	6.106
104	Vera Institute of Justice	National	●●●●●●	22,276	43,582	-8.599	75	5,319	62	197	261,913	5,750	46	55	6.095
105	Coaltion for Environmentally Responsible Economies	National	●●●●●	14,910	15,183	5.109	77	6,283	31	180	268,876	4,200	42	13	6.082
106	Christensen Institute	National	●●●	10,464	14,335	11.447	73	2,692	11	80	95,535	3,300	56	48	6.072
107	Philanthropy Roundtable	National	●●●●	13,052	26,542	0.423	69	2,742	7	66	71,837	1,400	68	47	6.059
108	Center of the American Experiment	State	●●	22,047	70,987	0.385	47	1,146	0	10	202,518	11,300	-	-	6.012
109	California Policy Center	National	●●	8,210	15,138	-7.100	49	842	1	3	476,736	5,600	32	36	6.011
110	Henry L. Stimson Center	National	●●●●	11,362	30,018	4.101	70	3,785	10	209	290,116	9,660	74	72	6.010
111	Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs	National	●●●	9,904	35,946	8.381	71	5,121	5	318	484,170	13,100	33	34	5.981
112	Third Way Institute	National	●●●●	11,827	37,652	4.824	73	4,638	8	92	308,683	2,470	54	73	5.974
113	Institute for Energy and Environment Research	National	●	6,178	7,349	7.346	56	1,850	2	61	266,960	2,040	53	64	5.974
114	Oakland Institute	National	●	6,200	10,135	9.195	58	2,519	1	41	86,949	3,370	52	68	5.972
115	Institute for New Economic Thinking	National	●●●●●	13,292	23,977	-1.361	71	5,319	3	245	1,014,832	9,870	8	11	5.952
116	Pacific Legal Foundation	National	●●●●●	12,362	29,994	-6.304	64	2,767	5	43	222,790	7,100	63	73	5.948
117	German Marshall Fund	National	●●●●●	14,723	32,461	-1.662	74	6,812	50	273	391,046	13,500	66	7	5.944
118	Nautilus Institute for Security & Sustainable Development	National	●	5,458	13,804	16.638	63	2,361	11	116	83,590	6,900	4	47	5.926
119	Institute for Transportation & Development Policy	National	●●●●	10,840	16,891	2.976	71	2,944	15	83	568,203	7,290	31	52	5.892
120	Chicago Council on Global Affairs	National	●●●●●	12,351	28,256	-0.649	72	4,077	21	162	431,054	28,500	6	71	5.869
121	SPUR	National	●●●●	10,276	30,465	3.851	71	2,884	17	41	138,288	5,900	61	56	5.868
122	Center for Economic Policy and Research	National	●●	7,766	41,453	18.060	77	14,703	24	283	2,392,309	12,100	51	64	5.861
123	Institute for Humane Studies	National	●●●●●	12,356	8,665	-12.174	61	2,444	1	319	445,702	1,260	3	8	5.852
124	Truman National security Project	National	●	5,456	5,359	5.062	54	879	0	25	156,199	2,060	23	24	5.840
125	James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, The	National	●	5,966	16,632	6.237	58	2,042	2	69	2,208,803	4,270	47	52	5.835
126	Food Research & Action Center	National	●●●●●	10,805	22,012	5.573	76	5,408	49	164	197,424	2,980	54	33	5.809
127	National Review Institute	National	●●●●	8,956	1,694	-28.159	37	478	1	9	1,361,633	138	69	85	5.796
128	Charles Koch Institute	National	●●●●●	12,601	15,456	-19.890	56	1,354	1	74	31,860	708	59	21	5.781
129	Breakthrough Institute	National	●●	6,430	11,658	13.653	70	4,211	4	116	211,799	1,870	-	-	5.758
130	Milken Institute	National	●●●●●●	13,637	33,396	-2.064	77	6,767	23	169	372,435	11,200	-	26	5.755
131	Christian Coalition of America	National	●	3,899	7,480	16.349	58	2,420	2	78	44,843	4,340	51	57	5.746
132	Arab American Institute	National	●●	6,745	19,194	6.602	65	2,569	8	96	64,871	5,560	33	23	5.738
133	Reason Foundation	National	●●●●●	10,018	46,337	1.316	72	6,627	26	125	2,019,693	12,600	47	68	5.725
134	Center for Public Policy Priorities	National	●	4,793	12,584	10.093	59	1,227	9	33	48,929	845	49	57	5.711
135	East-West Center	National	●	5,459	22,888	18.758	72	4,676	35	418	3,096,411	9,490	6	77	5.697
136	Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy	National	●●	6,339	43,249	12.740	71	5,021	9	153	462,191	16,700	59	5	5.680
137	Center for Democracy and Technology	National	●●●	7,740	19,910	16.424	81	11,261	27	383	1,292,574	5,780	5	66	5.670
138	Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management	National	●●	6,101	9,285	6.363	64	852	5	234	788,665	1,880	47	57	5.663
139	Lincoln Institute of Land Policy	National	●●●●●	10,314	44,587	-1.033	73	3,575	46	231	140,934	19,400	65	39	5.643
140	Americans for Prosperity Foundation	National	●●●●●	9,904	8,189	-3.860	70	5,756	10	38	1,475,308	3,270	51	69	5.608
141	Resources for the Future	National	●●●●●	8,961	24,097	2.639	74	4,983	26	449	214,291	12,000	62	59	5.591
142	Ethics and Public Policy Center	National	●●●	6,818	42,685	-2.142	61	3,239	1	103	327,558	6,120	62	74	5.591
143	Center for Education Reform	National	●●	6,078	8,619	1.946	62	2,106	7	71	167,979	4,560	-	-	5.579
144	Center for Law and Social Policy	National	●●●●	7,383	26,757	5.033	72	3,663	39	163	68,188	7,170	56	37	5.543
145	Inter-American Dialogue	National	●●●	6,578	27,895	6.149	70	2,998	8	142	139,451	19,300	53	8	5.531
146	Leadership Institute	National	●●●●●	8,814	4,469	-16.738	56	1,346	0	23	244,047	3,390	26	28	5.529
147	Center for Effective Government	National	●●	5,142	9,373	2.916	60	1,595	7	41	77,649	3,000	72	85	5.510
148	Data & Society Institute	National	●●●	6,258	20,743	10.566	74	4,262	10	170	216,175	3,270	34	45	5.495
149	Property & Environment Research Center	National	●●	5,444	18,457	6.218	66	2,557	6	112	191,364	3,300	-	-	5.477
150	Center for the National Interest	National	●●●	5,989	1,646	-20.439	43	681	2	19	69,157	376	44	49	5.451
151	Atlas Network	National	●●●●●	7,413	16,650	-10.430	60	2,208	0	48	663,836	5,650	43	12	5.432
152	Environmental Law Institute	National	●●●●	5,976	17,919	5.408	71	2,375	40	201	232,123	13,400	6	74	5.378
153	International Center for Research on Women	National	●●●●●	7,058	16,042	0.315	71	3,104	9	190	138,012	3,360	47	53	5.375
154	Center for an Urban Future	National	●●	4,255	16,858	12.972	69	2,028	7	31	146,410	1,470	42	63	5.356
155	Smart Growth America	National	●●●●	6,125	19,865	6.869	74	5,610	114	142	136,286	8,480	64	42	5.351
156	Committee for Economic Development	National	●●●	5,455	21,890	0.815	65	1,662	9	81	151,552	2,980	27	12	5.333
157	Center for Security Policy	National	●●●	5,416	8,673	-1.823	63	5,385	3	56	840,205	8,950	14	8	5.305
158	National Right to Work Legal Defense & Education Foundation Inc.	National	●●●●	5,645	5,650	-6.186	60	2,288	4	31	1,345,911	3,710	62	76	5.301
159	Becket	National	●●●●	5,580	13,469	-2.106	64	2,827	2	51	198,949	4,220	1	4	5.292
160	Foundation for Government Accountability	National	●●●●	5,281	3,805	-17.931	48	696	5	10	5,173	2,120	49	61	5.243
161	Eagle Forum	National	●●	3,785	2,512	7.557	64	5,050	0	52	744,335	3,140	62	76	5.225
162	Independent Women’s Forum	National	●●	4,184	14,715	3.398	63	3,511	6	54	721,971	21,900	29	35	5.220
163	Citizens Against Government Waste	National	●●●	4,613	10,086	0.958	64	4,351	3	39	301,816	4,770	-	-	5.203
164	Students For Liberty	National	●●●	4,617	4,941	-1.938	62	2,084	1	34	207,911	4,600	41	65	5.175
165	John Locke Foundation	State	●●●	10,410	27,987	7.732	57	2,325	0	35	470,187	20,000	35	4	5.174
166	Information Technology & Innovation Foundation	National	●●●	4,420	30,255	12.745	76	6,194	47	158	208,359	9,870	61	79	5.154
167	Pacific Research Institute	National	●●●●	4,462	17,078	-5.384	61	2,531	8	43	756,641	3,430	-	-	5.059
168	Berggruen Institute	National	●●●●	4,762	8,119	-13.698	55	1,071	1	37	39,631	1,890	42	57	5.047
169	Eno Center for Transportation	National	●●	3,581	14,272	3.767	64	1,312	14	40	14,853	5,230	58	66	5.044
170	Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy	National	●●	3,214	9,196	3.319	63	1,139	7	48	129,607	2,880	41	45	4.954
171	Foreign Policy Association	National	●●●	3,532	4,794	-3.626	60	1,948	6	240	374,831	2,430	56	72	4.917
172	Institute for War & Peace Reporting	National	●●●●	3,807	19,264	2.542	70	5,651	13	165	533,894	39,700	54	6	4.865
173	Employment Policies Institute	National	●●	2,881	9,352	-3.505	56	1,570	4	45	531,016	1,250	34	81	4.850
174	Freedom Foundation	National	●●●●	3,395	3,452	-21.098	44	833	1	6	19,910	2,210	7	89	4.829
175	Center for Progressive Reform	National	●	2,224	7,742	1.328	54	1,143	5	60	43,738	4,740	54	71	4.819
176	First Liberty Institute	National	●●●●	3,603	5,657	-11.256	57	1,449	1	8	78,000	2,640	25	29	4.783
177	World Policy Institute	National	●	2,168	13,266	17.551	71	5,677	14	222	573,298	4,060	3	6	4.767
178	America’s Future Foundation	National	●	2,179	5,613	-12.981	41	871	0	18	140,828	3,650	25	3	4.755
179	Energy and Environmental Research Center	National	●●	2,383	6,306	-1.878	55	839	12	54	238,352	937	8	1	4.748
180	International Peace Institute	National	●●●●	3,378	15,059	-5.043	64	1,801	10	117	40,078	8,850	35	44	4.693
181	Concord Coalition	National	●●	2,104	5,747	0.282	57	1,478	3	52	116,395	2,520	16	21	4.629
182	Natural Resource Governance Institute	National	●●●●●	3,594	12,669	-8.290	65	1,467	13	61	251,227	6,160	61	7	4.613
183	Institute for Free Speech	National	●●	2,203	8,526	-12.772	46	885	0	16	150,831	5,070	36	44	4.607
184	Texas Public Policy Foundation	State	●●●●●	7,584	32,737	6.006	63	2,374	9	33	169,451	11,400	62	79	4.600
185	Goldwater Institute	National	●●●●	2,776	10,385	-5.227	61	2,343	9	33	55,937	2,880	25	29	4.590
186	Buckeye Institute, The	State	●●	4,915	6,381	0.921	46	925	2	14	235,239	930	-	-	4.563
187	Lugar Center	National	●	1,571	2,050	2.812	53	792	5	24	4,632	722	65	77	4.554
188	EastWest Institute	National	●●●●	2,865	7,322	-5.376	63	1,226	3	61	33,158	5,230	62	57	4.550
189	Yankee Institute for Public Policy	State	●●	4,517	16,974	3.069	47	715	2	11	120,601	2,810	41	55	4.516
190	Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge	National	●●●	2,132	2,928	-12.642	48	366	3	14	93,328	902	6	29	4.512
191	Archbridge Institute	National	●	1,345	4,422	-14.172	33	119	2	2	782	217	64	78	4.499
192	MacIver Institute for Public Policy	State	●	3,489	14,158	12.100	49	1,498	2	9	1,204,459	8,550	41	52	4.492
193	Free the People	National	●	1,617	2,517	0.962	54	332	0	4	8,259	1,200	58	46	4.488
194	Lexington Institute	National	●●	1,956	12,375	-2.022	57	1,637	3	17	96,017	3,720	49	56	4.479
195	Institute for Higher Education Policy	National	●●●	2,059	6,270	7.833	69	2,828	15	201	351,048	1,930	66	83	4.459
196	Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments	National	●●●●	2,545	9,433	-4.383	64	2,297	7	54	175,415	2,250	3	34	4.431
197	Institute for Policy Innovation	National	●	1,387	6,543	4.231	56	1,186	4	29	63,945	2,670	47	52	4.377
198	Women's Environment & Development Organization	National	●●	1,487	4,633	7.954	63	1,489	6	112	46,180	2,050	2	4	4.338
199	Washington Policy Center	State	●●●	4,267	17,514	8.378	56	1,530	6	16	381,178	5,580	7	29	4.337
200	W.E. Upjohn Institute	National	●●●●●	2,733	21,853	-3.545	70	2,350	15	128	152,951	13,400	45	47	4.331
201	Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington	National	●●●	1,864	7,759	-11.387	51	1,016	1	41	9,045	3,450	71	89	4.319
202	Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center	State	●●	3,551	25,846	12.366	55	891	4	23	81,823	5,590	61	72	4.319
203	Institute for Religion And Democracy	National	●●	1,598	736	-15.042	43	858	0	4	265,042	291	4	45	4.310
204	Civitas Institute	State	●●	3,902	14,112	13.847	60	1,206	0	12	71,356	6,270	-	5	4.296
205	Global Integrity	National	●●●	1,706	2,785	0.224	61	1,447	16	54	88,185	3,260	67	83	4.284
206	Policy Matters Ohio	State	●●	3,298	24,332	10.095	52	1,298	5	17	19,469	4,540	64	76	4.269
207	Independence Institute	State	●●●	4,011	15,443	12.014	60	2,010	2	30	197,624	4,680	62	6	4.263
208	Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research	State	●●	3,599	17,279	13.747	60	1,667	10	34	85,869	4,950	42	35	4.212
209	Center for Financial Inclusion	National	●●●●●	2,590	11,278	-15.951	60	897	1	22	68,968	3,640	-	2	4.197
210	Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, The	National	●	1,025	4,594	-9.339	39	271	2	8	2,064	341	4	4	4.189
211	Fund for American Studies, The	National	●●●●●	2,100	3,612	-20.117	50	587	2	69	45,183	3,710	52	58	4.182
212	Show-Me Institute	State	●●	3,132	18,443	2.298	46	855	1	15	317,870	7,190	15	18	4.158
213	Ignatian Solidarity Network	National	●	1,057	2,169	0.647	51	818	0	68	34,203	1,920	59	68	4.152
214	Center for International Private Enterprise	National	●●●●●	2,214	5,298	-10.228	64	2,050	9	112	265,526	5,990	54	61	4.098
215	Employee Benefit Research Institute	National	●●●	1,506	7,366	13.695	77	6,725	30	141	142,205	3,850	53	6	4.076
216	Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom	National	●	889	3,285	-1.711	47	857	1	4	205,507	3,140	37	4	4.034
217	Institute for Defense Analysis	National	●●●●●●	3,203	8,569	-23.536	66	1,351	14	118	22,505	2,530	27	26	3.958
218	American Foreign Policy Council	National	●●	1,174	1,925	-9.021	51	1,242	4	83	183,209	1,610	-	-	3.936
219	Steamboat Institute	National	●	842	831	-24.966	26	161	0	4	5,133	501	14	1	3.905
220	Campaign Finance Institute	National	●	825	3,709	3.343	55	1,083	3	62	154,251	2,050	46	56	3.862
221	Liberty Justice Center	National	●	796	851	-18.791	32	177	1	4	3,113	357	56	7	3.855
222	Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives	State	●●●	2,503	7,208	0.544	49	1,137	1	11	147,964	4,160	9	12	3.776
223	Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress	National	●●	934	891	-9.415	49	570	2	67	478,370	310	42	67	3.761
224	Young Voices	National	●	601	1,285	-13.911	32	340	0	2	121,716	1,840	54	46	3.736
225	Idaho Freedom Foundation	State	●	1,720	7,215	-1.100	38	356	1	2	46,070	4,390	62	4	3.712
226	Beacon Center of Tennessee	State	●●	1,887	4,853	-6.832	36	426	3	5	29,590	1,070	42	44	3.680
227	James Madison Institute	State	●●	1,871	7,311	1.182	45	617	0	9	57,525	2,900	39	52	3.639
228	Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty	State	●●	1,940	7,783	-1.561	44	708	5	8	61,127	2,310	47	52	3.617
229	Libertas Institute	State	●●	1,759	7,327	5.778	51	446	1	1	11,719	1,500	68	78	3.531
230	Energy & Environment Legal Institute	National	●	597	2,934	-14.938	37	502	0	4	4,385	2,150	48	55	3.529
231	Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation	National	●●●	836	1,143	-16.141	46	385	5	53	4,786	629	49	54	3.526
232	American Council for Capital Formation	National	●●	698	3,286	-2.873	54	823	2	15	3,833	782	75	79	3.521
233	Galen Institute	National	●	602	713	-1.799	51	1,132	3	9	112,441	1,120	68	84	3.509
234	Kansas Policy Institute	State	●	1,427	5,685	-3.674	36	288	0	6	19,190	1,420	52	63	3.506
235	Beacon Hill Institute	National	●	429	2,468	5.136	48	935	8	14	13,899	665	62	77	3.501
236	Potomac Institute for Policy Studies	National	●●●●●	1,053	3,342	-17.068	53	787	4	52	38,298	3,090	-	-	3.493
237	Free To Choose Network	National	●●●	797	1,370	-6.984	56	424	0	14	32,095	1,430	4	43	3.451
238	Ethan Allen Institute	State	●	957	5,706	-1.681	29	331	1	3	14,731	1,740	44	51	3.406
239	Mississippi Center for Public Policy	State	●	1,275	8,476	-0.418	39	345	1	5	3,637	1,230	49	69	3.402
240	Bluegrass Institute	National	●	411	3,192	-11.659	35	442	0	4	36,379	5,650	27	29	3.332
241	National Foundation for American Policy	National	●	411	3,190	19.142	66	2,116	11	22	10,087	646	26	3	3.325
242	Badger Institute	State	●●	1,248	11,713	2.531	44	821	2	10	33,571	1,080	53	62	3.312
243	Alabama Policy Institute	State	●●	1,234	3,823	0.467	43	504	4	9	35,401	941	13	12	3.266
244	Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs	State	●●	1,366	8,044	-10.265	37	480	1	7	34,125	3,320	62	76	3.210
245	Joint Center for Political & Economic Studies	National	●●	476	2,098	9.909	66	1,558	12	107	396,010	769	53	64	3.165
246	Public Agenda	National	●●●●	635	2,181	5.910	71	5,200	18	379	302,806	481	61	38	3.154
247	Commonwealth Institute	National	●	408	2,402	1.504	54	2,264	1	107	53,600	1,930	85	91	3.131
248	Grassroot Institute of Hawaii	State	●	909	5,709	0.851	39	496	2	7	120,659	2,520	21	-	3.106
249	Institute for the Analysis of Global Security	National	●●	409	3,550	-7.538	47	1,342	0	26	45,852	418	-	-	3.065
250	Institute for Social and Environmental Transition-International	National	●●	417	1,265	-12.129	44	242	5	27	29,982	582	97	8	3.032
251	Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth	State	●●	1,032	3,958	5.074	51	849	5	30	89,019	3,440	-	12	2.974
252	Policy Circle, The	National	●	317	1,795	-29.434	21	62	0	3	493	411	61	76	2.948
253	Georgia Public Policy Foundation	State	●	662	2,815	0.845	37	423	1	9	14,143	1,730	7	87	2.856
254	Pelican Institute for Public Policy	State	●	552	2,637	-5.858	31	218	0	1	3,289	938	8	5	2.651
255	Cascade Policy Institute	State	●	565	4,151	4.363	42	819	1	27	34,585	2,100	48	66	2.648
256	American Consumer Institute, The	National	●	193	2,065	4.494	51	850	0	7	49,289	2,000	69	77	2.584
257	Georgia Center for Opportunity	State	●●	637	4,987	-5.593	39	158	0	6	1,815	640	1	16	2.537
258	Mountain States Legal Foundation	National	●●	289	665	-22.398	38	368	2	6	37,713	342	57	76	2.524
259	Nevada Policy Research Institute	State	●	556	2,560	3.853	45	842	1	4	45,609	2,210	46	38	2.516
260	National Institute for Public Policy	National	●●●	287	880	-24.915	36	412	2	10	50,707	306	75	91	2.500
261	Rio Grande Foundation	State	●	395	5,245	3.535	36	373	0	1	142,402	2,380	54	66	2.463
262	Public Policy Institute of New York State	State	●	381	284	-0.398	31	265	1	4	6,223	228	69	78	2.462
263	Pinchot Institute for Conservation	National	●●	237	1,339	-8.223	49	353	4	29	2,592	954	71	78	2.432
264	Freedom Forum	National	●●●●●●	469	645	-10.577	68	3,106	6	178	780,127	227	52	65	2.403
265	Benjamin Rush Institute	National	●	164	411	-25.488	22	68	1	4	10,891	500	56	69	2.389
266	Worldwatch Institute	National	●●	222	1,085	20.318	78	15,785	32	564	974,316	617	-	-	2.352
267	Jesse Helms Center	National	●●	203	468	-26.155	29	191	1	5	4,228	111	59	79	2.347
268	Nonproliferation Policy Education Center	National	●	182	1,938	-13.205	40	505	0	23	6,614	2,870	3	33	2.303
269	Maine Heritage Policy Center	State	●	375	2,922	-3.457	35	352	0	5	277,730	1,420	49	66	2.212
270	Political Research Associates	National	●	163	299	2.506	56	3,789	1	82	165,249	3	75	91	2.184
271	Platte Institute for Economic Research	State	●	361	3,017	-9.208	31	211	2	4	59,821	847	31	3	2.116
272	Leadership Program of the Rockies	National	●	148	114	-28.134	26	102	0	1	2,549	222	56	67	2.067
273	Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence	State	●	326	811	-6.375	35	170	1	5	3,615	383	99	99	1.975
274	Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity	State	●	237	1,098	-4.126	29	167	1	0	37,319	1,320	6	77	1.932
275	Sutherland Institute	State	●●	314	1,084	-4.687	37	521	3	16	6,487	729	64	75	1.928
276	Northeast-Midwest Institute	National	●●	146	963	-3.440	56	761	18	48	66,444	796	37	51	1.877
277	Maine Center for Economic Policy	State	●	281	2,541	1.473	42	340	2	7	10,165	2,240	37	57	1.856
278	Maryland Public Policy Institute, The	State	●	227	2,408	4.376	40	462	3	10	128,212	722	6	9	1.806
279	Forge Leadership Network	National	●	72	315	-31.307	10	26	0	0	139	336	59	72	1.779
280	Center on Global Interests	National	●	100	543	-19.364	32	210	0	14	19,211	519	99	99	1.770
281	School Choice Wisconsin	State	●●	257	305	-12.122	30	166	2	1	1,094	100	51	76	1.714
282	Palmetto Promise Institute	State	●	209	1,069	-12.281	25	97	0	1	4,623	845	-	-	1.669
283	Wyoming Liberty Group	State	●●	219	1,025	-15.058	28	137	0	3	984	867	52	67	1.523
284	Families and Work Institute	National	●	83	275	17.525	71	1,819	17	83	28,867	129	18	21	1.515
285	Garden State Initiative	State	●	142	919	-12.025	19	56	0	0	1,327	350	59	79	1.492
286	George C. Marshall Institute	National	●	68	136	-2.927	47	1,181	1	30	188,571	68	25	32	1.437
287	Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy	State	●	123	775	2.593	35	256	0	3	3,794	512	66	77	1.304
288	1851 Center for Constitutional Law	State	●	89	848	-0.795	29	202	0	1	7,044	175	42	51	1.070
289	Free State Foundation	National	●	53	337	-15.969	38	309	2	11	19,450	216	57	83	1.057
290	Empower Mississippi Foundation	State	●	106	671	-9.187	27	111	1	0	1,518	328	58	74	1.031
291	Caesar Rodney Institute	State	●	88	270	-15.205	17	112	0	1	21,679	429	-	-	0.979
292	Center for International Policy	National	●●●	57	61	-4.613	57	2,386	1	98	246,289	196	1	1	0.875
293	Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy	State	●	73	619	-3.670	28	158	0	1	11,717	726	12	17	0.812
294	Think Freely Media	National	●●	46	30	-36.201	21	42	0	1	269	91	58	76	0.811
295	Virginia Institute for Public Policy	State	●	69	299	-6.411	24	322	0	4	14,654	360	72	86	0.798
296	Alliance for Health Policy	National	●●	41	118	4.769	63	1,096	6	66	11,144	1,210	65	81	0.664
297	Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies	National	●	32	498	-5.651	48	579	3	15	4,858	875	66	77	0.575
298	Indiana Policy Review Foundation	State	●	47	363	-1.146	26	133	1	2	25,831	619	55	58	0.530
299	Franklin News Foundation	National	●●	32	62	-24.805	33	569	1	5	203,453	23	59	52	0.437
300	National Tax Limitation Committee	National	●●	26	166	-32.318	24	76	0	1	77,455	275	51	62	0.286
301	Center for Independent Thought	National	●	17	167	-38.143	10	43	0	0	42,595	19	53	59	0.152
302	Arkansas Policy Foundation	State	●	26	409	-13.873	13	43	0	3	58,201	210	7	74	-0.037
303	Institute for Global Ethics	National	●	15	63	-1.447	50	866	5	87	158,307	53	99	99	-0.075
304	Institute for Sustainable Communities, Advocay & Leadership	National	●●●●	22	185	-11.595	55	676	7	44	39,040	685	39	4	-0.216
305	Montana Policy Institute	State	●	24	54	-22.036	15	222	0	1	513	206	1	41	-0.451
306	Louisiana Family Forum	State	●	16	20	-0.733	36	257	1	2	9,589	71	39	1	-0.827
307	Federalist Society	National	●●●●●	1	23	-8.172	65	3,366	4	121	259,085	7,650	56	69	-2.877
308	Center for Independent Employees	National	●●	0	2	-53.765	1	3	0	0	24	9	61	84	-2.958

Domain Efficiency Rankings

Domain Efficiency measures how much higher a think tank’s domain rating is than would be expected given its expenditures and whether it is state or national in scope.

Domain rating is an industry-standard score ranging from 0 to 100 based on the quantity and quality of incoming links from other web domains.

Here are the top ranking think tanks in Domain Efficiency:

DE Rank	Name	Scope	Budget	Domain Rating	Referring Domains	Search Efficiency Score	Referring .gov Domains	Referring .edu Domains	Total Backlinks	Top-100 Ranked Keywords	Estimated Monthly Search Traffic	Pages Indexed By Google	Google Pagespeed Insight Mobile Score	Google Pagespeed Insight Desktop Score	Domain Efficiency Score
1	Federation of American Scientists	National	●●	85	62,412	10.378	217	1,272	7,876,454	1,042,740	663,816	78,200	49	58	28.132
2	Prison Policy Initiative	National	●	75	7,665	8.091	25	165	250,885	96,492	51,097	6,020	65	78	26.503
3	Electronic Privacy Information Center	National	●●	82	18,321	8.606	33	586	2,723,328	123,199	114,207	14,300	48	4	24.779
4	Student Free Press Association	National	●	70	7,691	7.042	3	99	5,569,521	27,320	16,102	20,100	57	72	24.657
5	Institute for Family Studies	National	●	72	4,434	8.088	4	60	70,685	60,020	53,612	2,170	25	27	21.961
6	Center for Responsive Politics	National	●●	81	38,853	9.729	22	607	4,298,613	597,583	373,596	597,000	75	87	21.927
7	Worldwatch Institute	National	●●	78	15,785	2.352	32	564	974,316	1,085	222	617	-	-	20.318
8	National Foundation for American Policy	National	●	66	2,116	3.325	11	22	10,087	3,190	411	646	26	3	19.142
9	East-West Center	National	●	72	4,676	5.697	35	418	3,096,411	22,888	5,459	9,490	6	77	18.758
10	Empire Center for Public Policy	State	●	59	1,446	6.538	2	5	60,411	26,414	30,734	4,450	67	84	18.212
11	International Institute for Strategic Studies	National	●●	73	8,292	7.074	37	333	808,075	51,439	22,838	3,400	5	54	18.112
12	Center for Economic Policy and Research	National	●●	77	14,703	5.861	24	283	2,392,309	41,453	7,766	12,100	51	64	18.060
13	Sentencing Project	National	●●	75	8,254	7.566	31	267	686,916	40,041	40,177	1,270	39	52	17.938
14	Institute for Local Self-Reliance	National	●●	75	7,311	6.619	38	117	457,735	52,456	15,659	9,640	8	43	17.769
15	Ballotpedia	National	●●●	82	26,955	11.823	50	418	4,487,566	2,150,471	3,622,680	401,000	16	55	17.556
16	World Policy Institute	National	●	71	5,677	4.767	14	222	573,298	13,266	2,168	4,060	3	6	17.551
17	Families and Work Institute	National	●	71	1,819	1.515	17	83	28,867	275	83	129	18	21	17.525
18	Tax Foundation	National	●●●	81	21,707	9.882	60	222	1,892,494	264,386	516,786	12,200	52	66	16.750
19	Nautilus Institute for Security & Sustainable Development	National	●	63	2,361	5.926	11	116	83,590	13,804	5,458	6,900	4	47	16.638
20	Mackinac Center	State	●●●●	70	4,898	6.301	5	72	1,933,651	81,519	37,062	29,500	76	9	16.444
21	Center for Democracy and Technology	National	●●●	81	11,261	5.670	27	383	1,292,574	19,910	7,740	5,780	5	66	16.424
22	Christian Coalition of America	National	●	58	2,420	5.746	2	78	44,843	7,480	3,899	4,340	51	57	16.349
23	Jamestown Foundation	National	●●	72	10,270	6.696	18	217	1,675,417	80,865	16,140	46,900	45	57	16.201
24	Environmental and Energy Study Institute	National	●●	72	3,122	7.300	21	111	47,270	52,710	29,909	5,810	7	-	15.814
25	Illinois Policy Institute	State	●●●●	70	4,047	7.381	16	30	500,838	132,863	115,642	12,900	55	66	14.694
26	Institute for Women's Policy Research	National	●●●	76	7,641	6.635	38	378	552,597	33,874	18,269	5,840	2	24	14.613
27	Economic Policy Institute	National	●●●●	81	25,190	8.489	57	628	2,526,807	262,744	138,563	13,400	-	15	14.453
28	Civitas Institute	State	●●	60	1,206	4.296	0	12	71,356	14,112	3,902	6,270	-	5	13.847
29	Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research	State	●●	60	1,667	4.212	10	34	85,869	17,279	3,599	4,950	42	35	13.747
30	Employee Benefit Research Institute	National	●●●	77	6,725	4.076	30	141	142,205	7,366	1,506	3,850	53	6	13.695
31	Breakthrough Institute	National	●●	70	4,211	5.758	4	116	211,799	11,658	6,430	1,870	-	-	13.653
32	Center for an Urban Future	National	●●	69	2,028	5.356	7	31	146,410	16,858	4,255	1,470	42	63	12.972
33	Center for Voting and Democracy	National	●●●	74	6,520	7.605	12	171	232,088	66,153	47,733	6,020	31	35	12.922
34	Center for Public Integrity	National	●●●●	78	20,867	7.515	27	295	2,841,571	191,670	49,877	13,800	46	65	12.879
35	Institute for Science & International Security	National	●	65	4,070	6.309	3	80	259,225	10,393	9,717	2,880	63	52	12.801
36	Pew Research Center	National	●●●●●●	91	139,174	10.341	216	2,002	31,675,607	1,429,895	1,302,536	39,000	55	71	12.764
37	Information Technology & Innovation Foundation	National	●●●	76	6,194	5.154	47	158	208,359	30,255	4,420	9,870	61	79	12.745
38	Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy	National	●●	71	5,021	5.680	9	153	462,191	43,249	6,339	16,700	59	5	12.740
39	American Press Institute	National	●●●	75	4,851	6.179	5	210	212,893	33,845	11,928	4,530	55	64	12.739
40	Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center	State	●●	55	891	4.319	4	23	81,823	25,846	3,551	5,590	61	72	12.366
41	MacIver Institute for Public Policy	State	●	49	1,498	4.492	2	9	1,204,459	14,158	3,489	8,550	41	52	12.100
42	Center for Climate and Energy Solutions	National	●●●	76	8,197	7.341	55	325	4,339,204	47,414	40,274	2,960	46	61	12.085
43	Independence Institute	State	●●●	60	2,010	4.263	2	30	197,624	15,443	4,011	4,680	62	6	12.014
44	Migration Policy Institute	National	●●●●	78	14,417	8.200	63	632	1,033,884	172,569	102,031	14,600	59	82	11.968
45	Foundation for Economic Education	National	●●●●	77	15,984	8.719	10	225	5,459,346	339,906	166,763	43,300	77	88	11.781
46	Public Citizen	National	●●●●	78	17,880	6.796	35	317	1,472,387	78,690	25,266	21,100	59	8	11.715
47	Christensen Institute	National	●●●	73	2,692	6.072	11	80	95,535	14,335	10,464	3,300	56	48	11.447
48	Data & Society Institute	National	●●●	74	4,262	5.495	10	170	216,175	20,743	6,258	3,270	34	45	10.566
49	Economic Innovation Group	National	●●●	72	2,911	6.243	55	36	18,326	14,619	12,481	3,180	34	36	10.294
50	Population Reference Bureau	National	●●●●	79	14,106	7.724	38	808	330,612	138,040	69,343	8,320	64	55	10.253
51	Policy Matters Ohio	State	●●	52	1,298	4.269	5	17	19,469	24,332	3,298	4,540	64	76	10.095
52	Center for Public Policy Priorities	National	●	59	1,227	5.711	9	33	48,929	12,584	4,793	845	49	57	10.093
53	Independent Institute	National	●●●	72	10,859	7.331	4	232	2,259,427	164,411	37,398	22,700	27	2	10.016
54	Joint Center for Political & Economic Studies	National	●●	66	1,558	3.165	12	107	396,010	2,098	476	769	53	64	9.909
55	Institute for Policy Studies	National	●●●	73	7,763	6.728	8	194	1,536,148	75,811	21,341	19,800	53	74	9.755
56	Heartland Institute	National	●●●●	75	13,246	7.030	18	219	1,047,211	59,250	31,028	45,400	13	17	9.563
57	Century Foundation	National	●●●	74	6,810	6.721	19	232	533,543	83,363	22,118	5,270	54	77	9.445
58	Oakland Institute	National	●	58	2,519	5.972	1	41	86,949	10,135	6,200	3,370	52	68	9.195
59	Americans for Tax Reform	National	●●●	72	7,951	6.670	7	47	585,811	52,831	19,982	27,100	59	8	8.966
60	National Bureau of Economic Research	National	●●●●●●	87	50,239	8.426	158	1,853	13,609,794	798,110	191,188	284,000	37	47	8.868
61	Association of American Educators Foundation	National	●	59	914	6.184	2	83	34,984	10,844	8,115	1,560	4	47	8.472
62	Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs	National	●●●	71	5,121	5.981	5	318	484,170	35,946	9,904	13,100	33	34	8.381
63	Washington Policy Center	State	●●●	56	1,530	4.337	6	16	381,178	17,514	4,267	5,580	7	29	8.378
64	Women's Environment & Development Organization	National	●●	63	1,489	4.338	6	112	46,180	4,633	1,487	2,050	2	4	7.954
65	Project on Government Oversight	National	●●●	71	5,644	6.982	7	85	483,928	65,013	27,424	9,270	49	64	7.838
66	Institute for Higher Education Policy	National	●●●	69	2,828	4.459	15	201	351,048	6,270	2,059	1,930	66	83	7.833
67	John Locke Foundation	State	●●●	57	2,325	5.174	0	35	470,187	27,987	10,410	20,000	35	4	7.732
68	Foreign Policy Research Institute	National	●●	68	5,182	7.302	13	205	449,346	100,390	34,300	12,000	32	38	7.727
69	Eagle Forum	National	●●	64	5,050	5.225	0	52	744,335	2,512	3,785	3,140	62	76	7.557
70	Common Cause	National	●●●●	75	8,580	7.135	18	185	822,169	35,105	36,987	10,800	58	77	7.433
71	Institute for Energy and Environment Research	National	●	56	1,850	5.974	2	61	266,960	7,349	6,178	2,040	53	64	7.346
72	American Action Forum	National	●●●	72	4,267	6.554	8	56	130,871	50,211	18,800	9,550	48	5	7.320
73	Middle East Media Research Institute	National	●●●●	73	12,340	7.785	5	130	2,492,123	120,125	67,127	81,800	1	-	7.074
74	Smart Growth America	National	●●●●	74	5,610	5.351	114	142	136,286	19,865	6,125	8,480	64	42	6.869
75	FreedomWorks	National	●●●	69	7,074	6.140	5	46	733,447	29,718	11,418	23,400	65	76	6.863
76	American Conservative Union Foundation	National	●●●	68	5,221	7.050	5	62	494,289	6,965	27,454	2,410	28	25	6.843
77	Arab American Institute	National	●●	65	2,569	5.738	8	96	64,871	19,194	6,745	5,560	33	23	6.602
78	Bill of Rights Institute	National	●●●	70	4,589	8.882	32	131	339,869	115,754	184,993	3,550	16	2	6.574
79	Peterson Institute For International Economics	National	●●●●●	78	12,135	8.122	53	440	1,058,564	119,840	113,246	16,700	23	67	6.484
80	Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management	National	●●	64	852	5.663	5	234	788,665	9,285	6,101	1,880	47	57	6.363
81	Santa Fe Institute	National	●●●●●	76	8,801	6.287	8	794	510,387	24,661	17,033	19,200	65	84	6.272
82	James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, The	National	●	58	2,042	5.835	2	69	2,208,803	16,632	5,966	4,270	47	52	6.237
83	Property & Environment Research Center	National	●●	66	2,557	5.477	6	112	191,364	18,457	5,444	3,300	-	-	6.218
84	Middle East Institute	National	●●●●	72	6,155	6.991	13	297	2,117,222	83,895	30,248	13,000	44	5	6.171
85	Inter-American Dialogue	National	●●●	70	2,998	5.531	8	142	139,451	27,895	6,578	19,300	53	8	6.149
86	Human Rights Watch	National	●●●●●●	88	88,207	9.910	149	1,537	12,893,716	1,100,544	954,923	214,000	65	85	6.133
87	Discovery Institute	National	●●●●	72	6,247	6.740	4	112	1,491,437	28,564	23,581	12,000	5	61	6.093
88	Washington Center for Equitable Growth	National	●●●●	71	3,322	6.602	5	104	251,107	45,349	19,876	10,200	67	72	6.089
89	Union of Concerned Scientists	National	●●●●●●	83	34,198	8.278	71	761	2,642,539	212,886	158,298	12,400	41	37	6.076
90	Center for Global Development	National	●●●●●	78	11,304	6.750	35	457	1,156,496	102,098	29,115	30,600	5	4	6.071
91	Texas Public Policy Foundation	State	●●●●●	63	2,374	4.600	9	33	169,451	32,737	7,584	11,400	62	79	6.006
92	Public Agenda	National	●●●●	71	5,200	3.154	18	379	302,806	2,181	635	481	61	38	5.910
93	Libertas Institute	State	●●	51	446	3.531	1	1	11,719	7,327	1,759	1,500	68	78	5.778
94	Food Research & Action Center	National	●●●●●	76	5,408	5.809	49	164	197,424	22,012	10,805	2,980	54	33	5.573
95	Cato Institute	National	●●●●●●	82	43,705	8.760	71	862	7,381,146	522,347	252,507	86,500	59	91	5.547
96	Environmental Law Institute	National	●●●●	71	2,375	5.378	40	201	232,123	17,919	5,976	13,400	6	74	5.408
97	Beacon Hill Institute	National	●	48	935	3.501	8	14	13,899	2,468	429	665	62	77	5.136
98	Coaltion for Environmentally Responsible Economies	National	●●●●●	77	6,283	6.082	31	180	268,876	15,183	14,910	4,200	42	13	5.109
99	Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth	State	●●	51	849	2.974	5	30	89,019	3,958	1,032	3,440	-	12	5.074
100	Truman National security Project	National	●	54	879	5.840	0	25	156,199	5,359	5,456	2,060	23	24	5.062
101	Center for Law and Social Policy	National	●●●●	72	3,663	5.543	39	163	68,188	26,757	7,383	7,170	56	37	5.033
102	Brennan Center for Justice	National	●●●●●	78	13,806	7.895	48	230	787,780	159,102	94,723	17,000	49	53	5.007
103	Competitive Enterprise Institute	National	●●●●	73	11,005	6.585	12	146	1,967,892	75,734	21,762	38,200	68	53	4.843
104	Third Way Institute	National	●●●●	73	4,638	5.974	8	92	308,683	37,652	11,827	2,470	54	73	4.824
105	Center for American Progress	National	●●●●●●	84	43,604	8.683	91	689	5,190,896	637,838	256,398	47,700	43	52	4.776
106	Alliance for Health Policy	National	●●	63	1,096	0.664	6	66	11,144	118	41	1,210	65	81	4.769
107	American Consumer Institute, The	National	●	51	850	2.584	0	7	49,289	2,065	193	2,000	69	77	4.494
108	Maryland Public Policy Institute, The	State	●	40	462	1.806	3	10	128,212	2,408	227	722	6	9	4.376
109	Cascade Policy Institute	State	●	42	819	2.648	1	27	34,585	4,151	565	2,100	48	66	4.363
110	Institute for Policy Innovation	National	●	56	1,186	4.377	4	29	63,945	6,543	1,387	2,670	47	52	4.231
111	Henry L. Stimson Center	National	●●●●	70	3,785	6.010	10	209	290,116	30,018	11,362	9,660	74	72	4.101
112	Roosevelt Institute	National	●●●●	71	4,215	6.385	6	95	268,536	31,475	17,178	6,540	32	36	3.966
113	Center on Budget and Policy Priorities	National	●●●●●●	81	22,189	8.717	76	436	1,884,982	288,006	246,662	24,100	65	83	3.960
114	Guttmacher Institute	National	●●●●●	79	17,527	8.661	50	426	522,583	182,785	218,729	14,800	63	7	3.898
115	Brookings Institution	National	●●●●●●	88	83,893	9.695	279	1,915	8,189,706	1,565,441	829,235	153,000	62	74	3.889
116	Nevada Policy Research Institute	State	●	45	842	2.516	1	4	45,609	2,560	556	2,210	46	38	3.853
117	SPUR	National	●●●●	71	2,884	5.868	17	41	138,288	30,465	10,276	5,900	61	56	3.851
118	Center for a New American Security	National	●●●●	73	6,811	6.466	16	156	969,559	45,453	19,979	9,950	74	68	3.849
119	Eno Center for Transportation	National	●●	64	1,312	5.044	14	40	14,853	14,272	3,581	5,230	58	66	3.767
120	Demos	National	●●●●●	74	6,763	6.999	15	139	984,294	54,032	35,432	8,470	59	79	3.644
121	Rio Grande Foundation	State	●	36	373	2.463	0	1	142,402	5,245	395	2,380	54	66	3.535
122	Independent Women’s Forum	National	●●	63	3,511	5.220	6	54	721,971	14,715	4,184	21,900	29	35	3.398
123	Campaign Finance Institute	National	●	55	1,083	3.862	3	62	154,251	3,709	825	2,050	46	56	3.343
124	Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy	National	●●	63	1,139	4.954	7	48	129,607	9,196	3,214	2,880	41	45	3.319
125	Hispanic American Center for Economic Research	National	●	44	1,828	7.003	0	40	232,827	13,197	13,293	7,840	47	59	3.275
126	Bipartisan Policy Center	National	●●●●●	77	7,643	6.720	44	214	269,278	53,197	30,117	5,870	84	94	3.131
127	Yankee Institute for Public Policy	State	●●	47	715	4.516	2	11	120,601	16,974	4,517	2,810	41	55	3.069
128	Institute for Transportation & Development Policy	National	●●●●	71	2,944	5.892	15	83	568,203	16,891	10,840	7,290	31	52	2.976
129	Freedom House	National	●●●●●●	80	25,271	7.330	53	607	2,038,764	108,485	61,592	7,660	43	56	2.958
130	Center for Effective Government	National	●●	60	1,595	5.510	7	41	77,649	9,373	5,142	3,000	72	85	2.916
131	Center for Strategic and International Studies	National	●●●●●●	82	25,940	8.504	108	842	1,917,061	357,719	213,937	66,800	4	46	2.836
132	Lugar Center	National	●	53	792	4.554	5	24	4,632	2,050	1,571	722	65	77	2.812
133	Human Rights First	National	●●●●●	73	8,488	6.720	16	197	1,034,805	42,738	26,687	10,600	68	91	2.784
134	Resources for the Future	National	●●●●●	74	4,983	5.591	26	449	214,291	24,097	8,961	12,000	62	59	2.639
135	Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy	State	●	35	256	1.304	0	3	3,794	775	123	512	66	77	2.593
136	Institute for War & Peace Reporting	National	●●●●	70	5,651	4.865	13	165	533,894	19,264	3,807	39,700	54	6	2.542
137	American Legislative Exchange Council	National	●●●●●	72	5,645	6.381	24	73	514,572	29,618	18,542	6,930	48	53	2.537
138	Badger Institute	State	●●	44	821	3.312	2	10	33,571	11,713	1,248	1,080	53	62	2.531
139	Political Research Associates	National	●	56	3,789	2.184	1	82	165,249	299	163	3	75	91	2.506
140	Public Policy Institute of California	National	●●●●●	75	7,287	7.223	21	239	222,627	107,686	47,823	11,700	51	53	2.355
141	National Taxpayers Union	National	●●●	66	4,311	6.232	7	41	308,746	20,643	13,178	3,620	21	27	2.327
142	Show-Me Institute	State	●●	46	855	4.158	1	15	317,870	18,443	3,132	7,190	15	18	2.298
143	American Enterprise Institute	National	●●●●●●	82	33,313	7.804	61	662	6,573,237	293,005	108,330	84,800	28	32	2.237
144	Atlantic Council	National	●●●●●	78	14,185	7.815	44	310	1,261,920	260,405	96,224	68,000	52	78	2.151
145	Commonwealth Fund	National	●●●●●●	80	15,152	7.546	110	457	900,156	125,696	78,621	21,300	65	81	2.119
146	R Street Institute	National	●●●●	69	2,762	6.267	8	41	47,480	47,159	15,185	10,300	65	79	2.115
147	Center for Education Reform	National	●●	62	2,106	5.579	7	71	167,979	8,619	6,078	4,560	-	-	1.946
148	Manhattan Institute for Policy Research	National	●●●●●	75	9,738	6.764	18	163	1,086,685	58,203	30,979	8,520	24	25	1.620
149	Commonwealth Institute	National	●	54	2,264	3.131	1	107	53,600	2,402	408	1,930	85	91	1.504
150	Maine Center for Economic Policy	State	●	42	340	1.856	2	7	10,165	2,541	281	2,240	37	57	1.473
151	New America Foundation	National	●●●●●●	79	12,005	7.565	33	326	560,766	139,144	79,282	23,700	65	82	1.445
152	Social Science Research Council	National	●●●●●	75	9,004	6.382	16	821	958,112	84,779	21,312	28,000	65	76	1.384
153	Center for Progressive Reform	National	●	54	1,143	4.819	5	60	43,738	7,742	2,224	4,740	54	71	1.328
154	Reason Foundation	National	●●●●●	72	6,627	5.725	26	125	2,019,693	46,337	10,018	12,600	47	68	1.316
155	James Madison Institute	State	●●	45	617	3.639	0	9	57,525	7,311	1,871	2,900	39	52	1.182
156	Hudson Institute	National	●●●●●	73	8,458	6.717	24	230	742,968	65,300	28,096	10,400	24	25	1.133
157	Acton Institute	National	●●●●●	71	7,520	6.498	5	179	3,760,904	69,391	21,159	23,500	48	59	1.096
158	Kaiser Family Foundation	National	●●●●●●	86	37,804	8.588	150	885	2,560,502	407,429	282,164	73,700	42	59	1.023
159	Free the People	National	●	54	332	4.488	0	4	8,259	2,517	1,617	1,200	58	46	0.962
160	Citizens Against Government Waste	National	●●●	64	4,351	5.203	3	39	301,816	10,086	4,613	4,770	-	-	0.958
161	Buckeye Institute, The	State	●●	46	925	4.563	2	14	235,239	6,381	4,915	930	-	-	0.921
162	Council on Foreign Relations	National	●●●●●●	83	44,751	9.481	87	1,026	8,038,525	723,599	627,136	48,000	26	33	0.854
163	Grassroot Institute of Hawaii	State	●	39	496	3.106	2	7	120,659	5,709	909	2,520	21	-	0.851
164	Georgia Public Policy Foundation	State	●	37	423	2.856	1	9	14,143	2,815	662	1,730	7	87	0.845
165	Committee for Economic Development	National	●●●	65	1,662	5.333	9	81	151,552	21,890	5,455	2,980	27	12	0.815
166	Ignatian Solidarity Network	National	●	51	818	4.152	0	68	34,203	2,169	1,057	1,920	59	68	0.647
167	Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives	State	●●●	49	1,137	3.776	1	11	147,964	7,208	2,503	4,160	9	12	0.544
168	Washington Institute for Near East Policy	National	●●●●●	72	10,102	6.873	10	205	1,455,561	92,994	32,429	19,100	38	45	0.528
169	Alabama Policy Institute	State	●●	43	504	3.266	4	9	35,401	3,823	1,234	941	13	12	0.467
170	Philanthropy Roundtable	National	●●●●	69	2,742	6.059	7	66	71,837	26,542	13,052	1,400	68	47	0.423
171	Center of the American Experiment	State	●●	47	1,146	6.012	0	10	202,518	70,987	22,047	11,300	-	-	0.385
172	Urban Institute	National	●●●●●●	84	27,212	7.391	171	848	2,723,246	292,026	81,549	45,900	53	46	0.344
173	International Center for Research on Women	National	●●●●●	71	3,104	5.375	9	190	138,012	16,042	7,058	3,360	47	53	0.315
174	World Economic Forum	National	●●●●●●	91	113,492	10.257	456	2,288	7,637,434	1,617,787	1,809,659	237,000	5	62	0.312
175	Concord Coalition	National	●●	57	1,478	4.629	3	52	116,395	5,747	2,104	2,520	16	21	0.282
176	World Resources Institute	National	●●●●●●	84	26,973	7.489	144	1,057	3,297,024	221,639	90,247	30,100	58	66	0.251
177	Global Integrity	National	●●●	61	1,447	4.284	16	54	88,185	2,785	1,706	3,260	67	83	0.224
178	Carnegie Endowment for International Peace	National	●●●●●●	78	16,868	7.643	38	684	9,831,737	232,523	86,348	47,700	57	64	0.213
179	Southern Poverty Law Center	National	●●●●●●	81	31,618	10.114	41	610	3,493,788	335,361	1,130,212	32,100	36	38	0.198
180	Heritage Foundation	National	●●●●●●	83	50,197	9.190	110	887	8,643,948	674,863	483,992	70,400	38	46	-0.096
181	Public Policy Institute of New York State	State	●	31	265	2.462	1	4	6,223	284	381	228	69	78	-0.398
182	Mississippi Center for Public Policy	State	●	39	345	3.402	1	5	3,637	8,476	1,275	1,230	49	69	-0.418
183	Chicago Council on Global Affairs	National	●●●●●	72	4,077	5.869	21	162	431,054	28,256	12,351	28,500	6	71	-0.649
184	Louisiana Family Forum	State	●	36	257	-0.827	1	2	9,589	20	16	71	39	1	-0.733
185	1851 Center for Constitutional Law	State	●	29	202	1.070	0	1	7,044	848	89	175	42	51	-0.795
186	Mercatus Center	National	●●●●●	75	9,876	6.693	35	176	1,093,287	109,835	31,289	25,100	5	63	-0.832
187	Capital Research Center	National	●●●	63	3,599	6.106	4	30	227,369	22,908	11,731	5,960	29	34	-0.976
188	Lincoln Institute of Land Policy	National	●●●●●	73	3,575	5.643	46	231	140,934	44,587	10,314	19,400	65	39	-1.033
189	Idaho Freedom Foundation	State	●	38	356	3.712	1	2	46,070	7,215	1,720	4,390	62	4	-1.100
190	Indiana Policy Review Foundation	State	●	26	133	0.530	1	2	25,831	363	47	619	55	58	-1.146
191	Institute for New Economic Thinking	National	●●●●●	71	5,319	5.952	3	245	1,014,832	23,977	13,292	9,870	8	11	-1.361
192	Institute for Global Ethics	National	●	50	866	-0.075	5	87	158,307	63	15	53	99	99	-1.447
193	Institute for Justice	National	●●●●●	73	7,532	6.257	25	74	1,167,695	46,397	19,335	17,700	45	43	-1.469
194	Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty	State	●●	44	708	3.617	5	8	61,127	7,783	1,940	2,310	47	52	-1.561
195	EdChoice	National	●●●●	66	2,485	6.376	6	43	213,883	24,421	17,347	3,780	2	24	-1.621
196	German Marshall Fund	National	●●●●●	74	6,812	5.944	50	273	391,046	32,461	14,723	13,500	66	7	-1.662
197	Ethan Allen Institute	State	●	29	331	3.406	1	3	14,731	5,706	957	1,740	44	51	-1.681
198	Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom	National	●	47	857	4.034	1	4	205,507	3,285	889	3,140	37	4	-1.711
199	Galen Institute	National	●	51	1,132	3.509	3	9	112,441	713	602	1,120	68	84	-1.799
200	Center for Security Policy	National	●●●	63	5,385	5.305	3	56	840,205	8,673	5,416	8,950	14	8	-1.823
201	Energy and Environmental Research Center	National	●●	55	839	4.748	12	54	238,352	6,306	2,383	937	8	1	-1.878
202	Students For Liberty	National	●●●	62	2,084	5.175	1	34	207,911	4,941	4,617	4,600	41	65	-1.938
203	Lexington Institute	National	●●	57	1,637	4.479	3	17	96,017	12,375	1,956	3,720	49	56	-2.022
204	Milken Institute	National	●●●●●●	77	6,767	5.755	23	169	372,435	33,396	13,637	11,200	-	26	-2.064
205	Becket	National	●●●●	64	2,827	5.292	2	51	198,949	13,469	5,580	4,220	1	4	-2.106
206	Ethics and Public Policy Center	National	●●●	61	3,239	5.591	1	103	327,558	42,685	6,818	6,120	62	74	-2.142
207	Center for Reproductive Rights	National	●●●●●	73	6,298	7.111	11	174	271,162	44,813	46,525	8,080	13	17	-2.170
208	Judicial Watch Inc.	National	●●●●●●	74	15,676	7.396	6	58	3,236,431	32,655	65,293	45,000	35	34	-2.812
209	American Council for Capital Formation	National	●●	54	823	3.521	2	15	3,833	3,286	698	782	75	79	-2.873
210	George C. Marshall Institute	National	●	47	1,181	1.437	1	30	188,571	136	68	68	25	32	-2.927
211	Northeast-Midwest Institute	National	●●	56	761	1.877	18	48	66,444	963	146	796	37	51	-3.440
212	Maine Heritage Policy Center	State	●	35	352	2.212	0	5	277,730	2,922	375	1,420	49	66	-3.457
213	Employment Policies Institute	National	●●	56	1,570	4.850	4	45	531,016	9,352	2,881	1,250	34	81	-3.505
214	W.E. Upjohn Institute	National	●●●●●	70	2,350	4.331	15	128	152,951	21,853	2,733	13,400	45	47	-3.545
215	Foreign Policy Association	National	●●●	60	1,948	4.917	6	240	374,831	4,794	3,532	2,430	56	72	-3.626
216	Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy	State	●	28	158	0.812	0	1	11,717	619	73	726	12	17	-3.670
217	Kansas Policy Institute	State	●	36	288	3.506	0	6	19,190	5,685	1,427	1,420	52	63	-3.674
218	Americans for Prosperity Foundation	National	●●●●●	70	5,756	5.608	10	38	1,475,308	8,189	9,904	3,270	51	69	-3.860
219	Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity	State	●	29	167	1.932	1	0	37,319	1,098	237	1,320	6	77	-4.126
220	Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments	National	●●●●	64	2,297	4.431	7	54	175,415	9,433	2,545	2,250	3	34	-4.383
221	Center for International Policy	National	●●●	57	2,386	0.875	1	98	246,289	61	57	196	1	1	-4.613
222	Sutherland Institute	State	●●	37	521	1.928	3	16	6,487	1,084	314	729	64	75	-4.687
223	Young America’s Foundation	National	●●●●●	70	3,405	6.643	0	68	189,002	20,013	28,823	4,920	39	35	-4.866
224	International Peace Institute	National	●●●●	64	1,801	4.693	10	117	40,078	15,059	3,378	8,850	35	44	-5.043
225	Aspen Institute	National	●●●●●●	81	15,008	7.130	84	770	722,381	125,343	68,233	37,800	22	23	-5.130
226	Goldwater Institute	National	●●●●	61	2,343	4.590	9	33	55,937	10,385	2,776	2,880	25	29	-5.227
227	EastWest Institute	National	●●●●	63	1,226	4.550	3	61	33,158	7,322	2,865	5,230	62	57	-5.376
228	Pacific Research Institute	National	●●●●	61	2,531	5.059	8	43	756,641	17,078	4,462	3,430	-	-	-5.384
229	Georgia Center for Opportunity	State	●●	39	158	2.537	0	6	1,815	4,987	637	640	1	16	-5.593
230	Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies	National	●	48	579	0.575	3	15	4,858	498	32	875	66	77	-5.651
231	Pelican Institute for Public Policy	State	●	31	218	2.651	0	1	3,289	2,637	552	938	8	5	-5.858
232	RAND	National	●●●●●●	86	45,055	8.257	236	1,616	8,872,458	651,452	255,618	107,000	4	55	-5.960
233	National Center for State Courts	National	●●●●●●	75	4,183	7.286	132	232	10,443,933	104,769	67,595	12,900	47	59	-6.141
234	National Right to Work Legal Defense & Education Foundation Inc.	National	●●●●	60	2,288	5.301	4	31	1,345,911	5,650	5,645	3,710	62	76	-6.186
235	Pacific Legal Foundation	National	●●●●●	64	2,767	5.948	5	43	222,790	29,994	12,362	7,100	63	73	-6.304
236	Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence	State	●	35	170	1.975	1	5	3,615	811	326	383	99	99	-6.375
237	Virginia Institute for Public Policy	State	●	24	322	0.798	0	4	14,654	299	69	360	72	86	-6.411
238	Pew Charitable Trusts	National	●●●●●●	85	35,884	7.250	171	821	7,049,712	339,260	91,826	36,300	31	34	-6.454
239	Beacon Center of Tennessee	State	●●	36	426	3.680	3	5	29,590	4,853	1,887	1,070	42	44	-6.832
240	Free To Choose Network	National	●●●	56	424	3.451	0	14	32,095	1,370	797	1,430	4	43	-6.984
241	California Policy Center	National	●●	49	842	6.011	1	3	476,736	15,138	8,210	5,600	32	36	-7.100
242	Carter Center	National	●●●●●●	77	9,186	6.966	36	362	784,800	63,169	54,460	11,000	63	63	-7.290
243	Institute for the Analysis of Global Security	National	●●	47	1,342	3.065	0	26	45,852	3,550	409	418	-	-	-7.538
244	Federalist Society	National	●●●●●	65	3,366	-2.877	4	121	259,085	23	1	7,650	56	69	-8.172
245	Pinchot Institute for Conservation	National	●●	49	353	2.432	4	29	2,592	1,339	237	954	71	78	-8.223
246	Natural Resource Governance Institute	National	●●●●●	65	1,467	4.613	13	61	251,227	12,669	3,594	6,160	61	7	-8.290
247	International Food Policy Research Institute	National	●●●●●●	78	8,642	6.191	47	582	1,936,135	66,145	26,846	62,900	6	81	-8.318
248	Vera Institute of Justice	National	●●●●●●	75	5,319	6.095	62	197	261,913	43,582	22,276	5,750	46	55	-8.599
249	American Foreign Policy Council	National	●●	51	1,242	3.936	4	83	183,209	1,925	1,174	1,610	-	-	-9.021
250	Empower Mississippi Foundation	State	●	27	111	1.031	1	0	1,518	671	106	328	58	74	-9.187
251	Platte Institute for Economic Research	State	●	31	211	2.116	2	4	59,821	3,017	361	847	31	3	-9.208
252	CFA Institute	National	●●●●●●	82	11,331	8.711	20	755	1,338,408	217,169	392,772	55,400	54	74	-9.236
253	Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, The	National	●	39	271	4.189	2	8	2,064	4,594	1,025	341	4	4	-9.339
254	Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress	National	●●	49	570	3.761	2	67	478,370	891	934	310	42	67	-9.415
255	MDRC	National	●●●●●●	72	2,878	6.193	38	184	47,040	35,161	23,458	5,910	42	54	-10.196
256	Center for International Private Enterprise	National	●●●●●	64	2,050	4.098	9	112	265,526	5,298	2,214	5,990	54	61	-10.228
257	Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs	State	●●	37	480	3.210	1	7	34,125	8,044	1,366	3,320	62	76	-10.265
258	Atlas Network	National	●●●●●	60	2,208	5.432	0	48	663,836	16,650	7,413	5,650	43	12	-10.430
259	Freedom Forum	National	●●●●●●	68	3,106	2.403	6	178	780,127	645	469	227	52	65	-10.577
260	First Liberty Institute	National	●●●●	57	1,449	4.783	1	8	78,000	5,657	3,603	2,640	25	29	-11.256
261	Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington	National	●●●	51	1,016	4.319	1	41	9,045	7,759	1,864	3,450	71	89	-11.387
262	Institute for Sustainable Communities, Advocay & Leadership	National	●●●●	55	676	-0.216	7	44	39,040	185	22	685	39	4	-11.595
263	Bluegrass Institute	National	●	35	442	3.332	0	4	36,379	3,192	411	5,650	27	29	-11.659
264	Garden State Initiative	State	●	19	56	1.492	0	0	1,327	919	142	350	59	79	-12.025
265	School Choice Wisconsin	State	●●	30	166	1.714	2	1	1,094	305	257	100	51	76	-12.122
266	Institute for Social and Environmental Transition-International	National	●●	44	242	3.032	5	27	29,982	1,265	417	582	97	8	-12.129
267	Institute for Humane Studies	National	●●●●●	61	2,444	5.852	1	319	445,702	8,665	12,356	1,260	3	8	-12.174
268	Palmetto Promise Institute	State	●	25	97	1.669	0	1	4,623	1,069	209	845	-	-	-12.281
269	Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge	National	●●●	48	366	4.512	3	14	93,328	2,928	2,132	902	6	29	-12.642
270	Institute for Free Speech	National	●●	46	885	4.607	0	16	150,831	8,526	2,203	5,070	36	44	-12.772
271	America’s Future Foundation	National	●	41	871	4.755	0	18	140,828	5,613	2,179	3,650	25	3	-12.981
272	Nonproliferation Policy Education Center	National	●	40	505	2.303	0	23	6,614	1,938	182	2,870	3	33	-13.205
273	Berggruen Institute	National	●●●●	55	1,071	5.047	1	37	39,631	8,119	4,762	1,890	42	57	-13.698
274	Arkansas Policy Foundation	State	●	13	43	-0.037	0	3	58,201	409	26	210	7	74	-13.873
275	Young Voices	National	●	32	340	3.736	0	2	121,716	1,285	601	1,840	54	46	-13.911
276	Archbridge Institute	National	●	33	119	4.499	2	2	782	4,422	1,345	217	64	78	-14.172
277	Energy & Environment Legal Institute	National	●	37	502	3.529	0	4	4,385	2,934	597	2,150	48	55	-14.938
278	Institute for Religion And Democracy	National	●●	43	858	4.310	0	4	265,042	736	1,598	291	4	45	-15.042
279	Wyoming Liberty Group	State	●●	28	137	1.523	0	3	984	1,025	219	867	52	67	-15.058
280	Caesar Rodney Institute	State	●	17	112	0.979	0	1	21,679	270	88	429	-	-	-15.205
281	Center for Financial Inclusion	National	●●●●●	60	897	4.197	1	22	68,968	11,278	2,590	3,640	-	2	-15.951
282	Free State Foundation	National	●	38	309	1.057	2	11	19,450	337	53	216	57	83	-15.969
283	Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation	National	●●●	46	385	3.526	5	53	4,786	1,143	836	629	49	54	-16.141
284	Leadership Institute	National	●●●●●	56	1,346	5.529	0	23	244,047	4,469	8,814	3,390	26	28	-16.738
285	Potomac Institute for Policy Studies	National	●●●●●	53	787	3.493	4	52	38,298	3,342	1,053	3,090	-	-	-17.068
286	Foundation for Government Accountability	National	●●●●	48	696	5.243	5	10	5,173	3,805	5,281	2,120	49	61	-17.931
287	Liberty Justice Center	National	●	32	177	3.855	1	4	3,113	851	796	357	56	7	-18.791
288	Center on Global Interests	National	●	32	210	1.770	0	14	19,211	543	100	519	99	99	-19.364
289	Charles Koch Institute	National	●●●●●	56	1,354	5.781	1	74	31,860	15,456	12,601	708	59	21	-19.890
290	Fund for American Studies, The	National	●●●●●	50	587	4.182	2	69	45,183	3,612	2,100	3,710	52	58	-20.117
291	Center for the National Interest	National	●●●	43	681	5.451	2	19	69,157	1,646	5,989	376	44	49	-20.439
292	Freedom Foundation	National	●●●●	44	833	4.829	1	6	19,910	3,452	3,395	2,210	7	89	-21.098
293	Montana Policy Institute	State	●	15	222	-0.451	0	1	513	54	24	206	1	41	-22.036
294	Mountain States Legal Foundation	National	●●	38	368	2.524	2	6	37,713	665	289	342	57	76	-22.398
295	Institute for Defense Analysis	National	●●●●●●	66	1,351	3.958	14	118	22,505	8,569	3,203	2,530	27	26	-23.536
296	Franklin News Foundation	National	●●	33	569	0.437	1	5	203,453	62	32	23	59	52	-24.805
297	National Institute for Public Policy	National	●●●	36	412	2.500	2	10	50,707	880	287	306	75	91	-24.915
298	Steamboat Institute	National	●	26	161	3.905	0	4	5,133	831	842	501	14	1	-24.966
299	Benjamin Rush Institute	National	●	22	68	2.389	1	4	10,891	411	164	500	56	69	-25.488
300	Jesse Helms Center	National	●●	29	191	2.347	1	5	4,228	468	203	111	59	79	-26.155
301	Leadership Program of the Rockies	National	●	26	102	2.067	0	1	2,549	114	148	222	56	67	-28.134
302	National Review Institute	National	●●●●	37	478	5.796	1	9	1,361,633	1,694	8,956	138	69	85	-28.159
303	Policy Circle, The	National	●	21	62	2.948	0	3	493	1,795	317	411	61	76	-29.434
304	Forge Leadership Network	National	●	10	26	1.779	0	0	139	315	72	336	59	72	-31.307
305	National Tax Limitation Committee	National	●●	24	76	0.286	0	1	77,455	166	26	275	51	62	-32.318
306	Think Freely Media	National	●●	21	42	0.811	0	1	269	30	46	91	58	76	-36.201
307	Center for Independent Thought	National	●	10	43	0.152	0	0	42,595	167	17	19	53	59	-38.143
308	Center for Independent Employees	National	●●	1	3	-2.958	0	0	24	2	0	9	61	84	-53.765

Budget Levels

The budget levels in the tables above equate to this ranges:

● = $100k to $1m

●● = $1m to $2.5m

●●● = $2.5m to $5m

●●●● = $5m to $10m

●●●●● = $10m to $30m

●●●●●● = $30m & Up

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Why These Measures?

Why did we generate our efficiency rankings based on domain rating and estimated search engine traffic, rather than other available measures?

Estimated Search Traffic

Generating search traffic relies on ranking high in search results for popular keywords.

Search ranking is based on hundreds of factors, but we can use a simplified equation like this one to understand how we can improve it:

domain rating + content + other factors = search ranking

Domain rating is easily measured. Content quality isn’t. “Other factors” include things like technical implementation details, which are measurable, but not in a broad survey like this one.

So we can’t know all parts of the equation, but by examining the two parts we can know—domain rating and search traffic—we can at least determine what’s likely to be causing search performance issues.

High domain rating and search low traffic? You need to focus on content and technical factors.

Low domain rating but surprisingly high search traffic? You may have a very niche focus with little search competition.

Knowing both estimated search traffic and domain rating figures therefore helps us to analyze problems and determine where we can improve.

Domain Rating

Domain rating is a measure of website authority ranging from 0 to 100. SEO research companies like Ahrefs, Moz, and SEMRush create domain ratings through mapping links across the entire Internet, assigning higher scores to more significant nodes in this network of networks. All of this is done in an attempt to reverse-engineer Google’s own method of measuring website authority.

Simplified diagram of Google’s original PageRank system

Think tank leaders should be aware of domain rating because it is measurable and predictive of overall search performance.

We know this because Google’s own Andrey Lipattsev said that despite the growing complexity of Google’s search algorithm content and links remain the two most important search ranking factors. While it’s difficult to score the quality of website content, we can score link quality and quantity through domain rating.

Attempts to reverse-engineer Google search ranking also show that domain ranking is a significant predictor of success.

Creating the Rankings

How did we arrive at these two metrics of efficiency?

We started by using data from Ahrefs, an SEO research tool, which provided us with estimated search engine traffic and domain rating along with several other measures we’ve included in the tables above.

ProPublica’s Non-Profit Explorer provided annual expenditure figures.

Initial Findings

At first, we asked a simple question: Which U.S. think tanks have the best domain ratings?

We got an obvious answer: Well-funded national think tanks.

Pew Research Center, World Economic Forum, and Human Rights Watch were the top-three on this list.

This makes perfect sense.

More money→more wonks→more content→maybe more links?

Even with a low success rates, the deadweight tonnage approach to content marketing will produce impressive domain rating scores over time.

Then we looked at estimated search traffic, which revealed a surprising leader:

Ballotpedia, a group with a modest budget, was outperforming every other think tank on our list.

Ballotpedia was getting 2x the search traffic of World Economic Forum with less than 2% the budget.

If small groups like Ballotpedia can punch this far above their weight class, what might a more sophisticated analysis of think tank search data reveal?

With that question in mind, we set out to create some new metrics.

Measuring Efficiency

For that deeper analysis, we turned to Jason Sorens, a quantitative political scientist and Director of the Center for Ethics in Business and Governance at St. Anselm College.

Working with Jason, we were able to arrive at two more sophisticated metrics:

Search Efficiency: Measures how much more total traffic a think tank gets than would be expected given its expenditures and whether it is state or national in scope.
Domain Efficiency: Measures how much higher domain rating a think tank gets than would be expected given its expenditures and whether it is state or national in scope.

Jason found that over half the differences in domain ratings and total traffic are explicable by considering budgets and state vs national focus.

So controlling for these factors is crucial in helping a think tank determine how well they perform given the type of organization they are.

Jason’s contribution made this entire report possible. As thanks, we encourage you to follow Jason on Twitter, check out his Freedom in the 50 States index, and pickup a copy of Secessionism.

Using these new metrics, which control for budget and state/national scope, we found a very different set of domain winners:

And a somewhat different set of search winners:

Using Domain Efficiency and Search Efficiency didn’t just reshuffle the top performers, it radically reordered both lists.

This approach revealed scrappy small-budget state think tanks that have outsized online reach like the Student Free Press Association, the Institute for Family Studies, and the Empire Center for Public Policy.

These rankings also revealed strategies for success and performance issues right-of-center think tanks should not ignore.

Speaking of performance issues, it’s important to note some issues with these measures themselves. These are not perfect indicators of relative performance as think tanks can and do spend money on things that aren’t easily reflected online.

Further, it’s important to note that think tanks with multiple domains are disadvantaged by our ranking. Though we have no way of combining domain scores, in the future we’d be glad to split expenditure figures between domains if provided with broken-out budgets.

3 Strategies for Success

We reviewed several top-ranking groups more closely, looking for trends and found three strategies that seem to be repeated again and again:

Strategy #1: The Definitive Report

Annual rankings or statistical snapshots that are easy to understand and contain well-design charts and graphs, drive search performance for many high-ranked think tanks.

For example, the Prison Policy Initiative has captured both links and search traffic using its “Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie” report. This annual series has grown year by year with the latest edition attracting links from over 3,500 unique domains—more than many think tanks’ entire sites.

“The Whole Pie” series is readable on the webpage itself. Journalists, bloggers and academics—valuable potential link creators—are more inclined to link to content their audiences can access easily. This report doesn’t ask their readers to hunt through a PDF.

The Sentencing Project has had similar success with its 6 Million Lost Voters and The Color of Justice reports. Though not scoring the same number of links as “The Whole Pie,” these reports follow the same model, presenting easy-to-understand graphical information that is readable in a web browser.

International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) is fittingly strategic in the way it deploys its definitive report. The Military Balance is published annually and uses the same URL each year. Older versions of the report are moved to archive URLs. This means every year the report only gains links, rather than starting over at zero—giving IISS an asymmetric advantage over its global rivals. It also means that existing links are always pointing to the newest edition of the report, which better serves users.

The Tax Foundation gets similar results by publishing basic tax information in an easy-to-understand format, like its 2019 Tax Brackets page. This involves no analysis, but it still drives hundreds of thousands of visits a month to the Tax Foundation website and has generated thousands of unique referring domain links.

None of this means that PDF-packaged wonkery is bad, it just means that your publication portfolio ought to include some web-native material with broad appeal—if only to attract the links. Links pointing to pages with broad appeal will help other pages reach a higher search ranking, helping it reach your key audiences.

Strategy #2: The Definitive Database

Ballotpedia, ranked #1 in Search Efficiency, is following a different model. Its incoming links and its search traffic are spread over a large volume of content.

Rather than a handful of pages with a thousand of links each, Ballotpedia’s domain rating and traffic are driven by roughly 500 leading pages, each with over 50 unique domains linking to them.

But each of the 100,000 pages in its database plays a role. In total, Ballotpedia has roughly 34,500 unique domains with 5.75 million links pointing to its deep catalog of pages.

OpenSecrets, a project of the Center for Responsive Politics, has seen similar success. Also at over 100,000 pages, it enjoys 5.24 million backlinks from over 46,000 unique domains.

These sites don’t contain definitive reports, they are definitive reports.

In fact, they’re better than a report, because they’re a truly web-native, dynamic source of current information. This is exactly the kind of content Google wants to serve its users because its users love these sorts of resources.

Strategy #3: Link Shepherding

Federation of American Scientists seems to owe much of its success to maintaining a tremendous back catalog of posts. FAS’s content retention policy puts its number of indexed pages at over 78,000, close to that of the databases cited above.

FAS is a careful shepherd of its links. By meticulously maintaining pages and redirecting links for over 25 years, FAS has built up 45,000 unique domains linking to its site.

And they maintain everything. For example, here are two of their most unique-domain-linked pages:

So we have a 90s time capsule and a copy of an FBI website. Not exactly great content, but they’ve been around a long time collecting backlinks.

How does this content connect to FAS’s current activities? That doesn’t really matter—incoming links raise the rankings of all pages regardless of content. Together these three odd pages are responsible for over 1,500 links from unique domains.

The Student Free Press Association has managed to do something similar, but in less than 1/3 the amount of time. Since 2011, thecollegefix.com has generated somewhere around 20,000 pages through consistent output.

None of these pages are a stand-out hit, but together they’ve generated 5.49 million backlinks from 10,000 unique domains. These also appear to be a carefully managed flock, maximizing their cumulative effect.

Right-of-Center Think Tanks

During the decade we’ve worked with free-market and right-of-center think tanks, we’ve been concerned that these groups have lagged behind their ideological counterparts when it comes to search performance.

Now we have the data to back that up.

This was revealed in our initial analysis, which consisted of a simple plotting of Domain Rating vs. Annual Expenditure.

On the graph below we plotted right-of-center groups in red/pink and left-leaning or unaffiliated think tanks in grey.

The trend lines show that right-of-center think tanks lag behind their non-ideological or left-leaning counterparts. At every budget level, grey Xs are outperforming the blue circles.

Right-of-center groups are also clustered in the bottom half of our rankings of Domain Efficiency and Search Efficiency.

Remember, that’s after accounting for differences in budgets and state vs national audiences. This means that right-of-center groups are performing worse on a dollar-per-dollar basis than their peers.

This should be a cause for concern for members of the free-market movement.

By failing to keep up with their ideological competitors, free-market think tanks are being left out of the search space, ceding ground in the public policy debate without a fight.

Why Does Search Matter?

If the primary objective of a think tank is to influence public policy decisions, then its research and policy prescriptions need to reach policymakers, journalists, and other elites who frame policy debates.

Traditionally, that’s been done through broadcast media—TV, radio, and print journalism. Email, blogs, podcasts, YouTube, and social media have added to that list in recent decades, but the model remains the same:

You speak, they listen.

Search flips this model. Rather than pushing your message on your schedule, search provides your audience with the answers they want when they want them.

They ask, you answer.

That interaction is why search builds trust, authority, and reputation—exactly what think tanks hope to foster.

It’s easy to forget about search because it’s become reflexive—we do it without thinking. As a species, we search Google over 5 billion times a day.

Because search is so ubiquitous, it can put your research in front of journalists, academics, or policymakers you’ve never reached before.

Search isn’t limited to your list, your followers, or your network. Instead, you can reach anyone, anywhere, at any time who is looking for the answers you provide on questions of public policy.

How to Use This Data

If you find your Domain Efficiency is low compared to your peers, you should focus on boosting your domain rating through linking building (offsite SEO). You can do so using our four techniques for improving domain rating.

If your Search Efficiency is low, but your Domain Efficiency is high, we recommend focusing on changes to your website itself (onsite SEO). Those include technical details, site structure, keywords, and page formatting. Try our five techniques for improving search traffic.

If you’ve found that you rank low on both measures, then you need to focus on both link building and site optimization.

Tip: we strongly recommend that every think tank conduct regular automated technical audits of their website SEO. Technical problems can thwart optimization efforts and frustrate even the most professional policy shop. When it comes to bugs, squash early, squash often.

Improve Domain Efficiency

If your think tank ranked lower than you’d like on Domain Efficiency, you need to focus on boosting your domain rating through link building.

Here are four easy tactics you can use to build your domain rating quickly:

1. Fix Broken Links

This method of link building is entirely within your control, because it’s simply reclaiming the authority from links already pointing to your site.

If you’ve recently redesigned your website, changed your domain, or dropped the “www” prefix from your URLs, your site could be leaving a lot of link authority on the table.

Use a free tool like the Ahrefs Site Explorer to find your broken links and then create redirects from the old addresses to where the content currently resides.

If you’re using WordPress, you can try the Redirection plugin to create redirects.

2. Lean on Your Scholars

The academic affiliations of your scholars hold incredible potential for your domain ratings because backlinks from academic domains are especially valuable.

Most universities enjoy domain ratings in the 80s. The best schools have domain ratings in the 90s.

These links are gold because domains are ranked on a steep curve. Of the 170+ million domains ranked by Ahrefs, less than 1000 rank over a 90. So these aren’t the top 10%, they’re the top 0.0005%.

These links don’t just move the needle for smaller think tanks. Richard Posner’s profile page at the University of Chicago is one of the top 1000 highest ranking pages linking to aei.org, a think tank with over 7 million total incoming links.

Richard Posner University of Chicago Law School

It can be a pain to get scholars to follow-up on things like updating their bio pages, but make it your pet project.

Do the work for them, email their assistant, contact their department—do what you have to do to get these powerful .edu links.

It’ll give your domain rating a huge boost.

Pro Tip: Make sure these links point to webpages, not PDFs, so they confer the most authority possible to your website.

3. Convert Unlinked Brand Mentions

If you’re doing a great job at PR, chances are Google Alerts are hitting your inbox daily or weekly filled with mentions of your organization and scholars.

Many of those mentions, however, won’t contain links.

Ahrefs offers a guide for finding unlinked brand mentions. It stars with a simple search query to find pages where your brand appears, but without a link to your domain.

The guide will then show you how to highlight only the domains that haven’t linked to you yet. Those are the only targets worth pursuing as they’ll add to your unique referring domains.

Start emailing contacts at the highest-rated domains and request that they add links. Remember, these are people who are already mentioning you, so taking notice of their work and asking for a link is likely to be met with appreciation.

4. Ask, Believe, Receive

That’s right, use The Secret (intentionally not linked).

We’re not sure if the “believe” part is necessary, but asking is crucial.

You’re probably already asking YouTube viewers to like and subscribe.

Maybe you ask ask podcast listeners to rate and review

Why not include asking for links in your newsletters, press releases, and emails to journalists?

Unlinked brand mentions are often the result of not making the explicit ask.

So just do it—ask for a link. Be shameless. If you’re working in PR, this should already be your superpower.

Improve Search Efficiency

If you find that your think ranks low for Search Efficiency, but ranked highly for Domain Efficiency, you’ve at least got the raw materials for improving your organic search traffic.

Here are five tactics you can use to convert that authority into more traffic:

1. Start with the Technicals

If Google cannot crawl your site or can’t make sense of your site’s content because of technical issues, your pages won’t rank well. There’s no sense in doing anything else until you’ve got these problems squashed.

To quickly determine if your site has glaring technical flaws, use Ahref’s site audit tool. It will check your site for over 100 SEO issues and creates a red-yellow-green prioritized list so you can triage any problems it finds.

~~At $7 for a 7-day trial, this tool is a ridiculously great value~~. Update: The site audit tool is part of Ahrefs webmaster tools, which is now free.

It will either provide you with reassurance that your technical game is in order, or provide an easy-to-understand report you can present to your think tank’s leadership to demonstrate why further investment in your website is needed.

If you do find that you have technical problems, Hubspot’s Ultimate Guide to Technical SEO can start you down the path to solving them. This guide is really technical, so it’s best used as a way to have a productive conversation with your web developer.

2. Leverage Internal Linking

If you’ve already got a great domain rating, your search traffic may be low because you’re not spreading the link love around to your other pages.

Ahref’s guide to Internal Linking for SEO is a great resource when taking this approach.

This guide will talk you through:

Structuring your site’s pages
Fixing internal broken links
Strategically using your highly-linked pages

We also recommend the Brian Dean’s Internal Linking page on the Backlinko SEO Marketing Hub.

3. Optimize for Keywords

By researching keywords, you can find the search terms that people are actually using that relate to your think tank’s content.

But this doesn’t mean you have to change the content of reports or studies.

Instead, you can modify the title of the webpage, its meta description, and the executive summary of your publication to include keywords you want to target.

Moz’s Guide to Keyword Research is a great place to get started. This page is part of a larger guide to SEO, but we think this guide does a particularly good job of explaining keyword research.

We also recommend Brian Dean’s Keyword Research Strategies page on the Backlinko SEO Marketing Hub. Be forewarned, Brian’s guide contains a lot of information and it may take a while for you make your way through his methods. Optimizing your content around keywords may be a months-long project.

4. Optimize Individual Pages

Backlinko’s Guide to On-Page SEO will teach you where to strategically place the keywords you find in your keyword research and provide you with several other changes you can make to improve the content and structure of your pages.

These are the page elements we pay attention to when we conduct SEO audits:

Title
Meta Information
Markup
Links
Keyword Use
URLs
UX Signals

Many of these items should be highlighted by audit tools like the Ahref’s site audit tool mentioned above.

5. Add Schema Markup to Your Pages

When added to your site, schema markup creates an enhanced description, or “rich snippet,” which appears in search results. You may have seen examples like this:

This is an example of the FAQ schema, one of the many schema options think tanks should be utilizing.

Rich snippets like FAQs can be a fast way to boost your content above regular search results and place them squarely at the top of Google.

When I say fast, I mean fast.

Neil Patel has shown that schema formatted content can appear in Google results in as little as 30 minutes.

Think tanks could use schema markup to turn an existing report or policy brief into an FAQ that could start ranking for several valuable keywords the same day it’s published.

We think this technique holds a ton of potential for the think tank world and is woefully underutilized.

Check out Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool or Google’s Rich Result Tester to make sure you’re implementing schema correctly.

We Can Help

Want to improve your web marketing game? Call us for a free 20-minute consultation. We can help you identify the problems you should address to create the biggest return on investment.

Don’t worry, this phone call won’t be “salesy.” Our call will be focused on learning about your goals and the problems you’re facing. That way, we can determine if our approach would be a good fit for your needs.

Book a free 20-minute consultation

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Data Sources

Think Tanks List

To begin our work, we had to arrive at a list of think tanks. Rather than invent one ourselves, we used lists from State Policy Network, Harvard Kennedy School, and Regent University. We then removed:

Defunct or inactive groups
Groups without an accessible website
Non-US Think Tanks
Groups without an available EIN (this excluded many university centers)
Groups with less than $100k in annual expenditures
Groups without a separate domain (no subdomains or subdirectories)
State or local affiliate groups that used the same root domain

These exclusions allow for fairer comparisons. To control for huge disparities in budgets, we needed expenditure numbers. That’s why non-US groups and many university-based groups were excluded. We used only groups whose financial info we could easily query.

Groups without a distinct top-level domain were also excluded because measuring their performance was difficult if not impossible. So, our benchmarks include university groups like GMU’s Mercatus Center (mercatus.org) but not Michigan’s William Davidson Institute (wdi.umich.edu), despite it having public budget info.

This produced a list of 308 think tanks including:

81 SPN-affiliated national groups
53 SPN-affiliated state groups
174 unaffiliated state and national groups

Financial Data

ProPublica Non-Profit Explorer provides financial information via annual 990 forms. We used “Total Functional Expenses” as a measure of money spent. The figure used is the most recent year available, which is not consistent from group to group.

Search Performance Data

Ahrefs quick batch analysis tool provides web performance components and outcomes. We used this tool to gathering the following:

Domain Rating: Shows the strength of the website’s backlink profile compared to the others in the Ahrefs database of 1.76 trillion external backlinks.
Referring Domains: The total number of unique domains linking to the target. We used “Do Follow” domains, which filters out “no follow” domains. This means we only include domains pointing to your think tank via value-passing links.
Government & Education domains: The number of unique governmental and educational domains linking to your think tank. WE used .gov and .edu as shorthand, but this figure also includes domains that Ahrefs consider to be governmental or educational. These tend to be high-authority domains, which is why we’ve broken them out.
Top-100 Ranked Keywords: The total number of keywords for which the target ranks for in the top 100 organic search results across all countries in the Ahrefs database. When the target ranks for a keyword more than once, it’s counted multiple times
Total Backlinks: The total number of links from other websites pointing to the target.
Estimated Traffic: The target’s estimated monthly organic traffic from search.

Google PageSpeed Insights measures are included, even though speed didn’t end up being a statistically significant contributor to Domain Efficiency to Search Efficiency.

Google Itself provided the the “Pages Indexed By Google” figure. We used a script that leveraged the the “site” search operator to get an indexed number of pages for each URL.

All of the data presented in this report was collected during the month of March 2020.

2020 Think Tank SEO Rankings

Summary

The Rankings

Search Efficiency Rankings

Domain Efficiency Rankings

Budget Levels

Why These Measures?

Estimated Search Traffic

Domain Rating

Creating the Rankings

Initial Findings

Measuring Efficiency

3 Strategies for Success

Strategy #1: The Definitive Report

Strategy #2: The Definitive Database

Strategy #3: Link Shepherding

Right-of-Center Think Tanks

Why Does Search Matter?

How to Use This Data

Improve Domain Efficiency

1. Fix Broken Links

2. Lean on Your Scholars

3. Convert Unlinked Brand Mentions

4. Ask, Believe, Receive

Improve Search Efficiency

1. Start with the Technicals

2. Leverage Internal Linking

3. Optimize for Keywords

4. Optimize Individual Pages

5. Add Schema Markup to Your Pages

We Can Help

Data Sources

Think Tanks List

Financial Data

Search Performance Data