Trust Flow vs Citation Flow: How to Read Majestic's Flow Metrics

Citation Flow vs Trust Flow in one line: Citation Flow estimates how much link influence a site has based on how many sites link to it, while Trust Flow estimates quality based on how closely the site is linked to a set of manually reviewed, trusted seed sites. Both are Majestic scores from 0 to 100, not Google metrics. Read together, they help you spot sites with lots of links but little trust, which is exactly what you want to catch before you pitch, partner or pay for a guest post.

Published: 2026-10-16 · 6 min read · Satelo

What Majestic says each metric measures

Both scores are Majestic trademarks and together form what Majestic calls its Flow Metric algorithm. From the Majestic glossary:

• Citation Flow (CF) is a score between 0 and 100 that helps measure the link equity or "power" a website or link carries. The glossary says it predicts how influential a URL might be based on how many sites link to it, with stronger links counting for more.
• Trust Flow (TF) is a score between 0 and 100 based on quality. Majestic collected many trusted seed sites through a manual review of the web. Sites closely linked to a trusted seed can see higher scores; sites with questionable links see much lower ones.
• Flow Metric scores use a logarithmic scale, per the same glossary. Moving from 10 to 20 is far easier than moving from 50 to 60.

The practical summary: CF is mostly about how much links point at a site. TF is about who links to it, and how far that is from sources Majestic trusts. Majestic itself notes, in a post on why Trust Flow changes, that Citation Flow does not use the human-reviewed seed set that Trust Flow benefits from.

Trust Flow vs Citation Flow at a glance

How to read the TF/CF ratio

The "trust ratio" is simply Trust Flow divided by Citation Flow. It isn't a separate Majestic score; it's a shortcut the SEO industry uses to compare the two numbers. Majestic's own blog has discussed it as a quick screen for link prospects: in a 2014 post on checking link prospects, the author writes that it's difficult to say exactly what an OK ratio is and that it depends on the niche, and that the check is only a quick overview.

So treat the ratio as a question generator, not a verdict. A rough reading guide, for illustration:

The "CF 35, TF 7" example comes from that same Majestic post, where the author says such sites are nearly always going to be poor quality. Even there, it is a pattern to investigate, not a rule.

Topical Trust Flow: the part most people skip

The glossary describes Topical Trust Flow as Majestic's categorization of the web: a set of numbers, also on a 0 to 100 log scale, showing the relative influence of a page, subdomain or root domain in a given topic or category. The Topics view lets you drill into which topics the incoming links carry.

This is often more useful than the headline numbers. A cooking blog with a decent Trust Flow whose top topic is "Recreation/Food" is coherent. The same Trust Flow with top topics in gambling, pharma or unrelated adult categories tells a very different story, whatever the ratio says.

When you vet a site, check:

1. Is the top topic close to what the site actually publishes?
2. Do the top topics stay consistent, or are they scattered across unrelated categories?
3. Does the topic mix make sense for an audience you'd want to reach?

Why Flow Metrics change without you doing anything

Majestic's post on Trust Flow changes explains that the scores are rebuilt with every full build of the Fresh Index, approximately once every 24 hours, so slight variation between builds is normal. Larger moves usually have a cause:

• Lost links. If links are deleted or the linking pages disappear, scores drop.
• Crawl problems. If Majestic's crawler gets errors such as 403 or 404, or connection and DNS failures, it may not be able to verify links that still exist.
• The web itself changes. Since the scores flow through a map of the whole web, changes far away can nudge your numbers.

Majestic's own advice is to investigate significant changes without overreacting, because Trust Flow is simply a signal based on a map of the web.

Common ways these metrics mislead

• Different index, different numbers. Majestic's numbers come from Majestic's crawl. Ahrefs DR, Moz DA and Semrush AS use other crawls and formulas, so they disagree all the time. Our explainer on domain authority metrics compares them.
• Fresh vs Historic index. The glossary describes a Fresh Index with recently crawled links and a Historic Index going back to 2006. Make sure you compare the same index across sites; historic data includes links that may be long gone.
• Site-wide links. One partner with a footer link on thousands of pages can lift Citation Flow while adding little real trust. Look at referring domains, not just link counts (see how many backlinks you need).
• Bought or exchanged links. Metrics can be pushed up by link schemes. Google's spam policies define link spam as links created primarily to manipulate rankings. A good TF/CF on a site that sells links openly doesn't make those links safe for you.
• Small sites look weak. A new, honest site with a handful of links will have low numbers. That's a size signal, not a quality verdict.
• It's not Google. Trust Flow is a Majestic score. Google doesn't publish one, so don't read a TF change as a Google judgment about your site.

Using TF and CF when you vet a site for a guest post or partnership

Here's a five-minute workflow that uses Flow Metrics where they're strong and doesn't stop there:

1. Pull TF, CF and top topics from Majestic's Site Explorer for the root domain.
2. Flag big gaps, like CF several times higher than TF, or topics unrelated to the site's content.
3. Open the backlink list. Look for patterns: many links from one domain, exact-match commercial anchors, obvious link farms.
4. Read the site. Real authors? Real comments or engagement? Articles readers would actually want? Lots of "write for us" pages and casino posts are a stronger signal than any score. Our guide on how to spot PBN sites lists the tells.
5. Check traffic and indexing. A site with good Flow Metrics but no search visibility may have been hit by a penalty or may be a link network. Our checklist for vetting a site before buying covers the rest.

The same logic applies to Moz's Spam Score: every third-party metric describes a model's view of a crawl. Use several, and let what you see on the site have the final word.

What to do next

Flow Metrics answer one question: what do links say about this site? To see the wider picture in one place, run any domain through Satelo's free site check. It gives a 0 to 100 Quality Score built mostly from open data, shows the evidence behind each number, and takes about 30 seconds. It's useful for a first look at a site you might partner with, or at your own site before you start outreach.

FAQ

What is the difference between Trust Flow and Citation Flow?

Citation Flow estimates how influential a site is based on how many sites link to it. Trust Flow estimates quality based on how closely the site is linked to a set of manually reviewed, trusted seed sites. Both are Majestic scores from 0 to 100.

What is a good Trust Flow score?

There is no universal cut-off. The scale is logarithmic and depends on the niche, so compare a site with similar sites in its topic. Low scores are normal for new or small sites and aren't a quality verdict on their own.

What is a good Trust Flow to Citation Flow ratio?

Majestic's own blog says it's hard to define an OK ratio and that it depends on the niche. As a rough screen, Trust Flow far below Citation Flow is worth investigating, but always confirm by looking at the actual backlinks and the site.

Does Google use Trust Flow?

Trust Flow is a Majestic metric built from Majestic's own crawl. Google doesn't publish a Trust Flow score, so a change in TF is not a Google judgment about your site.

What is Topical Trust Flow?

Topical Trust Flow is Majestic's categorization of the web. It shows a site's relative influence in specific topics on a 0 to 100 log scale, which helps you check whether a site's links come from relevant subject areas.

Why did my Trust Flow drop?

Majestic rebuilds Flow Metrics with each Fresh Index build, roughly daily, so small changes are normal. Larger drops usually come from lost links or crawl errors that stop Majestic from verifying links.

How can I check Trust Flow and Citation Flow?

Use Majestic's Site Explorer, which shows both numbers and the top topics for a domain. For a broader first look at a site, a free check like Satelo's Quality Score combines several open-data signals.

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