Citation Flow

Created by SEO specialists Majestic, Citation Flow is one of the industry’s longest-running backlink analysis tools. Designed to predict how influential a URL could be based on the links pointing to it on a score of 0 to 100, the metric essentially measures link volume and the flow of its “power” throughout the web.

Because of this, a webpage with many links pointing to it and backlinks from other pages that also have plenty of links will typically have higher Citation Flow.

Quantity, Not Quality

One key thing to keep in mind about Citation Flow is that it’s a quantitative measure, not a qualitative one. It’s for this reason that it’s almost always discussed alongside its companion metric, Trust Flow.

Unlike Citation Flow, Trust Flow scores the quality and trustworthiness of links based on factors such as proximity to a seed set of known trusted sites.

Alone, these metrics tell only half the story. Webpages may rack up a high Citation Flow from a large number of low-quality links while having a weaker Trust Flow, which can be a surefire indicator of a manipulated or spammy profile.

It’s for this reason that experienced SEOs unite the two measures and will frequently use them as a ratio. Healthy websites will feature a balanced Citation Flow and Trust Flow.

However, if your Citation Flow exceeds your Trust Flow, it’s a sign that your site has accumulated lots of untrustworthy links, and the pattern will be similar to what you would see when using link schemes or low-quality link-building strategies.

This means that establishing a relationship between the two figures tends to provide far more information about your website than using either as lone indicators.

Link-Building Applications

When conducting link-building work, you can use Citation Flow as one input among several when assessing a potential link target or analysing a backlink profile.

The measure can work well alongside Ahrefs’ Domain Rating and Semrush’s Authority Score as a way of gauging how strong a site is.

Each tool generates its own data and methodology, as the numbers are unlikely to be consistent throughout. No measures are used by Google either, so there are no right or wrong readings when using these metrics.

Instead, they’re all third-party approximations of authority that are best used for a comparison rather than an absolute truth.

Using Citation Flow

Using a blend of Majestic’s Citation Flow and Trust Flow can be highly useful because it forces you to consider quantity and quality side by side, rather than allowing one single reading to occupy your analysis.

When you’re assessing where to earn your links, finding a target with balanced, healthy flow metrics tends to be safer than one with a lopsided profile. However, it’s always worth treating these scores as a guide rather than confirmation of the overall value the page possesses.

It’s also worth exploring the actual links behind the numbers before you make a decision on how to approach your link-building.