Citation Flow

third-party SEO metric

01 Definition

Citation Flow meaning: Majestic's score predicting a site's link influence based on the quantity of backlinks.

Citation Flow is a Majestic metric, scored 0 to 100, that estimates how influential a URL might be based on how many sites link to it. It measures link volume, not quality. Analysts pair it with Trust Flow, since a high Citation Flow with low Trust Flow can signal many low-quality links.

Also called

CF

Why it matters

How Citation Flow fits the work

Reading it alongside Trust Flow helps reveal whether a site earned many links, quality links, or a mismatch that hints at spam.

In context

The blog had a Citation Flow of 55 but a Trust Flow of only 12, a gap that prompted a closer link quality review.

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Practical note

A high Citation Flow alone means little; a large gap above Trust Flow often points to spammy link volume. It is Majestic's estimate, not a Google metric.