# Trust Flow Trust Flow is Majestic’s score, from 0 to 100, of how trustworthy a site’s links are. It is based on distance from a seed set of trusted sites. This page shows how to read it with Citation Flow and Topical Trust Flow, and what to do on a small site. Updated 2026-09-14 · Source: https://porteur.ai/glossary/trust-flow ## What Trust Flow measures Majestic builds its own web index. From a hand picked set of trusted seed sites, it measures how close your backlinks are to that trust. The nearer your link graph sits to those seeds, the higher your Trust Flow. Citation Flow is its companion score for link volume. Topical Trust Flow splits Trust Flow by category, so you can see trust within themes like Software or News. > These are Majestic’s metrics on Majestic’s index. They are not Google’s scores. Other tools may show them via Majestic’s data. Mangools’ LinkMiner does. ## How a small site should use it Use Trust Flow to spot link quality issues without a full audit. It is quick signal, not a goal. Track your homepage and any page you build links to, like /guides/getting-started or a /pricing page that gets mentions. Example: yourproduct.com shows Trust Flow 8 and Citation Flow 30. That pattern suggests many low quality links. After cleaning spammy directories and adding two links from relevant blogs, you might see Trust Flow rise into the teens while Citation Flow stays stable or falls a little. That is fine. ## Reading Trust Flow with Citation Flow - Low Trust Flow and low Citation Flow, you have few links. Focus on earning first relevant mentions. - Low Trust Flow and high Citation Flow, many links are low quality or off topic. Audit and prune. Aim for fewer, better referring domains. - Rising Trust Flow with flat Citation Flow, you are earning better links. Keep going on that channel. - Topical Trust Flow that matches your niche, your links are relevant. If it tilts to unrelated topics, re balance your outreach. Always look at referring domains. Ten links from one site often move Citation Flow more than Trust Flow. One link from a close to seed, topical site can lift Trust Flow more than ten weak ones. ## What to do if Trust Flow is low 1. **Check the scores for your domain and key pages** Use Majestic or a tool that shows Majestic metrics. Note Trust Flow, Citation Flow, and Topical Trust Flow for the root and any target pages. 2. **List your referring domains** Group by relevance to your product. Flag off topic blogs, free directories, and obvious link swaps. 3. **Tidy low value links you control** Remove spammy directory profiles and footer sitewide links you own. If removal is not possible, leave them, you do not need a disavow by default. 4. **Earn relevant, cited mentions** Pitch a practical guide with data, publish a small dataset, or write a teardown that others in your niche will cite. Aim for new referring domains. 5. **Fix internal linking** Link from strong pages to your key pages with clear anchor text. It helps flow any value you already have to /pricing or /features. A fixed profile looks like Trust Flow rising while your Topical Trust Flow lines up with your niche, and your referring domains list shows more relevant sites than before. ## Common traps - Chasing a number. Trust Flow is a comparative metric, not a KPI. Use it to compare you and your rivals on the same queries. - Buying links that promise higher Trust Flow. You often get network links that inflate Citation Flow and do not move Trust Flow. - Comparing across tools. Ahrefs, Semrush and others have their own authority metrics. Do not mix scales. - Ignoring page level. Your homepage may score higher. Check the exact URL that ranks or that you pitch. - Expecting Google to use it. As of 2026, Trust Flow is not a Google signal. Treat it as a proxy for link quality in one index. ## Questions ### What is Trust Flow? It is Majestic’s 0 to 100 score of how trustworthy a site’s links are, based on distance from a seed set of trusted sites. It lives in Majestic’s index, not Google’s. ### What is a good Trust Flow score? There is no universal good number. Compare your score with the sites that rank on your queries. If you are far below them, improve your link quality and relevance. ### Do backlinks still matter in 2026? Links from relevant, high quality sites still help discovery and rankings. Their weight varies by query. Focus on earning citations that people actually click. ### How do Trust Flow and Citation Flow differ? Trust Flow reflects link quality and proximity to trusted seeds. Citation Flow reflects link volume. High Citation Flow with low Trust Flow suggests many low quality links. ### What is Topical Trust Flow? It breaks Trust Flow into categories. It helps you see if links that lift your trust are in the same subject area as your site. Aim for topical alignment. ### Why do my scores differ across tools? Each tool crawls the web differently and uses its own metrics. Trust Flow is Majestic’s metric. Other tools may show it via Majestic’s data, or use their own scales. ## Read next - [Backlink](https://porteur.ai/glossary/backlink): A backlink is a link from another site to yours. See what counts, how to check links, dofollow vs nofollow, and what a small site can expect. - [Referring domain](https://porteur.ai/glossary/referring-domain): A referring domain is a unique site that links to yours. Here is why the count matters more than backlink totals, how to check it, and what to do. - [How to get backlinks for a small product site](https://porteur.ai/guides/how-to-get-backlinks-for-a-small-site): What to build, who to ask and how to measure. A founder’s plan to earn backlinks without spam or spend, with examples and a checklist. - [Backlink gap: the sites that link to your rivals and not to you](https://porteur.ai/guides/backlink-gap): Find the sites that link to rivals and not to you. Read the page, make the ask, and track new links. A practical backlink gap workflow. - [Internal linking for a small site: which pages link to which](https://porteur.ai/guides/internal-linking-for-seo): Decide which pages rank. Build hubs, write clear anchors, fix orphans, and crawl your site to map links you control. - [Domain rating](https://porteur.ai/glossary/domain-rating): Domain rating is a tool’s score of your link profile. See how DR, DA and Authority Score differ, how to check yours, and what to do next. - [Link juice](https://porteur.ai/glossary/link-juice): Link juice is slang for the value a link passes, properly called link equity. What PageRank documents, what is folklore, and what to do on your site. Want a quick read on your link quality and rivals on your queries, from one URL? Try the free check, it shows three findings in about thirty seconds. Free check: https://porteur.ai/