Citation Flow

What is Citation Flow?

Citation Flow is an important metric used by SEO professionals to gauge the strength and influence of a website or a particular URL. Developed by Majestic, this metric ranges from 0 to 100, with higher values indicating a greater potential to influence search rankings. Citation Flow does not consider the quality of the links but rather the sheer number of them. This makes it different from Trust Flow, another metric that evaluates the quality of the links. By using Citation Flow in conjunction with other metrics, SEO experts can better understand a site's linking power and strategize accordingly. For instance, a high Citation Flow score can indicate a large volume of backlinks, but without a corresponding high Trust Flow, those links might not be high quality.

Citation Flow is a metric used in the SEO industry to predict the influence of a URL based on the quantity of sites linking to it.

Examples

A popular blog with hundreds of links from various other blogs and forums has a high Citation Flow, suggesting it has a broad reach and significant online presence.

An e-commerce site with numerous product pages linked from various review sites and social media platforms can achieve a high Citation Flow, indicating its widespread visibility across the internet.

Additional Information

Citation Flow is best used in conjunction with Trust Flow for a balanced understanding of a site's backlink profile.

High Citation Flow without high Trust Flow may indicate the presence of many low-quality or spammy links.

References

Citation Flow: A Metric That Helps With Backlink Building - Hike SEO

Understanding Citation Flow: Evaluating Backlink Quality

Citation Flow(CF): definition, use and SEO advices - Keyweo