AnalyticsPublished02.05.2026

Citation Flow (CF)

A Majestic metric that estimates a site’s 'weight' based on the number of links regardless of their quality. How to interpret CF together with Trust Flow.

On this page
What Is Citation FlowTF / CF RatioHow to Use CF in SEOLimitations of the Metric
In brief

Citation Flow (CF) is a Majestic metric that shows the volume of backlinks pointing to a site. It does not evaluate link quality, only quantity. To analyse a site’s authority, CF is always used together with Trust Flow (TF). The optimal ratio is CF ≈ TF.

What Is Citation Flow

Citation Flow (CF) is a score from 0 to 100 (higher is better) calculated by analysing the link graph. The Majestic algorithm takes into account the number of unique domains linking to the site and the total number of backlinks. It does not evaluate the authority of the donors. In simple terms: CF shows how many 'citations' (links) a site has received, but doesn’t say how authoritative those mentions are.

TXT
Example:
Site A: 1000 links from 500 unique domains → CF = 45
Site B: 2000 links from 300 unique domains → CF = 52
Even though site B has fewer domains, the total link volume is higher, thus CF is higher.

TF / CF Ratio

More important than the absolute CF value is its ratio with Trust Flow (TF) — the link quality metric. The optimum is equality: TF ≈ CF. Large deviations signal problems:

  • CF >> TF (e.g., CF 50, TF 10) — the site has many low‑quality, spammy links. Such donors are not recommended for link building; if it’s your own site, clean up the profile.
  • CF << TF (CF 10, TF 50) — rare, often means the profile is over‑optimised for quality but lacks volume. Can be problematic in competitive niches.
  • CF ≈ TF — a healthy, natural profile.
When evaluating potential donors for link placement, always check both CF and TF. Prefer sites with CF and TF above 20–30 and a ratio close to 1.

How to Use CF in SEO

  • Competitor analysis — compare CF of your competitors. High CF together with high TF indicates a strong backlink profile.
  • Donor selection — when buying or exchanging links, check the donor’s CF. Ideal range: 15–60. Too low (<10) will not pass much value; too high (>70) may be artificially boosted.
  • Diagnosing your own profile — if CF grows rapidly while TF lags, you may be under a link attack or have accidentally bought poor links.
  • Filtering spam sites — many SEO tools don’t have a direct analogue, but CF is convenient for quick checks via Majestic.
TXT
Quick donor check via Majestic (Majestic Million toolbar):
- Open Majestic extension or majestic.com
- Enter the donor URL
- Look at CF and TF
- If TF is 15+ points lower than CF — donor is spammy.

Limitations of the Metric

CF is useful but not perfect. Its main limitations:

  • Does not consider relevance — a donor may have high CF but be completely irrelevant to your niche.
  • Depends on Majestic’s index — if a site is poorly crawled by Majestic, values will be low.
  • Can be artificially inflated — schemes exist to boost CF (link farms) without real authority.
  • Not a Google ranking factor — it is a third‑party metric used by SEOs for rough estimation.
Do not rely solely on CF. Always combine it with other signals: donor’s traffic, natural profile, relevance, absence of penalties.
FAQ

Common questions

Typically 20–50. For new sites 10–20 is fine, for authoritative ones 50+. More important is that TF is not more than 10 points lower than CF.
Yes, for new or poorly linked sites. But 0 means Majestic found no backlinks, which is bad for passing link equity.
Not directly. But sites with high‑quality CF (i.e., CF+TF combination) usually have more backlinks from authoritative sources, which is a ranking factor.
Get links from as many unique domains as possible. The more unique donors, the higher the CF. But don’t forget quality — otherwise TF will drop and the profile becomes toxic.
DR measures the strength of the backlink profile considering donor authority (similar to TF). CF is just volume. So DR and TF are more comparable; CF is an additional volume indicator.
Direct contacts

Discuss your project?

Share your goals and website context — I will suggest a practical next step.

pavlo.seo@proton.me@pavelbarushkaLinkedIn
Citation Flow (CF) — What is it?