Link Building
Citation Flow
Citation Flow is Majestic's proprietary 0–100 Flow Metric that predicts how influential a URL may be from links in Majestic's indexed graph.
What it means
Majestic describes Citation Flow as iterative link-based influence and uses it alongside Trust Flow. The score is tied to Majestic's Fresh or Historic index and recalculated with index updates. It is not Google PageRank, does not measure factual citation quality and should not be compared numerically with Moz or other providers.
Why it matters
Provider, index and observation date are necessary because a score change can reflect new crawl coverage or model updates as well as link changes.
Example
A report records Citation Flow 31 for a URL in Majestic Fresh Index on 28 July 2026, alongside the index date and Trust Flow, without converting 31 into a ranking probability.
Common mistakes
Do not omit the Majestic name, call it a Google metric, interpret 60 as twice 30, use it alone as Link Quality, compare it directly with Domain authority, hide the index date or promise rankings.
How AYSA handles this
Signals reviewed
provider, metric, value, URL scope, Fresh or Historic index, index date, capture time, Trust Flow
Problem AYSA can identify
AYSA can identify missing Majestic attribution, stale captures, scope mismatches and cross-vendor comparisons presented as equivalent.
Recommendation prepared
The metric record includes provider, exact scope, index, date and paired evidence before any interpretation.
Approval preview
The reviewer sees raw value, provider source, scope, index date, comparison set, limitations and proposed action.
Execution
AYSA can store approved Majestic observations and monitor changes; it cannot modify Majestic's graph or translate the score into Google ranking data.
Verification
Later captures remain separate observations so index and score changes can be compared without overwriting history.
Limits
The method and index are vendor-controlled, coverage changes over time and the score does not guarantee quality, traffic or rankings.
Sources and further reading
- Majestic — Flow Metrics glossary — First-party vendor methodology
- Majestic — Flow Metric Scores FAQ — First-party vendor methodology
- Google Search Central — Guidance on third-party SEO tools and advice — Official search documentation
Written by Marius Dosinescu. Reviewed by AYSA SEO Editorial Team · 2026-07-28 00:00:00.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions
Is Citation Flow a Google ranking metric?
No. It is a proprietary Majestic metric calculated from Majestic's link index.
Is Citation Flow the same as Trust Flow?
No. Majestic designed them as paired but distinct Flow Metrics.
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