Trust Issues? Here's How to Grow Your Trust Flow

Trust Flow, along with its brother Citation Flow, are the new kids on the block.

Created by Majestic SEO, Trust Flow has joined PageRank as a super important SEO metric.

Some experts even say Trust and Citation Flow have topped PageRank as the most critical measures of a website's value.

With that being said, business owners and digital marketers should understand Trust Flow (TF) and how to improve this metric on behalf of their own SEO.

What Is Trust Flow?

According to Majestic SEO, Trust Flow is a score between 0 and 100 based on a website's quality.

When creating this metric, Majestic manually scoured websites and collated a (secret) list of trusted "seed sites." These "seed sites" form the foundation for TF, and the closer a website is linked to a seed site, the higher its TF score will be.

At SEOptimer, we have a similar metric called Domain Strength, which much like Majestics Trust Flow measures the trustworthiness of the site.

You can use the SEOptimer Backlink Checker tool to check any website's Domain Strength —and thus if it's likely a seed site. You can also see the Domain Strength of any added competitor.

For example, I found that Facebook has a near-perfect TF, meaning it's likely a seed site. A backlink from Facebook would then benefit your TF score.

Why is this metric referred to as "flow"?

Well, as sites are linked to each other, trust "flows" through them. Below, you can see that trust originates with Site A (a seed site). As Site A is linked to Site B and so forth, Trust flows through the websites and each respective TF metric diminishes.

Like I said above, the "closer" a website is linked to a seed site, the higher its Trust Flow will be.

Typically, a Trust Flow score of 50 and higher is considered great. (Seed sites are likely in the 80s and 90s.) A score between 11 and 49 is average, and a score of 20 or lower is considered poor.

Lastly, part of the TF metric is Topical Trust Flow. According to Majestic, Topical Trust Flow "shows the relative influence of a web page, subdomain or root domain in any given topic or category."

This metric shows in which industry a website has authority and helps users find influencers within specific categories. Topical Trust Flow is also scored between 1 to 100.

How to Use the Trust Flow Metric

Now that you know what Trust Flow is, let's talk about what it can do.

Firstly, TF can help you easily recognize and analyze your competition.

Because TF is pretty straightforward (high number = high-value site), it's easy to scan competitors' scores for those that actually pose a threat.

With the SEOptimer Backlinks tool, you can see the Domain Strength of the site. Gathering competitive intelligence in this way can help you identify new keywords and potential link opportunities.

You can also use the TF metric to prospect and evaluate new linking opportunities.

Whether you've identified a potential link through your competitive analysis, found a possible guest posting opportunity or stumbled across a new domain to purchase, researching the URL's TF will give you a simple metric with which to evaluate the link.

Using TF is also valuable when identifying toxic backlinks and recovering from linking penalties. When auditing your backlinks, look for low Trust Flow scores.

At best, these sites are doing nothing for your SEO. At worst, they're hurting it. Any TF scores below a 20 should be removed. 

So, actions that improve your TF inherently improve your search engine rankings.

Consider this: If you're looking at other site's Trust Flow scores to evaluate for backlinking opportunities, other websites are probably doing the same to you. Because of this, your main goal should be to increase your TF.

The core of this is in building authoritative, high-quality backlinks. Quality is much more important than quantity and contributes much more to TF. Here's how to get started.

1. Connect with Influencers

Connecting with influencers is important when building authoritative backlinks. As you research influencers, ensure they're active in your niche or industry.

Start by searching your main keywords and jotting down the top bloggers, journalists and personalities that fall within the results.

Then, head to the Free Backlink Checker tool to verify their Trust Flow.

Reach out to these influencers to share your business, provide great content or ask for a backlink. There are plenty of ways to politely ask for backlinks (and build valuable relationships while you're at it).

2. Guest Post on High-quality Sites

Guest posting is another great way to build authoritative backlinks and gain TF from seed sites into your site.

Similar to when researching influencers, when you find a guest posting opportunity, run the domain through the Free Backlink Checker tool to check their TF.

If the site has a score of 20 or less, it wouldn't be worth your time to create content for posting. Secondly, ensure that links allowed in guest posts are followed. If the site doesn't follow guest-posted links, these backlinks won't do anything for your TF.

Note: Nofollow linking opportunities aren't completely useless. They'll expose your business to a new audience and help build your branding. So, don't completely discount them!

3. Link Internally

Linking to internal pages is a simple way to increase your Trust Flow and increase your SEO.

As you build content and/or a blog for your site, ensure that it contains at least five links to other internal pages. A strong homepage will also contribute to the Trust Flow and SEO of all pages linked to it.

Not only does internal linking contribute to SEO, but it also helps your visitors easily navigate your website.

4. Continually Audit Backlinks

Continually auditing your website's backlinks doesn't necessarily contribute to your Trust Flow, but it does keep your score high and healthy.

As your audit your site's backlinks and disavow toxic ones, your TF will remain high. This high score will communicate to others that your site is high-quality and worth linking to, thus boosting your SEO.

See how that works?

Final Thoughts on Trust Flow

Trust Flow is one of the most important measures of site value, quality and search engine performance.

It can help you identify potential linking opportunities, evaluate competition and audit backlinks.

Increasing—and maintaining—your Trust Flow can also contribute to your SEO, site performance and candidacy for linking opportunities.