Created by Majestic SEO, Trust Flow has joined PageRank as a superimportant 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.
You can use the Monitor Backlinks Free Backlink Checker tool to check any website’s Trust Flow—and thus if it’s likely a seed site. You can also see the TF 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.
3 Ways to Boost Your Trust Flow (and SEO)
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
2. 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 and to confirm that their Topical Trust Flow falls within your industry.
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 10 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.
