Citation Flow (CF) is a Majestic metric scored from 0 to 100 that measures the quantity of links pointing to a domain. It doesn't care about quality. It simply reflects how much link equity flows into a domain based on the volume and structure of its backlink profile. More links, from more places, means a higher CF.
How Citation Flow differs from Trust Flow
Trust Flow measures quality. Citation Flow measures quantity. A domain with 50,000 backlinks from blog comment spam will have a high CF but a very low TF. A domain with 200 backlinks from reputable news sites will have a moderate CF but a high TF. Both numbers are useful, but only when you look at them together.
The TF/CF ratio tells the real story. Take a domain with TF 25 and CF 30. That's a ratio of 0.83, which is excellent. The link profile is almost entirely high-quality. Now take a domain with TF 5 and CF 45. That ratio of 0.11 screams spam. Lots of links, but almost none from trusted sources.
As a rule of thumb: a TF/CF ratio above 0.5 is healthy. Between 0.3 and 0.5 deserves a closer look. Below 0.3 is usually a domain you should avoid unless you have a specific reason to buy it.
Why it matters for expired domains
Citation Flow alone is misleading. A high CF might look impressive, but without checking Trust Flow alongside it, you could end up buying a domain that was used for link spam. So the CF number helps you understand the scale of a domain's link profile, while the TF number tells you whether that scale actually means anything.
On CatchDoms, both metrics are displayed side by side in the TF and CF columns, along with the calculated ratio. You can sort by either metric and filter by minimum values. Domains with high CF and low TF are easy to spot and avoid. Look for domains where both numbers are solid and the ratio stays above 0.5.