TrustFlow (TF) is an indicator developed by Majestic that measures a site's quality based on the backlinks it receives. This indicator is often used to assess whether a site is interesting for a backlink, particularly on link-selling platforms. For some, artificially inflating their TF helps them rank better on these platforms or sell more links by relying on buyers' superficial evaluations. But how does this work, and what practices are associated with manipulating TrustFlow?
Increasing TrustFlow the traditional way
TrustFlow can be increased relatively easily by using links coming from homepages or 301 redirects from expired domains. Here is a concrete demonstration taken from a video by Jérôme Pasquelin, which shows how to go from a clean domain to a site with the following metrics:
- TF: 32 for the root domain,
- TF: 53 for the homepage.
Strategies used
- Links from homepages :
- A link from a page with a TF of 40.
- A link from a page with a TF of 30.
- A link from a page with a TF of 39.
- 301 redirects from expired domains :
- A 301 redirect from a domain with 10 referring domains, a TF of 21 (root domain) and a TF of 33 from the homepage.
- A 301 redirect from a domain with a TF of 25 (root domain) and a TF of 40 from the homepage.
- Canonical links :
- A canonical redirect from a site with a TF of 19 (root domain) and a TF of 30 from the homepage.
Key points to remember
- The links from homepages They have a significant impact on TF. Because the homepage often has a higher TF than the root domain, these links are valuable for quickly boosting metrics.
- The 301 redirects have a similar effect: they transfer TrustFlow to the target.
- The sitewide links (present on every page of a site) and the canonical also have a positive impact on TF.
- The more backlinks and referring domains a site has, the less TF moves quickly as a result of these actions.
- Even non-indexed pages can have good metrics.
These manipulations also affect the Citation Flow (CF), although to a lesser extent. CF, comparable to Google's historical PageRank (before 2012), measures link quantity and their juice more than their quality.
Example of TrustFlow and Citation Flow visible on SEObserver (which pulls metrics from Majestic):
Fraudulent TrustFlow manipulations
These practices, although calculated, fall within Majestic's normal operation. They are not cheating per se. But are there more dubious ways to manipulate TrustFlow? Unfortunately, yes. Here is two examples based on cloaking, a technique aimed at presenting different content to Majestic and to Google.
Method 1: Make a site appear huge
In the past, some people exploited the idea that each new page created on a site brings a small PageRank boost. By creating hundreds of thousands of artificial pages, they increased the site's overall PageRank, and therefore its TF.
Strategy
These pages were accessible only to Majestic's crawler (via cloaking), while Google could not see them (because the method is dangerous, even suicidal). Thus, Majestic considered these pages legitimate and raised the site's metrics.
Current limitations
Today, this method has generally become obsolete. Majestic introduced a "is_spam" indicator that detects sites resembling link farms or creating artificial pages en masse. These practices are therefore much less effective in 2025. And that's good news for our credibility.
Method 2: Simulate backlinks invisible to Google
This method also relies on cloaking, but this time targets the creation of backlinks.
Strategy
By adding homepage or sitewide links on several sites belonging to the same network, and by making them visible only to Majestic's crawler (maj12), TF increases artificially. Google, not seeing these links, cannot identify the network of sites behind this manipulation.
Risks
This method has existed for 15 years and, although the technique still works for some, it exposes the user's network to competitors who could detect and report these fraudulent practices.
Relying solely on TrustFlow to buy links is risky. This type of indicator can be manipulated, whether by acceptable or fraudulent methods. Before buying links, analyze several elements:
- The quality of backlinks.
- Link anchors.
- The site's ranked keywords.
- The site's structure and relevance.
- The site's legality (legal notice and topics covered).
Ultimately, while manipulating TrustFlow may seem tempting, pleasing Google in the long term requires a more authentic and sustainable strategy. The real work is building a quality site that meets users' expectations, not chasing manipulable metrics. And tomorrow, let's aim for a world where link-selling platforms no longer have to suffer from these manipulated third-party indicators.
The article “TrustFlow manipulation: optimization or cheating?” was published on the site Abondance.
