The Ultimate Guide to Topical Trust Flow (TTF)

BySEOer Last Update on

As search engines continue to evolve and place greater emphasis on the relevance and trustworthiness of websites, SEO professionals and webmasters are always looking for metrics and tools to help them evaluate and improve their sites. One of the most useful and insightful metrics to emerge in recent years is Topical Trust Flow (TTF), developed by link analysis tool provider Majestic.

In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll dive deep into what Topical Trust Flow is, how it works, and why it matters for your SEO and link building efforts. We‘ll also provide actionable tips, strategies, and resources to help you analyze and boost your website‘s TTF. Let‘s get started!

What is Topical Trust Flow (TTF)?

Put simply, Topical Trust Flow is a metric that measures the topical relevance and authority of a website based on the quality and trustworthiness of the sites linking to it. It‘s a score on a 100-point logarithmic scale, with higher scores indicating greater topical authority.

Whereas Majestic‘s standard Trust Flow metric evaluates a site‘s overall trustworthiness, TTF adds an additional layer by considering the topical relevance of the linking sites. Each website is classified into one or more of Majestic‘s nearly 1000 topical categories, such as "Arts", "Business", "Health", etc.

A site‘s TTF score for a particular topic reflects both the Trust Flow of the linking sites and how closely those sites align with the topic itself. This provides a much more nuanced and meaningful signal of a site‘s authority and expertise in a specific subject area compared to raw link metrics alone.

For example, consider two websites about sports, each with a lot of inbound links. However, Site A‘s links come mostly from other respected sports-related sites, while many of Site B‘s links come from off-topic or spammy sites. Site A would have a much higher TTF score for "Sports" than Site B, even if they have a similar total number of links.

The topical categories in Majestic‘s TTF database form a hierarchy, with broader top-level categories containing more specific subcategories. A site‘s overall TTF score is based on its scores for all the topics and subtopics relevant to it.

Why Topical Trust Flow Matters for SEO

So why should you care about TTF? There are several reasons this metric is incredibly valuable for SEO:

  1. It provides a clear signal of topical authority and expertise to search engines, which are increasingly prioritizing relevant, high-quality content in their ranking algorithms.
  2. It helps you identify authoritative and influential websites in your niche to target for link building opportunities. Sites with high TTF in topics relevant to yours are likely to provide more SEO value than off-topic sites.
  3. Analyzing your site‘s TTF and the topics associated with it can reveal potential gaps or misalignments in your link profile and content strategy. It may uncover opportunities to focus more on certain topics or prune irrelevant links.
  4. Tracking your site‘s TTF over time, especially in relation to competitors, provides a high-level view of your overall progress and performance in establishing topical authority.

Multiple studies have found a correlation between higher TTF scores and better organic search rankings. A 2020 analysis by Ahrefs, for example, determined that the average TTF of the top 10 pages for both informational and commercial queries was substantially higher than for pages outside the top 10.

Of course, TTF is just one of many ranking factors and SEO considerations. It‘s not a magic bullet or a replacement for producing great content, building real relationships, and following SEO best practices. But as part of a holistic strategy, improving your site‘s topical authority as measured by TTF can certainly move the needle on your organic search performance.

How to Check Your Website‘s Topical Trust Flow

Checking your website‘s TTF is pretty straightforward using Majestic‘s Site Explorer tool. Just enter your domain or a specific URL and you‘ll see an overview of key link metrics, including Trust Flow, Citation Flow, and Topical Trust Flow.

The TTF data shows the top topical categories your site has authority in, along with the corresponding TTF score for each on a 0-100 scale. Clicking into each category will show you more details, such as the specific links and referring domains contributing to your score in that topic.

Some other helpful ways to analyze your site‘s topical authority with Majestic‘s tools include:

  • Using the Topical Trust Flow Comparison tool to benchmark your site against competitors in key topics
  • Checking your Topical Trust Ratio, which is your TTF divided by your overall Trust Flow, to see how topically concentrated your link profile is
  • Identifying off-topic links that may be diluting your TTF using the Referral Topics view in your Site Explorer backlinks report

Other tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Moz also provide their own proprietary metrics related to topical authority, which can provide helpful additional context and points of comparison. But Topical Trust Flow is the original and most established metric in this area.

Strategies to Improve Your Website‘s Topical Trust Flow

Improving your website‘s TTF is ultimately about strengthening your site‘s perceived expertise and authority within the topics most relevant to your brand. Here are some of the most effective ways to do that:

  1. Focus your content on key topics. Ensure your site has comprehensive, in-depth, high-quality content focused on the core topics you want to be known for. Avoid veering off into unrelated subject matter.
  2. Earn topically relevant links. In your link building outreach, prioritize sites that have high TTF in the same topical categories as your site. A lower-DR link from a highly relevant site is often more valuable than a higher-DR link from an off-topic one.
  3. Prune low-quality and off-topic links. Conduct a backlink audit to identify and remove or disavow links from spammy, irrelevant, or very low-TTF referring domains that may be hurting your topical authority. Aim for "quality over quantity" in your link profile.
  4. Build topical hubs and internal links. Structure your site‘s content into "hubs" around key topics, with relevant, keyword-optimized internal links between related pages. This helps establish topical depth and relationships.
  5. Contribute thought leadership content. Publishing expert content on authoritative, relevant sites not only earns high-TTF links back to your site, but also positions your brand as a trusted resource within your industry.
  6. Leverage collaborations and partnerships. Co-creating content, getting featured/quoted, or otherwise partnering with other influential websites in your topic areas is a great way to build topical authority through association.

Remember that building true topical authority takes time and consistency. It‘s not about gaming the TTF algorithm, but becoming a genuinely authoritative resource that is referenced and recommended by others in your industry. Keep putting out great content, making authentic connections, and staying hyper-relevant to your core topics, and gains in TTF and organic visibility should follow.

Limitations and Criticisms of Topical Trust Flow

While Topical Trust Flow is a very useful and relevant metric for SEO, it‘s not perfect. Some of the limitations and potential criticisms to be aware of include:

  • TTF is entirely link-based and does not directly take into account on-page content, user engagement, or other important ranking factors. It should be looked at alongside other metrics for a complete picture of a site‘s SEO.
  • The topical classifications are done by an algorithm and may not always be 100% accurate. A site could potentially be associated with an irrelevant topic due to misclassification of linking sites.
  • For very broad or general sites that cover many topics, the most relevant topical associations may get buried under higher-level categories. The TTF metric is most insightful for sites that have a clear and specific topical focus.
  • Since TTF is a proprietary metric, we don‘t know all the details of how it‘s calculated and it could potentially change without warning. As with any third-party metric, it‘s best used directionally rather than obsessed over.

These limitations aside, Topical Trust Flow remains one of the most powerful and practical ways to evaluate and improve your website‘s topical SEO performance. As search engines continue to get smarter about understanding topics and rewarding sites that demonstrate relevant expertise, TTF will only become more important.

Topical Trust Flow vs. Other SEO Authority Metrics

How does Topical Trust Flow compare to other popular SEO authority metrics like Domain Authority and Domain Rating? While they all attempt to measure a site‘s ability to rank in search results, there are some key differences:

  • Domain Authority (DA): Moz‘s metric provides an overall prediction of a domain‘s ranking potential, based on machine learning and using both link data and on-site factors. Unlike TTF, it does not take into account topical relevance. A site could have a very high DA but low TTF for a particular topic.
  • Domain Rating (DR): Ahrefs‘ metric is solely based on the strength and quantity of a site‘s backlink profile, similar to Majestic‘s Citation Flow. Again, it does not consider topical authority like TTF does.
  • Trust Flow (TF): Majestic‘s proprietary Trust Flow metric, which TTF is derived from, measures the trustworthiness and quality of a site‘s link profile as a whole. But it doesn‘t break it down by topic.

Ultimately, none of these metrics are a substitute for the others, but rather they complement each other to provide a multi-faceted view of a site‘s SEO strength and potential. Topical Trust Flow fills an important gap by specifically measuring topical authority, which is becoming an increasingly important ranking factor.

Key Takeaways and Additional Resources

Topical Trust Flow is a powerful and essential metric for SEO professionals and site owners to understand and utilize in their efforts to build topical authority and improve organic search performance. By focusing your content and link building efforts on the topics most relevant to your brand, and using tools like Majestic to track and analyze your TTF, you can send strong signals to search engines and users that your site is a trustworthy and valuable resource in your niche.

Keep learning about topical authority and how to apply it to your SEO strategy with these additional resources:

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