For local SEO agencies evaluating backlink profiles and link-building opportunities, Majestic maintains one of the largest independent backlink indexes available. Based in the UK since 2004, it is known for its Trust Flow and Citation Flow metrics, which measure link quality and link quantity respectively.
What Majestic Actually Does Well
Majestic’s core value is its backlink index, which it describes as one of the largest in the industry. The Clique Hunter tool identifies which domains link to multiple competitors simultaneously, surfacing link acquisition targets that are already demonstrated to link to sites in a niche. For local SEO link research, this is useful for finding local business directories, news sites, and industry sites that link to competing local businesses.
Trust Flow is Majestic’s quality metric, rating a site’s link quality on a 0-100 scale based on the quality of sites linking to it. Citation Flow measures the volume of links without quality weighting. The combination provides a quick quality-to-quantity comparison across any set of domains.
The Fresh Index and Historic Index serve different research purposes: Fresh Index is updated frequently for current link research; Historic Index contains older data useful for understanding the full historical link profile of a domain.
Local SEO: What Majestic Covers
For local SEO backlink work, Majestic is useful for auditing client backlink profiles, identifying toxic links before a site recovery effort, and finding link opportunities by analyzing competitor link profiles. The Topical Trust Flow categorizes links by topic, which can reveal whether a local business site is accumulating links from topically relevant sources.
Majestic does not include rank tracking, keyword research, GBP management, citation distribution, or site audit tools. It is a dedicated link intelligence platform.
Pricing at Scale: What Agencies Pay
Majestic plans are tiered by monthly analysis volume:
| Plan | Monthly price | Projects | Tracked keywords |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lite | $49.99/mo | 1M analysis units/month | Fresh + Historic index |
| Pro | $99.99/mo | 20M analysis units/month | API access |
| API | $399.99/mo | 100M analysis units/month | Full API |
Annual billing applies a discount. See current pricing at majestic.com/plans-pricing.
Data Ownership: Where Your Information Lives
Majestic is a UK-based company. Platform data is hosted on UK and EU infrastructure. The backlink index is proprietary to Majestic.
Backlink data and reports can be exported in CSV format. The API allows programmatic access to backlink data for integration with custom reporting tools.
As a UK company post-Brexit, data handling follows UK GDPR. Data processing agreements are available.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are Trust Flow and Citation Flow in Majestic?
Trust Flow measures the quality of a site’s backlink profile on a 0-100 scale, based on proximity to a curated set of trusted seed sites. Citation Flow measures the volume of links pointing to a site without quality weighting. A high Trust Flow relative to Citation Flow suggests a clean, quality link profile. A much higher Citation Flow than Trust Flow may indicate spammy links.
Is Majestic useful for local SEO link analysis?
Yes. Majestic’s Clique Hunter is useful for finding local directories, news sites, and industry sites that link to multiple local competitors. Trust Flow assessment helps identify high-quality local link sources versus low-quality directories. Topical Trust Flow categorizes links by topic, helping assess whether a local business’s links come from topically relevant sources.
How does Majestic compare to Ahrefs for backlink analysis?
Majestic is a dedicated link intelligence tool with one of the largest backlink indexes available and a longer history of link data. Ahrefs covers backlinks alongside keyword research, rank tracking, and site auditing. For pure backlink depth and historical data, Majestic is competitive. For a full SEO research toolkit, Ahrefs covers more ground. Many agencies use both.
What is the difference between Majestic’s Fresh Index and Historic Index?
The Fresh Index is updated regularly and contains recent backlink data for current research. The Historic Index contains older data going back further in time, useful for understanding a domain’s full link history and identifying patterns that predate the fresh window. Both are included in all paid plans.
Does Majestic have an API?
Yes. API access is included in the Pro plan and above. The API provides programmatic access to backlink data, Trust Flow metrics, and topical data for integration with custom dashboards, reporting tools, and automated research workflows.