Q* (Balance)
Q* is a summary quality score for the entire website — a 'balance' made up of the site's authority (siteAuthority), a low-quality flag (lowQuality), and the overall NSR value.
What it measures
Q* is a summary quality score for the entire website — a 'balance' made up of the site's authority (siteAuthority), a low-quality flag (lowQuality), and the overall NSR value. This score changes slowly: internal Google documents describe it as 'largely static' — a sluggish foundation, not a day-to-day signal.
Derived from
A combination of siteAuthority and lowQuality (both derived from the NSR system) with the overall NSR value. Q* consumes NSR, it doesn't compute it.
Metric detail
Not a single field: siteAuthority (authority) + lowQuality (low-quality flag) + NSR converge into the Q* balance; siteAuthority and lowQuality both stem from quality_nsr and are applied in Qstar. [B]
Why this attribution
Authority and Trust are primary: Q* reflects the long-term reputation of the site — is it perceived as a reliable, recognized source? Expertise and Experience feed in indirectly because the underlying content signals are factored into Q*.
Strategic consequence
Q* does not react to individual page improvements — it requires consistent quality over months and years. Long-term content quality beats short-term SEO tricks. Pages with persistently low quality scores drag down the entire site's Q* value.