A high proportion of the site's indexed URLs have received no Search impressions over the last 16 months, meaning the indexed set is dominated by pages Google does not choose to show. Trial exhibits describe Google's quality score Q* as largely static and related to the site rather than the query, and Google says site-wide signals contribute to how pages are understood. A heavy tail of dead pages is a proxy for weak site-level quality. It does not measure Q* directly.
Why does a large share of indexed urls earn no impressions (site-level quality, q*) matter for AI search?
Trial exhibits describe Google's quality score Q* as largely static and related to the site rather than the query, and Google says site-wide signals contribute to how pages are understood. A heavy tail of dead pages is a proxy for weak site-level quality. It does not measure Q* directly.
How do you fix it?
Improve, merge or redirect pages with a clear purpose; noindex or remove pages that serve no user need; stop generating new low-value URLs at the template level.
How do you find it on your site?
- In Search Console, export all pages with impressions over the last 16 months from the Performance report.
- Export the list of indexed URLs from the Page indexing report, or crawl the XML sitemaps as a stand-in.
- Compute the share of indexed URLs absent from the impressions export.
- Group the zero-impression URLs by template or directory to find the source of the tail; flag the site if the share is high relative to comparable sites.
Which ranking and citation factors does it touch?
Written for the Q* (Quality score) page (evidence: Trial or leak evidence). Google has not documented this system in a way a site can test directly, so this check measures a proxy for it, not the system itself.
What is the impact?
Indirect, site-wide. Estimate only: changes in site-level quality are reported to take months to show.
What is the evidence?
DOJ exhibits PXR0356 and PXR0357 (2025 calls with Google engineers), the 2024 Content Warehouse leak (CompressedQualitySignals), and Google's ranking systems guide on site-wide signals.
Sources
Frequently asked questions about a large share of indexed urls earn no impressions (site-level quality, q*)
What does "A large share of indexed URLs earn no impressions (site-level quality, Q*)" mean?
A high proportion of the site's indexed URLs have received no Search impressions over the last 16 months, meaning the indexed set is dominated by pages Google does not choose to show.
How do you fix a large share of indexed URLs earn no impressions (site-level quality, Q*)?
Improve, merge or redirect pages with a clear purpose; noindex or remove pages that serve no user need; stop generating new low-value URLs at the template level.