SEO Basics

Understanding the QualityRisk (QR)

The QualityRisk measures the accumulation of technical issues on a page, from 0 (perfect) to 100 (unrecoverable). Understand its components to prioritize your optimizations.

⏱ 4 min read · Updated on 22 April 2026

What is QualityRisk?

QualityRisk (QR) is a quality risk index developed by RM Tech, calculated between 0 (perfect) and 100 (worst). It measures the accumulation of technical and content issues on a page. The higher the QR, the more likely Google is to penalize the page.

Thresholds and interpretation

QR Status Recommended action
0 Excellent None
1–19 Warning Monitor and improve
20–39 Error Fix as a priority
40–59 Serious error Fix urgently
60–79 Critical Deindex if no traffic
80–100 Unrecoverable Remove (if no backlinks)

QualityRisk components

QR is affected by:

  • Title: missing, too short, too long, duplicated, with keyword stuffing
  • Meta description: missing, too short, duplicated
  • H1: missing, empty, duplicated across pages
  • Content: thin content (too few words in the main area)
  • Performance: download time > 600 ms
  • Internal linking: < 10 incoming internal links for a strategic page
  • Depth: > 4 clicks from the homepage

QualityRisk vs Zombie Index

  • QualityRisk measures the technical quality of the page (independent of traffic)
  • Zombie Index combines QualityRisk with the absence of organic traffic

RM Tech's goal: achieve 0% of pages with QR ≥ 20.

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