PR0 or Greybar - which is worse?

If a site had PR3 and went down, what does it mean?

[RawAlex]

Okay, I own a few domains (quite a few, actually). I have two domains that in the last update suffered different fates:

One went from PR3 to PR0.

One went from PR1 to grey bar.

Both sites have reasonable (but not overwhelmingly good) backlinks.. maybe 100-150 each. All the link backs are PR1 to PR4 type sites.

What I am trying to figure out is this: Is the PR0 or the grey bar worse? Is one or the other "lost"?

Googleguy, can you explain the difference between the two?

Alex

[monsterisp]

PR0 much worse... Grey = still updating

[dvb_99]

wouldn't it be the other way around...PR of 0 u still have the chances to come back if you do things right..With a Grey bar..it will probably take longer

Just a thought...can some one explain?

DVB

[ariff44]

a white bar doesn't neccessairily mean you were penalized, for instance new sites with no backlinks have pr white

[mfishy]

If you have previously been indexed (showing PR)a grey bar is much, much worse.

[rogerd]

PR0 can indicate a penalty, gray can mean a complete ban (worse penalty). Of course, both conditions can have normal explanations, too, like a site unavailable during crawl, loss of linkage, or even a database hiccup.

[RawAlex]

So it is assumed that a site that was previously indexed, that got PR2 or 3, and then went to PR0 is being penalized for "something" that could be fixed, where a site then went from PR3 to grey bar is potentially banned?

Alex

[rogerd]

These are possibilities, RawAlex, not certainties - there are other explanations as noted above. Do you have reason to think the sites might not withstand inspection if Google received a spam complaint?

[soapystar]

i think what they are saying is there is no way to know until the next couple of updates. You cannot tell from one update whether a grey or pr0 means a penalty or loss of pr for other reasons. Personally ive had pages swing from pr to grey or pr0 on one update and then back to normal the next.

[kevinpate]

Not necessarily mfishy.

During Cassandra, my root index page went buh-bye. It's back in index, though it's now grey, not PR 5 as it had been. And Fergit about trying to use the blacklinks feature for now, google says nope, I ain't got any (hogwash, but that's what it shows)

Sounds dreadful, right? Did to me too at first, but then I quit frettin' and started noticin' things.

The internal pages either kept pre-cassandra PR or went -1 from prior PR (one page even went +1, go figure). The index page is of course still grey, and as oted above, no backlinks after about a week on being back now.

But, on a kw1 kw2 search with 1.4 mil returns, the index page comes up #2, exactly where it was when it was a PR5 page. On kw1 kw2 kw3 (a highly common search) the index comes up # 1 and another page on the site comes up #2 (and oddly, that varies from time to time as which page it will be)

On a variety of other 2 and 3 kw searches that are common for the site, pages are showing in serps within top 8 and very often in top 4. That's exactly where the same pages were showing prior to the PR drop and the index going all grey and going out, and then back into, the google database. And through all this, for backlinks, it's still "uh, excuse me, what backlinks?"

I don't understand it, but I've pretty much decided that ain't very dreadful if it doesn't impact the ability of peeps to find the pages on the site.

[RawAlex]

Rogerd, one of the domains is a directory style site, clean, no hidden text, no style sheet tricks, no redirects, no consoles, no BS... the other is just a promotional page for an affiliate program... but it is the same page that has been there for a while. Nothing out of the usual, really... I don't play games, don't spam, don't abuse the engines... (and I work in a VERY competitive field... )

I hope things turn back to normal for the next update. Googleguy, if your around, can you make any comments about grey vs PR0?

Alex

[mrguy]

If you had PR and then went gray, you've been banned.

Try searching for your domain in Google and you won't get a result where as before you did.

If you went white, chances are you still show up but might be suffering a penalty.

[kevinpate]

Hmmm, it's true enough that it's gone from PR 5 to grey on root index (and only the root directory index).
It's likewise true that neither domain.TLD nor www.domain.TLD will produce a google result other than -
no info available but if you think it's a valid url, click www.domain.tld

It's difficult though to view the domain, or even the greyed out root index page, as being banned. After all, what sort of ban permits a kw1 kw2 search to show a grey page as #2 out of 1.4 mil serp return (which is exactly where the page landed when it was PR 5)

Also, numerous pages on the domain, which do still have PR ranging from 1-5, place high (well within top 8) in the serps for other kw 1 kw2 combos, just as the pages did before the domain root index went grey.
If there's a ban in place, I obviously hold a very erroneous interpretation of the word banned.

[RawAlex]

KevinPate: That is my problem as well - the greybar'ed domain is on the root - but there are still about 100 pages from the inside of the domain in the listings... which makes me wonder what I missed.

Alex

[percentages]

RawAlex,

>Okay, I own a few domains (quite a few, actually)

hmmm, you wouldn't have happened to have linked this lot together by any chance? If so that is probably the reason for your PR0. Since last August Google often dishes out a PR0 for excessive cross linking.

I've never seen a gray bar for a cross-linking penalty. But, I have seen a gray bar obtained by mistake once in a while. I wouldn't worry about the gray bar unless you are cloaking or spamming excessively, that site will probably be back again next month.

However, if you got the PR0 for cross linking then you may have a VERY long wait until that penalty is lifted. A few of my sites got caught by that penalty last year...they still have it. Best thing to do is ban Googlebot using Robots.txt and start another domain name for SE promotion purposes IMHO.....the wait to get that PR0 lifted can be a very long wait.

[RawAlex]

percentages, I have thought about it, that would only be an issue if there have been VERY major changes in the algo for cross links... this site is a link / guide / category site, so it is normal for other sites to link to it. I don't do massive cross links or any spammy techniques like that. Just normal link exchanges. This site has over 4000 listings (dmoz style) and about half of those sites have given some sort of return link. They are all over the world, this isn't a self link PR boost deal... and the site is very old... the time machine has pages back to 1997.

I am looking VERY carefully at every link on the index page to see if there is anything I can do to remove any links to things under PR3...

Any other suggestions?

Alex