What is solid gray, solid white PR?

Definitive answer on solid white, gray PR bar

[emione]

Hello everyone,

I've read through about 75% of the posts in this forum and I'm still confused about what a solid gray or solid white PankRank bars means.

I've seen some people say solid gray means a penalty and some people say solid white means penalty.

Can GoogleGuy or someone else please provide a definitive and detailed explanation on the difference between a solid gray PR and a solid white PR?

Thanks

[korkus2000]

Solid grey PR bar means that the page is currently not in the google database. It could mean that the page is banned but usually means that the spider can either not crawl the page or hasn't spidered it yet. A white bar means the page doesn't have any PR. If a page had nice PR then suddenly gets a white bar it could mean a penalty. Usually white bars just mean there are not enough pages with PR linking to that page to give it any, but it is in the database. Really deep pages of a site are likely to have a white PR bar.

<added>Welcome to WebmasterWorld emione [webmasterworld.com]</added>

[ScottM]

Greetings and welcome to WebmasterWorld!

Ok, here goes:

Grey toolbar: The site is not in the index. Google probably isn't even 'aware of it'. This may be on purpose, or on accident. Either way-they don't know about you.

All white Toolbar: Google is aware of you. You are in the index, sort of. Google doesn't have enough information/backlinks etc. to assign a PR value. Not all PR0's are penalties...in fact, most aren't.

A fairly good test for a penalty is HAVING some sort of page rank one month, and then going to PR0 the next. That usually means a penalty, although not always. (Maybe you removed the only link to it?...if so, it's now a 'doorway/orphan' page and may be getting no PR because it stands alone.)

I realize there are other answers, but the above is about 80% correct, I believe.

Again,

Welcome to the forum and enjoy yourself.

[emione]

Hi Korkus2000 and ScottM,

Thanks for the warm welcomes and fast responses you've given. I appreciate the info.

Anyone elses comments and views are also very much appreciated.

Thanks again.

[aek]

New sites added to the index between updates also have a grey bar as backlinks have yet to be applied.

[candidboy]

In recent updates many sites have grey toolbar, but shows backward links. I know one which has 750+ backward links, but not in database anymore.

In fact many seo sites have same state, wonder what it is, and if its the penalty then why they were booted out, I don't see them doing anything wrong.

Might be the case of bad neighbourhood.

[Beachboy]

Some of my sites have gone from gray toolbar to all white to ranked with PR showing as time goes by. All white doesn't necessarily mean a penalty when your new-to-Google site enters the index. It can mean you have to wait 'til the following update for the PR to show.