PR0 Vs Gray

What do they really mean

[coosblues]

scenario: website 2 1/2 mths old - started gray and has remained gray. Question, which is worse, PR0 or gray, and how would one know if their site was banned? Still being actively spidered by google but it's not taking anything? Thanks. Should I hold on or bail out now? Think original problem was bad html and navigation hidden in javascript. The site now meets all w3c standards. What would u suggest.

[DaveN]

Gray means not in the google index, keep getting links from sites in the google index, also if haven't already get some DMOZ listings and maybe a yahoo directory listing.

I know a lot of people are complaining about yahoo burying the directory listings but there are other benefits ;)

DaveN

Gray Pr you are waiting for google to breathe life into your site
PR0 is Google as sucked the life out of your site

[makemetop]

Wait - 2.5 months is way too soon to say you have got a human induced penalty grey toolbar - it is grey simply because it has not been included in the Google DB to date. Even PR0 on a site when it is first included is not usually a penalty - it takes time (up to 3 months) for links to start feeding through and settling down to give you some PageRank. Concentrate on getting more quality links and you should be fine.

Penalties are seen when you are sitting with a good PR and then get a grey toolbar and disappear or get a PR0. Even then, it is best to wait for another update as this could be caused by server downtime or other technical glitches.

[rfgdxm1]

Since you were never in Google, almost certainly this isn't a penalty. Only when you are in Google and this happens later can it mean the kiss of death for your domain.

[percentages]

CoosBlues just hang in there.

If your site is gray (not indexed) the most likely reason after 2 1/2 months is that you don't have any good backlinks to it.

Get a good ODP link, or other directory and try to get links from several other high PR sites (5+).

If you haven't aleady done this you are most likely going to be gray for all of Novemeber. But don't give up...it takes time. Do it now and a November/December update will like you!

In my experience a PR0 can mean one of two things.

1. Google has screwed up....happens to one of my 300 sites just about every month, but they come back again the month after. I don't even touch them if they have a PR0, they get back their PR by magic...or could it be the Google Algo works correctly on them the following month?

2. You have incurred a penalty. For a new site I find this highly unlikely.

SEO is not for those in a hurry or for those with only one site. You have to play the law of averages. Every month something bad will happen to some sites for no good reason. Have enough sites and you tend not to care about the one that got scuppered on any one Google update.

Good luck....Pecentages.