Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • MozCon
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      Enhance Keyword Discovery with Bulk Analysis
      Moz Pro

      Enhance Keyword Discovery with Bulk Analysis

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Access 20 years of data with flexible pricing
      Moz API

      Access 20 years of data with flexible pricing

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. Technical SEO
    4. 403 forbidden error website

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    403 forbidden error website

    Technical SEO
    4
    7
    3931
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • MaartenvandenBos
      MaartenvandenBos last edited by

      Hi Mozzers,

      I got a question about new website from a new costumer http://www.eindexamensite.nl/.

      There is a 403 forbidden error on it, and I can't find what the problem is.

      I have checked on: http://gsitecrawler.com/tools/Server-Status.aspx
      result:
      URL=http://www.eindexamensite.nl/ **Result code: 403 (Forbidden / Forbidden)**

      When I delete the .htaccess from the server there is a 200 OK :-). So it is in the .htaccess.

      .htaccess code: ErrorDocument 404 /error.html

      RewriteEngine On
      RewriteRule ^home$ / [L]
      RewriteRule ^typo3$ - [L]
      RewriteRule ^typo3/.$ - [L]
      RewriteRule ^uploads/.
      $ - [L]
      RewriteRule ^fileadmin/.$ - [L]
      RewriteRule ^typo3conf/.
      $ - [L]
      RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
      RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
      RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-l
      RewriteRule .* index.php

      Start rewrites for Static file caching

      RewriteRule ^(typo3|typo3temp|typo3conf|t3lib|tslib|fileadmin|uploads|screens|showpic.php)/ - [L]
      RewriteRule ^home$ / [L]

      Don't pull *.xml, *.css etc. from the cache

      RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !^..xml$
      RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !^.
      .css$
      RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !^.*.php$

      Check for Ctrl Shift reload

      RewriteCond %{HTTP:Pragma} !no-cache
      RewriteCond %{HTTP:Cache-Control} !no-cache

      NO backend user is logged in.

      RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !be_typo_user [NC]

      NO frontend user is logged in.

      RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !nc_staticfilecache [NC]

      We only redirect GET requests

      RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} GET

      We only redirect URI's without query strings

      RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^$

      We only redirect if a cache file actually exists

      RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/typo3temp/tx_ncstaticfilecache/%{HTTP_HOST}/%{REQUEST_URI}/index.html -f
      RewriteRule .* typo3temp/tx_ncstaticfilecache/%{HTTP_HOST}/%{REQUEST_URI}/index.html [L]

      End static file caching

      DirectoryIndex index.html

      CMS is typo3.

      any ideas?

      Thanks!
      Maarten

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • jenallen
        jenallen Subscriber last edited by

        Hi everyone,

        I know this thread hasn't been active for a while but i'm looking for an answer relating to a similar issue. Our infrastructure team had issues a few weeks ago and were routing bot traffic to a slave server. This obviously flagged up 403 errors in webmaster tools.

        Having removed the traffic diversion our site hasn't been indexed in the three weeks since serving Googlebot with a 403 response. Does anyone have experience of Google delaying reindexing of a site after experiencing a 403 response?

        Thanks

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • MaartenvandenBos
          MaartenvandenBos @loopyal last edited by

          Hi Alan,

          Ok we start cutting 🙂 the htaccess. I'll keep you posted.

          Thanks!

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • MaartenvandenBos
            MaartenvandenBos @Anthony_NorthSEO last edited by

            Thanks Anthony!

            That's the strange thing, website is working only there is still a 403.

            We will check chmod status.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • loopyal
              loopyal last edited by

              Hello Maarten

              Those RewriteCond entries are cumulative and it looks like there are missing commands.

              Who edited that file last, and what did they change?

              The way conditionals work is you set a condition, Then you add a command, then a line break You can add more than one condition and it acts as AND

              This page has what look like too many conditions and not enough commands -but it could be ok

              Try adding a blank line between the rule entries and the Cond entries (but not between the Cond and the Rule entries)

              Here is what to do to test anything like this: Save a copy of the .htaccess Then start editing it Delete everything below ##Start rewrites See if that fixes it. If not, the problem is above or if that fixes it, the problem is below Keep cutting the file in half or adding half until you discover the problem line

              It is harder with all those conditionals, I suspect it is the lower block that is the problem

              So remove those Cond entries from the bottom up

              MaartenvandenBos 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • Anthony_NorthSEO
                Anthony_NorthSEO last edited by

                Follow up:

                I'm not seeing any errors when visiting the site (http://www.eindexamensite.nl/). It seems to be working perfectly. Could it be something client-side w/ your caching or system time?

                MaartenvandenBos 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • Anthony_NorthSEO
                  Anthony_NorthSEO last edited by

                  Hi Maarten,

                  I'm not extremely familiar .htaccess or the typo3 CMS, but it could be the issue is simply a result of misconfigured file permissions for a specific directory or path.

                  I'd check the permissions on all of the paths that are affected by the .htaccess and make sure they're readable and executable (7,5,5).

                  This could explain why you get the 200 status w/o the .htaccess but the 403 error with it.

                  Good luck!

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • 1 / 1
                  • First post
                    Last post

                  Got a burning SEO question?

                  Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                  Start my free trial


                  Browse Questions

                  Explore more categories

                  • Moz Tools

                    Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                  • SEO Tactics

                    Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                  • Community

                    Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                  • Digital Marketing

                    Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                  • Research & Trends

                    Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                  • Support

                    Connect on product support and feature requests.

                  • See all categories

                  Related Questions

                  • amitdipsite15022020

                    Multilingual website

                    My website is https://www.india-visa-gov.in and we are doing multilingual. There are three options 1. TLD eg india-visa-gov.fr (French) india-visa-gov.de (German) 2. Subdomain eg: fr.india-visa-gov.in (French) de.india-visa-gov.in (German) 3. Folders https://www.india-visa-gov.in/fr/ (French) https://www.india-visa-gov.in/de/ (German) We have tried the 3rd option but need to know whether its better or not for the long term health from SEO. Does the MOZ DA carry better in Subdomain or TLD or Folders? What does MOZ recommend to maintain DA? Thanks

                    Technical SEO | | amitdipsite15022020
                    0
                  • DaleZon

                    Search Console Errors 400 and 405

                    Hi, Does anyone know if search console errors showing as follows are damaging to serps: /xmlrpc.php is returning 405 error /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php is returning 400 error These errors seem to of coincided almost to the day that there was a ranking drop for the primary keyword from mid page 1 to bottom of page 2. No matter what I do I cannot seem to correct these errors. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

                    Technical SEO | | DaleZon
                    0
                  • AliMac26

                    Duplicate content and 404 errors

                    I apologize in advance, but I am an SEO novice and my understanding of code is very limited. Moz has issued a lot (several hundred) of duplicate content and 404 error flags on the ecommerce site my company takes care of. For the duplicate content, some of the pages it says are duplicates don't even seem similar to me. additionally, a lot of them are static pages we embed images of size charts that we use as popups on item pages. it says these issues are high priority but how bad is this? Is this just an issue because if a page has similar content the engine spider won't know which one to index? also, what is the best way to handle these urls bringing back 404 errors? I should probably have a developer look at these issues but I wanted to ask the extremely knowledgeable Moz community before I do 🙂

                    Technical SEO | | AliMac26
                    0
                  • Answer2cancer

                    Rel=canonical on Godaddy Website builder

                    Hey crew! First off this is a last resort asking this question here. Godaddy has not been able to help so I need my Moz Fam on this one. So common problem My crawl report is showing I have duplicate home pages www.answer2cancer.org and www.answer2cancer.org/home.html I understand this is a common issue with apache webservers which is why the wonderful rel=canonical tag was created! I don't want to go through the hassle of a 301 redirect of course for such a  simple issue. Now here's the issue. Godaddy website builder does not make any sense to me. In wordpress I could just go add the tag to the head in the back end. But no such thing exist in godaddy. You have to do this weird drag and drop html block and drag it somewhere on the site and plug in the code. I think putting before the code instead of just putting it in there. So I did that but when I publish and inspect in chrome I cannot see the tag in the head! This is confusing I know. the guy at godaddy didn't stand a chance lol. Anyway much love for any replies!

                    Technical SEO | | Answer2cancer
                    0
                  • ScottR.

                    I have a GoDaddy website and have multiple homepages

                    I have GoDaddy website builder and a new website http://ecuadorvisapros.com and I notices through your crawl test that there are 3 home pages http://ecuadorvisapros with a 302 temporary redirect, http://www.ecuadorvisapros.com/ with no redirect and http://www.ecuadorvisapros/home.html.  GoDaddy says there is only one home page.  Is this going to kill my chances of having a successful website and can this be fixed?  Or can it.  I actually went with the SEO version thinking it would be better, but it wants to auto change my settings that I worked so hard at with your sites help. Please keep it simple, I am a novice although I have had websites in the past I know more about the what's than the how's of websites. Thanks,

                    Technical SEO | | ScottR.
                    0
                  • Alick300

                    Two websites with similar products

                    I have two websites with similar products with different tld.I have a keywords that is comman in both.One site is at top in google with that keyword and one is not.Can we implement 301 redirect from one domain to another domain for that keyword or google will consider it spammy?Please help me out.

                    Technical SEO | | Alick300
                    0
                  • jtay123

                    403 forbidden, are these a problem?

                    Hi I have just run a crawl test on screaming frog and it is showing quite a few 403 forbidden status codes. We are showing none of these in webmaster tools, is this an issue?

                    Technical SEO | | jtay123
                    0
                  • AJ234

                    404 errors on non-existent URLs

                    Hey guys and gals, First Moz Q&A for me and really looking forward to being part of the community. I hope as my first question this isn't a stupid one but I was just struggling to find any resource that dealt with the issue and am just looking for some general advice. Basically a client has raised a problem with 404 error pages - or the lack thereof- on non-existent URLs on their site; let's say for example: 'greatbeachtowels.com/beach-towels/asdfas' Obviously content never existed on this page so its not like you're saying 'hey, sorry this isn't here anymore'; its more like- 'there was never anything here in the first place'. Currently in this fictitious example typing in 'greatbeachtowels.com/beach-towels/asdfas**'** returns the same content as the 'greatbeachtowels.com/beach-towels' page which I appreciate isn't ideal. What I was wondering is how far do you take this issue- I've seen examples here on the seomoz site where you can edit the URI in a similar manner and it returns the same content as the parent page but with the alternate address. Should 404's be added across all folders on a site in a similar way? How often would this scenario be and issue particularly for internal pages two or three clicks down? I suppose unless someone linked to a page with a misspelled URL... Also would it be worth placing 301 redirects on a small number of common mis-spellings or typos e.g. 'greatbeachtowels.com/beach-towles' to the correct URLs as opposed to just 404s? Many thanks in advance.

                    Technical SEO | | AJ234
                    0

                  Get started with Moz Pro!

                  Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                  Start my free trial
                  Products
                  • Moz Pro
                  • Moz Local
                  • Moz API
                  • Moz Data
                  • STAT
                  • Product Updates
                  Moz Solutions
                  • SMB Solutions
                  • Agency Solutions
                  • Enterprise Solutions
                  • Digital Marketers
                  Free SEO Tools
                  • Domain Authority Checker
                  • Link Explorer
                  • Keyword Explorer
                  • Competitive Research
                  • Brand Authority Checker
                  • Local Citation Checker
                  • MozBar Extension
                  • MozCast
                  Resources
                  • Blog
                  • SEO Learning Center
                  • Help Hub
                  • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                  • How-to Guides
                  • Moz Academy
                  • API Docs
                  About Moz
                  • About
                  • Team
                  • Careers
                  • Contact
                  Why Moz
                  • Case Studies
                  • Testimonials
                  Get Involved
                  • Become an Affiliate
                  • MozCon
                  • Webinars
                  • Practical Marketer Series
                  • MozPod
                  Connect with us

                  Contact the Help team

                  Join our newsletter
                  Moz logo
                  © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                  • Accessibility
                  • Terms of Use
                  • Privacy

                  Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.