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What is the best way to correct 403 access denied errors?

Intermediate & Advanced SEO

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RosemaryB last edited by

One of the domains I manage is seeing a growing number of 403 errors. For SEO purposes would it be ideal to just 301 redirect them? I am plenty familiar with 404 error issues, but not 403s.
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UmarKhan last edited by

Hello Rosemary,

The main problem with this 403 error is, it generally means that the website’s server is blocking Googlebot’s access. These errors are indeed bad for SEO because the search engines can’t crawl that page.

I'd like to know why are they 403 actually? Do the pages exist but any authorization is required? If any authorization is required, redirect the users to the login page.

I don't think putting a 301 is ideal in this case but rather set a custom 403 page and put a no-index tag on it so they don't show up. Hope this helps!

Thanks,
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