Title: Getting errors 403 with Google Bots
Last modified: August 21, 2016
---
# Getting errors 403 with Google Bots
* Resolved [massimopaolini](https://wordpress.org/support/users/massimopaolini/)
* (@massimopaolini)
* [13 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-errors-403-with-google-bots/)
* I’ve seen a sharp rise in Google Bot error 403 (forbidden) in Google Webmaster
Tools. After looking into it I find that if I “Empty all caches” and fetch as
Google Bot it works properly.
* Is there a setting I need to adjust, is this a glitch, or am I barking up the
wrong tree?
* The site is [http://online-sales-marketing.com](http://online-sales-marketing.com)
* Thanks Massimo
* [http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/)
Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
* Thread Starter [massimopaolini](https://wordpress.org/support/users/massimopaolini/)
* (@massimopaolini)
* [13 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-errors-403-with-google-bots/#post-3748603)
* Here is the fetch by Google Bot:
* ```
------------Start Fetch as Google - 403 error----------------------
Fetch as Google
This is how Googlebot fetched the page.
URL: http://online-sales-marketing.com/stupid-seo-service-slip-ups
Date: Monday, May 13, 2013 at 3:33:02 PM PDT
Googlebot Type: Web
Download Time (in milliseconds): 51
HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden
Date: Mon, 13 May 2013 22:33:02 GMT
Server: Apache
Vary: Accept-Encoding,User-Agent
X-Powered-By: W3 Total Cache/0.9.2.9
Last-Modified: Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT
Expires: Mon, 13 May 2013 23:33:02 GMT
Content-Encoding: gzip
Keep-Alive: timeout=5, max=100
Connection: Keep-Alive
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Content-Type: text/html
------------End Fetch as Google - 403 error----------------------
Then I emptied ass cache and refetched:
------------Start Fetch as Google - OK----------------------
Fetch as Google
This is how Googlebot fetched the page.
URL: http://online-sales-marketing.com/stupid-seo-service-slip-ups
Date: Monday, May 13, 2013 at 3:33:13 PM PDT
Googlebot Type: Web
Download Time (in milliseconds): 553
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Mon, 13 May 2013 22:33:13 GMT
Server: Apache
Vary: Accept-Encoding,User-Agent
X-Powered-By: W3 Total Cache/0.9.2.9
X-Pingback: http://online-sales-marketing.com/xmlrpc.php
X-W3TC-Minify: On
Link: ; rel=shortlink
Last-Modified: Mon, 13 May 2013 22:33:13 GMT
Expires: Mon, 13 May 2013 23:33:13 GMT
Content-Encoding: gzip
Keep-Alive: timeout=5, max=100
Connection: Keep-Alive
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
------------Start Fetch as Google - OK----------------------
```
* [mbrsolution](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mbrsolution/)
* (@mbrsolution)
* [13 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-errors-403-with-google-bots/#post-3748677)
* Hi you might want to read this [thread ](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/403-crawl-error-on-google-all-pages-have-been-removed-from-google-index)
or even this [other thread](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-w3-total-cache-error-403-forbidden).
I hope they help you with your question.
* Kind regards
* Thread Starter [massimopaolini](https://wordpress.org/support/users/massimopaolini/)
* (@massimopaolini)
* [13 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-errors-403-with-google-bots/#post-3748689)
* mrbsolution thank you for the referral to those posts.
I’ve read the threads
and if I understand them properly they point to a blocking plugin as the culprit.
* I use an IP blocker on my site, the IP’s only get added when they try to login
and fail. Just to be safe I checked the Google IP’s against the list and they
are not blocked.
* Besides Googlebot works fine when I clear the cache, so the IPs cannot be blocked.
* I just de-activated Spamfree WordPress that automatically blocks spam coomments.
This was a recent addition, I’ll post the results here tomorrow when I check
GWMT again.
* Plugin Contributor [Frederick Townes](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fredericktownes/)
* (@fredericktownes)
* [13 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-errors-403-with-google-bots/#post-3748934)
* [@massimopaolini](https://wordpress.org/support/users/massimopaolini/), are you
seeing any improvement?
* Thread Starter [massimopaolini](https://wordpress.org/support/users/massimopaolini/)
* (@massimopaolini)
* [13 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-errors-403-with-google-bots/#post-3748937)
* The short answer is no. The details are below.
* Steps I took:
Every day I would make one adjustment 1. Disabled “Spam Free WordPress”
2. Waited 3 days for Google Webmaster Tools to report on crawl errors 3. Disabled“
IP Blacklist Cloud” 4. Checked GWMT for errors – errors found 5. Turned on error
notification for minify 6. Checked GWMT for errors – errors found and an email
from W3TC about minify not working 7. Turned off JS minify 8. Checked GWMT for
errors – errors found and an email from W3TC 9. Turned off CSS 10. Checked GWMT
for errors – errors found and an email from W3TC 11. Turned off Minify completely
12. Checked GWMT for errors – errors found and an email from W3TC 13. Turned
off all other cache items 14. Disabled plugin 14. Checked GWMT for errors – none
and an error email from W3TC(?)
* Hope this helps resolve the issue, please feel free to contact me for more details.
* [mdp8593](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mdp8593/)
* (@mdp8593)
* [13 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-errors-403-with-google-bots/#post-3748938)
* I’m getting the same problem. And it all started with the latest plugin update
on 5/22/2013. Got a message from Google saying:
* “Google detected a significant increase in the number of URLs we were blocked
from crawling due to authorization permission errors.”
* Tried to fetch our home page using Google Webmasters Fetch tool:
[https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/googlebot-fetch](https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/googlebot-fetch)
* This was the report:
* HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden
Date: Tue, 28 May 2013 17:43:36 GMT Server: Apache/2.2.20(
Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.20 OpenSSL/0.9.8m DAV/2 mod_auth_passthrough/2.1 mod_bwlimited/
1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 Expires: Tue, 28 May 2013 18:43:36 GMT Pragma: public
Cache-Control: max-age=3600, public, must-revalidate, proxy-revalidate Etag:
15d365532833901733dcaa5628b1d377 X-Powered-By: W3 Total Cache/0.9.2.11 Content-
Encoding: gzip Vary: Accept-Encoding,User-Agent Last-Modified: Thu, 01 Jan 1970
00:00:00 GMT Keep-Alive: timeout=5, max=100 Connection: Keep-Alive Transfer-Encoding:
chunked Content-Type: text/html
* Turned off W3TC completely, and the problem went away. Googlebot fetched the
page with no problem.
* [mdp8593](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mdp8593/)
* (@mdp8593)
* [13 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-errors-403-with-google-bots/#post-3748939)
* Update: the problem is related to CDN. I deactivated that (amazon cloudfront),
and no problem.
* Will continue investigating.
* [mdp8593](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mdp8593/)
* (@mdp8593)
* [13 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-errors-403-with-google-bots/#post-3748940)
* Update 2: Looks like I spoke too soon. Problem still exists with Page Cache and
Browser cache only activated.
* [mdp8593](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mdp8593/)
* (@mdp8593)
* [13 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-errors-403-with-google-bots/#post-3748941)
* Update 3: I did a complete W3TC uninstall. Deleted all files, then reinstalled.
So far, the problem seems to be gone. Will keep an eye on it and update if anything
changes.
* Plugin Contributor [Frederick Townes](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fredericktownes/)
* (@fredericktownes)
* [13 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-errors-403-with-google-bots/#post-3748956)
* [@mdp8593](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mdp8593/), any update?
* [mdp8593](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mdp8593/)
* (@mdp8593)
* [13 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-errors-403-with-google-bots/#post-3748957)
* No update. Still working fine.
* [TimWRoberts](https://wordpress.org/support/users/timwroberts/)
* (@timwroberts)
* [12 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-errors-403-with-google-bots/#post-3749023)
* Curious if anyone has solved the problem with W3TC? I’m dealing with the same
issue this morning so I went back to Quick Cache and I’m able to fetch my site
via google web tools just fine. However, it would be nice to know the root cause
is.
* Thread Starter [massimopaolini](https://wordpress.org/support/users/massimopaolini/)
* (@massimopaolini)
* [12 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-errors-403-with-google-bots/#post-3749024)
* Still no update.
* [markgelo](https://wordpress.org/support/users/markgelo/)
* (@markgelo)
* [12 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-errors-403-with-google-bots/#post-3749033)
* any solution for this?? i have the same issue.. ple help!!
Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
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* 14 replies
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* Last reply from: [markgelo](https://wordpress.org/support/users/markgelo/)
* Last activity: [12 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/getting-errors-403-with-google-bots/#post-3749033)
* Status: resolved