What does ‘403 Forbidden’ error mean in Site Audit?

In the realm of website management and maintenance, encountering HTTP status codes is not uncommon. One such code, the ‘403 Forbidden’ error, can be particularly frustrating for both website owners and users.

Understanding the 403 Forbidden error

The ‘403 Forbidden’ error essentially indicates that the server understands the request made by the client, but it refuses to fulfill it. This can occur due to various reasons, ultimately preventing access to the requested resource.

Upon completing the audit of your website, you may observe the occurrence of the 4XX Page error, indicating that certain pages on your site are returning a 4XX HTTP status code.

By clicking on this error, you will be presented with a list of URLs/pages affected by this issue. Within this list, you may encounter URLs that are displaying a 403 Forbidden error.

This signifies that your site is likely delivering different content specifically for our user agent. In such instances, it is advisable to verify if there are any systems or plugins in place that might be obstructing bots. If such systems exist, ensure to whitelist our user-agent within them.

User-agent: Insight Gainer Site Audit

It’s important to note that this issue should not disrupt regular visitor access. However, it does indicate that certain web crawlers may encounter difficulties in indexing your website.