403
4xxSEO: negativeRFC 9110
HTTP 403 Forbidden
The server understood the request but refuses to authorize it. Google cannot index forbidden pages.
Indexable by Google
No
Link equity passed
No
SEO Impact
Negative
Category
4XX
SEO Impact
403 means the server understood the request but the client is not allowed access. From an SEO perspective, this is worse than 401 because there's no WWW-Authenticate header inviting the user to authenticate — it's a hard block. Googlebot encountering a 403 will not index the page. Common causes: IP-based access restrictions, misconfigured permissions, a WAF blocking Googlebots.
When to Use 403
When the user is authenticated but not authorized. When a resource is off-limits to all public access (not just unauthenticated).
HTTP Response Example
HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden Content-Type: text/html
Test with cURL
$ curl -I https://example.com/admin
Test this in your browser
Check how HTTP 403 responses affect your actual URLs