Google webmaster tools says access denied error 403

[ClaireH-184886]

Hi, this keeps on happening, just check early today and it tells me i have access denied and 403 errors

I have this from time to time in my google webmaster tools and i have checked the pages and they work properly, so i am puzzled why this has happened. I have contacted my hosting company who have said there is not a problem but there must be a problem somewhere which could affect my site rankings.

can anyone let me know what this could be please. i work in joomla

| parenting-magazine | 403 | 8/10/13 |
| | 2 | personal-finance-money-advice | 403 | 8/10/13 |
| | 3 | 201308081607/emmerdale/emmerdale-chas-confronts-cameron-over-affair-with-debbie | 403 | 8/10/13 |
| | 4 | 201308081606/emmerdale/emmerdale-declan-gets-a-visit-from-the-police | 403 | 8/10/13 |
| | 5 | 201308081608/emmerdale/emmerdale-cameron-debbie-affair-is-out-in-the-open | 403 | 8/10/13 |
| | 6 | 201308081614/uk-holiday-news/visitscotland-launch-campaign-to-boost-tourism | 403 | 8/10/13 |
| | 7 | dog-advice/training-your-puppy-a-beginners-guide | 403 | 8/10/13 |
| | 8 | gadgets/hp-envy-13-laptop-review | 403 | 8/10/13 |
| | 9 | gadget-talk/everyday-smartphone-gadgets-which-could-revolutionise-your-life | 403 | 8/10/13 |
| | 10 | news-gadgets/the-htc-one-mobile-phone-review | 403 | 8/10/13 |
| | 11 | gadget-talk/five-iphone-apps-for-home-improvement | 403 | 8/10/13 |
| | 12 | gadget-talk/are-android-apps-useful-for-business-success | 403 | 8/10/13 |
| | 13 | gadget-talk/television-gadgets-the-future-of-television-is-coming | 403 | 8/10/13 |

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[ClaireH-184886]

thank you for that, great advice. I have had to do a lot of work since the upgrade with getting the site back to normal so all this help is great.

[alankoen123]

Use "group error messages by type" in Options when using the html validator. It will make it easier to identify primary causes and create solutions. The tag errors are the best place to start when debugging. I've noticed in the past that sometimes the validator identifies an error when in fact, it may be so technical that it doesn't qualify as significant to trigger a 403 error.

Hope that helps - Alan

[ClaireH-184886]

thank you for this, just ran a report and got the following results, http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=www.in2town.co.uk&charset=(detect+automatically)&doctype=Inline&group=0

so i am going to try and learn what they are and learn what i need to do to fix them, many thanks for your help

[ClaireH-184886]

hi, sorry it is www.in2town.co.uk

[TheHouse]

I'd love to help but what is the url in reference?

[alankoen123]

The web server is most likely specifying a folder and not a web page. Your webmaster should provide results of an assessment to determine if this is the error. Go to http://pcsupport.about.com/od/findbyerrormessage/a/403error.htm for more information. Ran one validator test and it reported that the DOCTYPE line is inconsistent with the actual content on the page. The list of accepted DOCTYPE declarations is listed here: http://www.totalvalidator.com/support/doctypes.html

Hope this helps. Let us know.

Alan