Ahrefs 403 Forbidden Error: What It Is and How to Fix It

You initiate a new site audit, looking forward to a perfect health grade from a lhrefs. But instead, it is a scene of red. One after another in the report: a 403 Forbidden

Is your web site down? Have you been hacked?

You open a new browser tab, copy and paste the url, press enter. The site is loaded in perfect condition. The images are sharp and clean, the writing is easy to read, and all navigation works splendidly.

The question is, if your website is so off limits to Ahrefs, then why exactly?

This divergence between human experience and that of a search engine crawler is an endless source of exasperation for site operators and SEO professionals. The final problem with a 403 Forbidden error may not even exist for people; instead it could just as likely mean that your server has locked out certain bots from accessing its content Although it may seem like a minor nuisance, blocking SEO crawlers can keep you from getting valuable information you need to improve your rankings and, ultimately, even constitute preventing Googlebot from accessing your site.

How to fix 403 errors viewed from ahrefs?

This is a comprehensive guide to the causes of 403 errors raised by Ahrefs and, even more importantly, how to eliminate them so you can concentrate on enhancing your search efficiency.

What’s a 403 Error Message? Understanding the 403 Forbidden Error Message

In order to solve the problem first itself, you have to understand what the server is attempting to tell you. The 403 status code in HTTP indicates that the server comprehends your request but will not allow it. Unlike a 404 error where the page just does not exist, a 403 one shows that the page is there but says access to it there is not allowed.

When Ahrefs reports a 403, it means that the AhrefsBot web crawler from the platform has tried to access a URL on your site and your server or some front-end security measures have blocked it.

This usually happens because these new security systems are designed to weed out non-human traffic. Although their goal may be to stop scrapers and hackers from causing harm, frequently their scope is broader–they snatch legitimate search engine optimization tools in their net.

Main Causes of Ahrefs 403 Errors

The root cause is typically not difficult to resolve. The block may have occurred at a number of different levels of your website.

Web Application Firewalls (WAF) & CDNs

Cloudflare, Sucuri, AWS WAF, and services of that ilk are great for speeding up your site as well browsing protection against DDoS attacks. Nevertheless, they also have “Bot Save” configuration items or strict security rules which create skepticism around high-frequency crawlers like Ahrefs. These firewalls may temporarily deny access to the Ahrefs IP address, if your audit crawl is too rapid for them to handle.

WordPress Security Plugins

When you operate a WordPress-based site you’ve undoubtedly got plugins like iThemes Security, Wordfence and All In One WP Security. These plugins all have options that stop “bad bots.” In the presence of commercial SEO crawlers they can sometimes pin the blame on robot behavior, since they consume server resources and don’t even visit web pages.

Server Configuration (.htaccess and Nginx)

With configuration files your server controls who gets to see your content. Regulations in your.htaccess file (for Apache servers) or in Nginx’s config can deny access on grounds of what the User-Agent is and IP ranges that are being used. If some earlier developer or maybe a fencing scheme put Ahrefs in their blacklist because they were thought of as “scrapers,” that would explain this problem.

Solving the problem

Some hosting providers have a strict traffic control that will shut off access to all or some machines when they feel that certain limits are passed. If Ahrefs tries to crawl too many pages per second, the host’s firewall could automatically block out traffic from its IP address.

The 403 Errors in a Step-by-Step Tutorial

Most of these errors involve putting the Ahrefs bot in the white list. This tells your security systems, “Concierge, this bot is mine.”

Determine the Problem with “Fetch as Ahrefs”

Before you start mucking about with server settings, make sure the problem is limited to just the Ahrefs bot. You can do this within the Ahrefs’ control center, or by issuing a command in a terminal if you’re so technical.

If you have access to a terminal window (in Windows that’s called Command Prompt and macOS you’d use Terminal) then you can make a request as if it’s coming from the AhrffsBot with cURL:

curl -A “Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; AhrefsBot/7.0; +http://ahrefs.com/robot/)” -I https://yourwebsite.com

If the returned headers say HTTP/2 403 forbidden or HTTP/1.1 403 forbidden, then you’ve verified that the block is working through the user-agent.

Add Ahrefs to the Whitelist in Cloudflare

Cloudflare is one of the reasons 403 errors turn up in a site audit as often as they do. If you use it, follow these steps.

Log in to your Cloudflare dashboard.

Browse to Security > WAF.

Go into Tools.

In the IP Access Rules or User Agent Organizing category, you can post a new regulation.

It’s safer to use the User Agent than an IP address, because IPs can change. Enter AhrefsBot in the User Agent box and then choose Allow or Bypass by the side.

In the alternative, examine the Bot Fight Mode found under Security > Bots. If it is switched on, this could be overexcitedly challenging the bot. You may have to switch it off or set it so that confirmed bots are accepted.

Configure WordPress Security Plugins

If you are currently using Wordfence or a similar plug-in, the settings menu can be fixed.

For Wordfence:

Go to Wordfence > All Options.

Move to Rate Limiting.

Check whether “Verified Google Crawlers” are whitelisted. Although you may need to manually whitelist Ahrefs for maintaining the integrity and speed of Google, adding AhrefsBot to the list may help.

Scan for the one labeled Allowlisted User Agents field.

Add AhrefsBot to that list.

Save changes, and try crawling again.

Most security plugins work in the same way. If you look for lines like “Bot Blocking,” “User Agent Whitelisting” or Rate Limiting settings you might find connections that work and bring relief.

Adjust Server-Side Files (.htaccess)

In the event that you do not use either a CDN or security plug-in, it is likely that that block is simply hardcoded in your server files.

Go to the root directory of your website, either via FTP or your hosting File Manager.

Find the.htaccess file. Open it and look through for lines that mention “Deny from” or “RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT}”.

If you see a line that looks like this:

SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent “AhrefsBot” bad_bot

Deny from env=bad_bot

Remove or comment those lines out by adding a # at the start of the line. This tells the server to stop explicitly denying the bot access.

Slow Down the Crawl Speed

Sometimes the 403 error is not actually a permanent block but rather a temporary “rate limit.” If Ahrefs crawls your site too quickly, the server may become overwhelmed and throw 403 errors in order to protect itself.

There is a direct solution to this in Ahrefs:

Go to your Site Audit project settings.

Move to the Crawl settings tab.

Find the Speed settings.

Decrease the “Max number of parallel requests.” If it was set to 10, try lowering it to 2 or 1.

Add a pause between requests if the option is available (e.g., 1 or 2 seconds).

This soft touch often circumvents strict firewall triggers.

WH Why these Mistakes are Better Not to Overlook

Therefore, it’s a very tempting thing for you to overlook them 403 errors. After all, real clients rather than those of us with technical backgrounds won’t see the error appearing on their screens, right?

Probably true, but lack of action leaves you all in the dark.

Incomplete Data: Ahrefs only gives information on pages it can access. The incomplete list of broken links, missing meta tags and content issues on pages returning a 403 will lead to inaccuracies in calculating your site health score.

Backlink Tracking: If Ahrefs can’t crawl your pages, it can’t verify the backlinks pointing to them or the internal links on them. All the work you have done to build relationships with other sites’ owners and webmasters goes down the drain.

The “Googlebot” Risk: If your safety settings are strict enough to keep Ahrefs out, there is a tiny chance that they also interfere with Googlebot. Most Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) can distinguish between real and fake Googlebots, (in any case) but custom server rules and aggressive plugins may still sometimes regard Googlebot as a scraper. Making sure your site is accessible to legitimate bots is the cornerstone of technical SEO hygiene. Are Your 403s Hurting My SEO Rankings?

If no one sees the 403 error except those robots from Ahrefs, then it won’t harm your rankings. However, when Googlebot gets a 403, your pages are removed from the index, which is really bad for your ranking. So fixing Ahrefs errors is a good way to turn inward and check how accessible Google sees you are, making sure there isn’t by any chance something shutting out the search engines accidentally.

Is There a Way to Just Tell Ahrefs That My Pages Are OK? Can I whitelist the Ahrefs IP addresses alone?

Yes, you can use IP to get over this. Ahrefs publishes a list of its own IP ranges. Nevertheless, IP addresses change and rotate. In general whitelisting by User-Agent (AhrefsBot) is easier to maintain and less prone to breakage if Ahrefs changes its infrastructure.

Here are some reasons why some hosting providers block Ahrefs by default.crawlers use processor and RAM resources. Budget hosting or shared plans often block aggressive crawlers in ordernot to push the load on the server hard for their other customers. If your host won’t unblock the bot orrefuses to unblock it, maybe it’s time to upgrade to a better type of hosting plan.

At any rate unblock ityourself and keep trying your site!A Simple Guide to the SEO Audit: Ensure Your Audit Reflects RealityTechnical SEO is hard enough without bogus claims adding to the confusion of your user interface. A 403 error is essentially a communication error between your site’s security protocols and the tools you’re using to track success.Effective immunityYou weed out malicious hacking attempts while being able to let Ahrefs in.

Once you have fixed theseproblems, re-run your crawl. Seeing those red 403 Page Forbidden errors turn into legitimate 200 status codes isthe high point of any SEO’s day.Now that your diagnosis is clear, time to get back to the real work – optimizing your content and climbingthose SERPs.MetadataMeta titleIndependent from Ahrefs, bot implementationMeta DescriptionDoes Ahrefs report 403 errors on your live website? Find out why your server or firewall is impeding the bot and how to quickly whitelist AhrefsBot.