KNOWN ISSUE: WMT Authorization Permission (see http://bit.ly/18wT9S6)

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   Marye Audetposted 10 years ago

   Starting May 14 Google Webmaster Tools started advising me of an increase in "authorization permission errors".
   There are 798 of them... When I try to go to the provided link I get " 403 - Forbidden"
   
   So.... what is causing this? Is it something I can or need to fix? Is it hurting my (pitiful) ranking on Google?  Thanks!

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      kenneth averyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Just what is an authorization error, us failing to post who authorized a photo or brand on a hub? I am now more confused than ever.

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      kenneth averyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Just what is an authorization error, us failing to post who authorized a photo or brand on a hub? I am now more confused than ever.

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         Alison Grahamposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Kenneth, not to worry, a 403 error will not be due to any problem with any hub itself. This is likely to be an error caused by some modification or problem with the HubPages site itself (on which our individual subdomains and hubs are hosted).
         
         Marye, I have also seen this spike starting on the same date (although I do not have nearly as many - but it is still a significant number).
         
         My guess is the HubPages staff are already aware of the problem and have either, already resolved it or are working on it. The problem is that the errors will keep showing up on the webmaster tools report even after they are 'fixed' but will drop off eventually!
         
         As to whether it harms rankings, I don't think so, it is a requirement that pages 'not found' return an error code - which these links are doing - but they are not links that any person is likely to use to try to reach a hub.
         
         Someone with much more knowledge will have to step in here but I just wanted to reassure you Kenneth that it is not going to be a problem any hubber has caused and not to make any changes to hubs as a result of these 403 errors as this will not fix them.

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      Simone Smithposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      So sorry for the inconvenience, Marye- I am pretty sure it's related to this known issue, which we're still trying to work out: http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/112722

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   vocalcoachposted 10 years ago

   This is something I've not heard of.  I'll do a search and see what comes up.  Must be a bit frustrating for you.

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   Writer Foxposted 10 years ago

   This IS a critical error.  It means that Google was prevented from finding and crawling your Hubs. You should send the Hub URLs affected and the dates to tech support (team@...).

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      Pearldiverposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Dead Right WF.....
      I'm pretty sure that HP staff are well aware of this 'error' 'problem' - I'm pretty sure that they understand completely what this all represents to all of us affected by this HP generated 'problem' - Surely the negative potential of this 'problem' was considered when HP commenced instructing search engines to Not Crawl our hubs!  - Surely such an 'Error,'  its presence, its justification and its consequences should be of no concern for anyone who contributes quality to the site???   
      I'm pretty sure that both HP and Google know exactly why this 'Error' has occurred... aren't we lucky that at least Google appear to care enough to point out the 'problem' to us?? 

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   Alison Grahamposted 10 years ago

   Regarding Webmaster Tools, I am concerned that the number of hubs I have indexed in my subdomain has dropped dramatically.
   
   I only signed up for Webmaster tools earlier this year so don't have any stats prior to this. On 31st March, I had 132 hubs indexed on my HubPages subdomain. This dropped like a stone to 88 on 7th April and again to only 68 on 14th April. I have 145 published hubs, all but two are featured.
   
   Going back to the 403 errors, none of these are URLs of published hubs, they are all in this format:-
   
   xml/stats/relatedhubevents.php?aid=3608824&type=
   
   The majority of 404 errors I am getting are not URLs of published hubs either, they are in the same format
   
   xml/stats/relatedhubevents.php?aid=1791691&type=
   
   However, I am getting a few that appear to be my hubs but are returning 404s or 410s because they are incorrect links - these appear to be hubs that are incorrectly linked to from other sites and I am not too worried about these.

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   Marye Audetposted 10 years ago

   Thanks Simone.. My traffic had been up almost 10 percent and I was beginning to have hope.... Now it's dropped back down...

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   kenneth averyposted 10 years ago

   Many thanks, Alison. I.O. You big time.

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