Google webmaster tools says access denied for 77 urls

[ClaireH-184886]

Hi i am looking in google webmaster tools and i have seen a major problem which i hope people can help me sort out.

The problem is, i am being told that 77 urls are being denied access. The message when i look for more information says the below

Googlebot couldn't crawl your URL because your server either requires login to access the page, or is blocking Googlebot from accessing your site.

the responce code is 403

here is a couple of examples

http://www.in2town.co.uk/Entertainment-Magazine

http://www.in2town.co.uk/Weight-Loss-Hypnotherapy-helped-woman-lose-3-stone

i think the problem could be that i have sent them to another url in my httaccess file using the 403 re-direct but why would it bring up that google bot could not crawl them

any help would be great

[eatyourveggies]

In Webmaster Tools, you can "fetch as google bot" meaning you can enter one of those 77 URLs, and see what the Google "bot" sees when going to that URL.

You can also use:

http://www.dnsqueries.com/en/googlebot_simulator.php

For the URL: http://www.in2town.co.uk/Entertainment-Magazine

the Google Bot Simulator says:

HTTP CODE = HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently

Location = http://www.in2town.co.uk/Showbiz-Gossip

and for: http://www.in2town.co.uk/Weight-Loss-Hypnotherapy-helped-woman-lose-3-stone

HTTP CODE = HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently

Location = http://www.in2town.co.uk/Weight-Loss-Hypnotherapy

Interestingly, both the NEW URLs work fine although http://www.in2town.co.uk/Weight-Loss-Hypnotherapy doesn't look too good (at least in my web browser) but that's another issue.

You have a fairly complex .htaccess file (hint: I looked up your OLD .htaccess file - you should delete old htaccess files or something so people can't access them via a web browser), so I'm guessing the problem will be within your .htaccess file.

If possible, put a plain and simple .htaccess file on, test it with Google Webmaster Tools and see if the error still persists.

Adam

[ClaireH-184886]

You have a fairly complex .htaccess file (hint: I looked up your OLD .htaccess file - you should delete old htaccess files or something so people can't access them via a web browser), so I'm guessing the problem will be within your .htaccess file.

If possible, put a plain and simple .htaccess file on, test it with Google Webmaster Tools and see if the error still persists.

hi thanks for that. i will delete the old one now

[ClaireH-184886]

I have now deleted the old version can you check on this and make sure you can no longer see it.

[eatyourveggies]

Yup, deleted.