Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
How to fix broken links?
-
Hi,
I use WordPress CMS with Yoast SEO plugin. I have just found out that my 403 errors increased dramatically. It seems that all my tags below of each post are being broken for some reason. When i click on the tags i get the following massage: **403 Forbidden Request forbidden by administrative rules. **
I assume it has something to do with the configuration within Yoast SEO plugin.
Dose anyone know how should i fix that?
Thanks,
Raviv
-
Awesome! Definitely happy you let us know
-
Hi Dan,
Just wanted to let you know that the problem is fixed at last:)
WP support suggested to check this out with the hosting and bingo! Apparently is happened because of a massive on many WP sites ( Brute Force Attack ) which blocked some of my files and that was the reason for the 403's.
I thought that you might want to know.
Again, thanks so much for your help!!!
Raviv
-
For sure!
-
Hi Raviv - great, that will be your quickest source to the answer I think at this stage. Do update us if you can!
-Dan
-
Hey Dan,
Thanks so much for your help! really!
I still didn't fix it but as you said the tags themselves are broken. when i viewed them in the tags archive i get the same thing guess what? 403!
anyways, I will contact the help forum as you suggested hopefully they'll be able to tell me how to get it done.
Thanks again!
Raviv
-
Ah good! We've ruled out Yoast. Either one of two things are going on;
1. Tags are simply broken.
2. Maybe the link to the tags are just broken.
Can you adjust the URL at all to get to tags? Maybe the links are adding something extra in the URL making it incorrect? Or you can't get to tags at all. From within the Admin section, try going to Posts->Tag and hovering over a tag click "view" to try and view that tag archive. If it's still broken then it's tags themselves.
Either way this is leaning more towards a development issue, and maybe you want to contact the help department for your theme, or try the WordPress help forum.
-Dan
-
Hey Dan,
So I've tested it and it seems that I still get those broken links even when the Yoast plug in was disabled. In both tests i got the same results- 403.
Any suggestions of how to fix it?
Cheers,
Raviv
-
Hi Raviv
Yes, go to plugins and hit "disable" - you shouldn't lose your information, but I would take screenshots or write down of your settings just in case. Definitely don't delete the plugin - just disable it temporarily.
Let me know!
-Dan
-
Hi Dan!
Thanks for helping here!
2nd test result - even when I'm not being logged in to WP then I still get the 403 error
with regard to the 1st test ( shunting off the plugin) : 1 ) shall i do it by the 'deactivate' function in the plugins section? or is it something in I need to do withing the setting of Yoast plug in itself.
- either way is shutting off the plug in means that I will have to reconfigure the plugin from the beginning after switching it back on?
Sorry ... I'm still very new to this
Thanks Again
Raviv
-
Raviv
Just to make sure we're not assuming incorrectly, temporarily shut off the Yoast SEO plugin. This should be fine to do for just a few minutes. Do you still get the 403 errors? If so, then it is not the Yoast plugin but some other issue.
Also, do you get this error while logged out of WordPress? Trying doing it on your site in incognito mode in Chrome without logging in.
Let us know what happens with both of those tests!
-Dan
-
Hi Ed,
Thanks for that! But I need now to find out how to fix those broken links
Cheers,
Raviv
-
Hi Raviv,
I used this Worpress plugin to fix my broken links, hope it helps http://w-shadow.com/blog/2007/08/05/broken-link-checker-for-wordpress/
Regards
Ed
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Should we Nofollow Social Links?
I've been asked the question of whether if we should nofollow all of our social links, would this be a wise thing to do? I'm not exactly getting a clear answer from search results and thought you guys would be best to ask 🙂 Thanks in advance.
Technical SEO | | JH_OffLimits0 -
How does link juice flow through hreflang?
We want to use the hreflang tag on our site (direct users searching for the Spanish version of spanishdict.com to spanishdict.com/traductor). Before doing so, we were wondering how link juice flows through hreflang? Any insight or resources on this would be very helpful. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | CuriosityMedia0 -
Correct linking to the /index of a site and subfolders: what's the best practice? link to: domain.com/ or domain.com/index.html ?
Dear all, starting with my .htaccess file: RewriteEngine On
Technical SEO | | inlinear
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.inlinear.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://inlinear.com/$1 [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^./index.html
RewriteRule ^(.)index.html$ http://inlinear.com/ [R=301,L] 1. I redirect all URL-requests with www. to the non www-version...
2. all requests with "index.html" will be redirected to "domain.com/" My questions are: A) When linking from a page to my frontpage (home) the best practice is?: "http://domain.com/" the best and NOT: "http://domain.com/index.php" B) When linking to the index of a subfolder "http://domain.com/products/index.php" I should link also to: "http://domain.com/products/" and not put also the index.php..., right? C) When I define the canonical ULR, should I also define it just: "http://domain.com/products/" or in this case I should link to the definite file: "http://domain.com/products**/index.php**" Is A) B) the best practice? and C) ? Thanks for all replies! 🙂
Holger0 -
Having www. and non www. links indexed
Hey guys, As the title states, the two versions of the website are indexed in Google. How should I proceed? Please also note that the links on the website are without the www. How should I proceed knowing that the client prefers to have the www. version indexed. Here are the steps that I have in mind right now: I set the preferred domain on GWMT as the one with www. I 301 redirect any non www. URL to the www. version. What are your thoughts? Should I 301 redirect the URL's? or is setting the preference on GWMT enough? Thanks.
Technical SEO | | BruLee0 -
Links from the same server has value or not
Hi Guys, Sometime ago one of the SEO experts said to me if I get links from the same IP address, Google doesn't count them as with much value. For an example, I am a web devleoper and I host all my clients websites on one server and link them back to me. Im wondering whether those links have any value when it comes to seo or should I consider getting different hosting providers? Regards Uds
Technical SEO | | Uds0 -
How do I fix the h1 tag?
No More Than One H1 Tag Easy fix <dl> <dt>Number of H1s</dt> <dd>2</dd> <dt>Explanation</dt> <dd>Best practices for both SEO and accessibility require only a single H1 tag. The H1 is meant to be the page's headline, and thus, multiple H1s are confusing. Consider employing H2, H3 or CSS styles to achieve the same results with text visualization.</dd> <dt>Recommendation</dt> <dd>Remove multiple instances of the H1 tag, so that only one exists on the page.</dd> <dd>I get this error yet it does not tell me how to fix it. I'm not even sure what the H1 tag is?
Technical SEO | | 678648631264
</dd> </dl>0 -
Do web pages have to be linked to a menu?
I have a situation where people search for terms like, say 1978 one dollar bill. Even though there never was a 1978 one dollar bill. I want to make a page to capture these searches but since there wasn't such a thing as a one dollar bill I don't want it connected to the rest of my content which is reality based. Does that make sense? Anyway, my question is, can I publish pages that aren't linked to my menu structure but that will be searchable or, am I going to have to figure out a way to make these oddball pages accessible through my menu?
Technical SEO | | Banknotes0 -
Link Volume - calculate what you need?
Hi everyone, an interesting question here. How do you determien what link volume you should try and get into your website? What analysis do you do to determine the number of links you feel is right to go into a back-link profiel every month? obviously there is no magic number but its an interesting question to know what others do. Obviously you don't want to build too many or too little. If you have been penalised for bad links in the past and are now back on track - how do you calculate the volume? Do you take links dropping out into consideration?
Technical SEO | | pauledwards0