Images Served through Stackpath Returning 403, in Google Search Console

[rk1708]

Hi,

I’m serving my images via stackpath through the subdomain but google search console says that files are returning 403 forbidden error, hence not indexed.

Hotlink protection in my Cloudflare is disabled…

All images are in webp format, i.e. https://files.instapdf.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/list-of-scientists-and-their-discoveries-pdf-487.webp

there are more than 3.8K such files…

What could be the issue?

[erictung]

Did you see any interesting entries in firewall logs related to these URLs?

[rk1708]

it has Googlebot-Image/1.0 inside the user agents

Googlebot-Image/1.0 is blocked in Activity log?

How do I unblock this?

[erictung]

@rk1708

How do I unblock this?

You need to see what blocked it. Check the Service field.

[rk1708]

its WAF there

[rk1708]

I’ve added a firewall rule which allows GoogleBot Image,

Now the activity log shows the request is blocked by WAF and allowed by Firewall Rules

Screenshot attached, Is it unblocked now or I have to add / modify any rule?

[erictung]

The Firewall Action should be Bypass - WAF Managed Rules instead of Allow.

Allow does not have any effect to WAF.

[rk1708]

Thank You for very swift replies, thanks a lot, I’ve changed the action,

I hope this should now resolve the issue, will get back here if the issue still persist.

Thanks