Google Search Console

“Blocked due to unauthorized request (401)”: meaning and how to fix it

What it means

The server asked Googlebot to authenticate (401 Unauthorized).

Is it a problem?

Fine for private areas. A problem if public pages sit behind a login or HTTP auth.

Common causes

• Password-protected staging or preview environments
• Member-only content linked from public pages
• An auth plugin or firewall misconfiguration

How to fix it

1. Remove authentication from pages that should be public
2. Stop linking private URLs from public pages and the sitemap

How to check the fix

Inspect the URL live to confirm it now returns 200.

All indexing statuses

• Discovered – currently not indexed
• Crawled – currently not indexed
• Duplicate without user-selected canonical
• Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user
• Alternate page with proper canonical tag
• Page with redirect