How to Fix the Google “Error 404 Forbidden” Situation

You may have come across an “Error 404 Forbidden” message when trying to access a website via Google. In fact, this means that no default index file exists in the root directory. It provides an opportunity to avoid showing web browsers the contents of your website’s root directory when navigating to the domain name. Here is an instruction for you to work around this problem.

1. Create a blank file, and name it “index.html” or “index.htm.”

2. Type the following tag in your new index page: <META HTTP-EQUIV=”Refresh” CONTENT=”5; URL=autoforward_target.html”>.

3. Change “autoforward_target.html” to the location of your main page. For example, if your main menu was located at http://www.yoursite.com/main.html, you would change the tag to read as follows : <META HTTP-EQUIV=”Refresh” CONTENT=”5; URL=main.html”>.

4 Save and upload your index.html or index.htm file to the root of your website or the “PUBLIC_HTML” folder.