Error 403.Permission denied. Failed to verify the URL ownership

Hello,

I’m sorry to hear that you’re experiencing this issue with the Google Indexing API. It seems like you’re encountering a 403 Forbidden error when trying to verify the URL ownership.

The 403 Forbidden error can occur due to various reasons, such as server misconfigurations, incorrect file permissions, or issues with the API key.

To address this issue, I recommend checking the following:

1. Ensure that there are no restrictions set on your server that might be causing the 403 error.
2. Double-check the API key and ensure that it has been entered correctly.
3. Verify that there are no plugin conflicts that might be interfering with the API key generation.

If you’re still encountering the issue after checking these points, please reply to this ticket, and a human agent from the Rank Math Support team will assist you further.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention, and we appreciate your patience as we work to resolve this issue for you.

Sources:
How To Fix Blocked Due to Access Forbidden (403) Error in Google Search Console » Rank Math
How to Fix 403 Forbidden Error with IndexNow » Rank Math
Troubleshooting the “Couldn’t Fetch” Error in Google Search Console » Rank Math
Google URL Inspection API Integration in Rank Math

Hello,

Thank you for your patience.

To fix the issue, please make sure the service account is listed as the Owner of the site in the Search Console.

Please follow the steps illustrated here to solve the issue: https://rankmath.com/blog/google-indexing-api/#403-permission-denied

​​​​​​​This is one of the most common issues when setting up the Instant Indexing plugin.

If that doesn’t work for you, please remove the plugin, then install and configure it again by following the steps religiously.

Hope that helps.