Can preventing directory listings in WordPress upload folders cause Google ranking drops when they cause 403 errors in Webmaster Tools?

Posted by Kelly on Pro Webmasters See other posts from Pro Webmasters or by Kelly
Published on 2013-08-18T08:35:55Z Indexed on 2013/10/17 16:25 UTC
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Wordpress

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google-ranking

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403

I recently moved to a new host that blocks crawling to my uploads folders but (hopefully) allows the files in the folder to be crawled.

I now show many 403 errors for each folder in the uploads folder in my Webmaster Tools. For example, http://www.rewardcharts4kids.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ shows a 403 error.

For example, I can access this file: http://www.rewardcharts4kids.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/lunch-box-notes.jpg but I cannot access the folder it is in.

My rankings went down after I moved to this host and I am wondering if:

this could be the reason.
is this how files/folders are supposed to be set up?

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