diff --git a/docs/setup.rst b/docs/setup.rst
index 96304a4..0d97881 100644
--- a/docs/setup.rst
+++ b/docs/setup.rst
@@ -70,6 +70,14 @@ The following additional settings are recommended:
     ``"zyte_crawlers.middlewares.CrawlingLogsMiddleware": 1000``, to log crawl
     data in JSON format for debugging purposes.
 
+-   Update :setting:`DOWNLOADER_MIDDLEWARES <scrapy:DOWNLOADER_MIDDLEWARES>` to
+    include
+    ``"zyte_spider_templates.middlewares.ForbiddenDomainDownloaderMiddleware":
+    1100`` and :setting:`SPIDER_MIDDLEWARES <scrapy:SPIDER_MIDDLEWARES>` to
+    include
+    ``"zyte_spider_templates.middlewares.ForbiddenDomainSpiderMiddleware":
+    100``.
+
 For an example of a properly configured ``settings.py`` file, see `the one
 in zyte-spider-templates-project`_.
 
diff --git a/zyte_spider_templates/middlewares.py b/zyte_spider_templates/middlewares.py
index 6c2ecac..5fb30bb 100644
--- a/zyte_spider_templates/middlewares.py
+++ b/zyte_spider_templates/middlewares.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 from typing import Any, Dict
 
 from scrapy import Request
-from scrapy.exceptions import CloseSpider, ScrapyDeprecationWarning
+from scrapy.exceptions import ScrapyDeprecationWarning
 from scrapy.utils.request import request_fingerprint
 from zyte_api.aio.errors import RequestError
 
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ def crawl_logs(self, response, result):
         return "\n".join(report)
 
 
-start_requests_processed = object()
+_start_requests_processed = object()
 
 
 class ForbiddenDomainSpiderMiddleware:
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ def process_start_requests(self, start_requests, spider):
             request.meta["is_start_request"] = True
             yield request
             count += 1
-        self._send_signal(start_requests_processed, count=count)
+        self._send_signal(_start_requests_processed, count=count)
 
 
 class ForbiddenDomainDownloaderMiddleware:
@@ -148,12 +148,13 @@ def __init__(self, crawler):
         self._failed_start_request_count = 0
         self._total_start_request_count = 0
         crawler.signals.connect(
-            self.start_requests_processed, signal=start_requests_processed
+            self._start_requests_processed, signal=_start_requests_processed
         )
+        self._crawler = crawler
 
-    def start_requests_processed(self, count):
+    def _start_requests_processed(self, count):
         self._total_start_request_count = count
-        self.maybe_close()  # TODO: Ensure that raising here works.
+        self._maybe_close()
 
     def process_exception(self, request, exception, spider):
         if (
@@ -164,16 +165,17 @@ def process_exception(self, request, exception, spider):
             return
 
         self._failed_start_request_count += 1
+        self._maybe_close()
 
+    def _maybe_close(self):
         if not self._total_start_request_count:
             return
-        else:
-            self.maybe_close()  # TODO: Ensure that raising here works.
-
-    def maybe_close(self):
-        if self._failed_start_request_count >= self._total_start_request_count:
-            logger.error(
-                "Stopping the spider, all start request failed because they "
-                "were pointing to a domain forbidden by Zyte API."
-            )
-            raise CloseSpider("failed-forbidden-domain")
+        if self._failed_start_request_count < self._total_start_request_count:
+            return
+        logger.error(
+            "Stopping the spider, all start request failed because they "
+            "were pointing to a domain forbidden by Zyte API."
+        )
+        self._crawler.engine.close_spider(
+            self._crawler.spider, "failed-forbidden-domain"
+        )