🧭 Overview

If OTTO has changed the canonical tag on one of your WordPress pages and you want to stop it, this article explains how canonical changes work in the Search Atlas WordPress plugin and the ways to stop them.

Important: There is no "Dynamic SEO" toggle and no plugin setting that turns off OTTO's canonical changes for the whole site. Canonical changes are controlled per page, as described below.

🔍 How OTTO Changes Canonical Tags

OTTO only changes a canonical tag when it has a canonical recommendation deployed for that page. When it does, OTTO updates the address in the page's existing canonical tag to the recommended one. Pages without a deployed canonical recommendation are not changed.

🛑 How to Stop OTTO Changing a Canonical Tag

Use whichever option fits your situation:

1. Undeploy the canonical recommendation in Search Atlas. Open your OTTO project in Search Atlas, find the canonical recommendation for the affected page, and undeploy or remove it. This is the supported way to stop OTTO's canonical change for that page.
2. Set a manual canonical for the page. A valid canonical you set manually for a page takes priority over OTTO's recommendation, so OTTO will leave it unchanged.
3. Turn OTTO off for a single page. While logged in to WordPress, open the page on your live site and use the OTTO frontend toolbar to disable OTTO for that page.

✅ How to Confirm It Worked

• In WordPress, go to Search Atlas → Settings and use Clear Page Cache (or Clear all cache). If you also use a caching plugin such as WP Rocket, clear its cache too.
• Reload the page and view its source (Ctrl+U or Cmd+U). The canonical tag in the <head> should now show the address you expect.

If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.