# **🤖 What Is OTTO SEO Activation?**

OTTO SEO is Search Atlas's AI-powered SEO automation engine. Before OTTO can begin optimizing your site, it must complete an **initial crawl** of your domain to gather data about your pages, structure, and existing SEO signals. Activation is the process of connecting your domain to OTTO and allowing it to complete this crawl.

# **🚀 How to Activate OTTO for Your Domain**

1. In the left sidebar, click **OTTO SEO**, then open **SEO Automation** (URL: **/seo-automation-v3**).
2. In the top area of the page, locate the domain selector or click **Add Site** if your domain has not been added yet.
3. Enter your domain (for example, **herculesmovingsolutions.com** or **a1appliance-home-services.com**) and confirm.
4. Click the **Activate OTTO** button next to your domain.
5. Follow any on-screen prompts to authorise the connection, such as installing the Search Atlas WordPress plugin or verifying site ownership.
6. Once authorisation is confirmed, OTTO will begin the initial crawl automatically.

# **⏳ Understanding the Initial Crawl**

The initial crawl is the first step OTTO takes after activation. During this phase, OTTO scans every accessible page on your domain to build a complete SEO baseline. Here is what to expect:

- **Duration:** The crawl typically takes between 15 minutes and several hours, depending on the size of your site. Larger sites with thousands of pages may take longer.
- **Status indicator:** You will see a progress bar or status label such as **Crawling**, **Processing**, or **Ready** next to your domain on the OTTO SEO page.
- **No action needed:** You do not need to stay on the page. The crawl continues in the background and you will be able to see results once it completes.
- **Multiple domains:** Each domain you activate goes through its own independent crawl. Activating two domains (for example, herculesmovingsolutions.com and a1appliance-home-services.com) means both will crawl simultaneously without affecting each other.

# **✅ What Happens After the Crawl Completes**

Once the initial crawl finishes, OTTO's activation status changes to **Active** or **Ready**. At this point:

- OTTO will display a full list of SEO recommendations, optimisations, and automation opportunities for your domain.
- You can review and approve individual changes or enable automatic deployments.
- OTTO will continue to monitor your site and re-crawl pages as content changes over time.

# **🛠️ Troubleshooting Activation Issues**

If OTTO does not activate or the crawl appears stuck, work through the following checks:

- **Plugin or verification not completed:** Return to the OTTO SEO page and confirm that the connection step is fully completed. An incomplete authorisation will prevent the crawl from starting.
- **Domain entered incorrectly:** Make sure you entered the domain without a trailing slash and with the correct protocol (use the root domain, not a subfolder URL).
- **Crawl stuck for more than 24 hours:** If the status has not changed after a full day, try removing the domain and re-adding it. Then repeat the activation steps.
- **Site is blocking crawlers:** Check that your **robots.txt** file is not blocking Search Atlas or common crawl bots. Temporary blocks will prevent OTTO from completing the crawl.
- **Activating multiple domains:** Each domain must be activated separately. Confirm that both domains show an **Active** or **Crawling** status on the OTTO SEO page.

# **💡 Tips for a Smooth Activation**

- Make sure your site is publicly accessible before activating. Domains behind a password or maintenance mode cannot be crawled.
- For WordPress sites, installing the Search Atlas plugin is the fastest way to complete authorisation and begin the crawl.
- If you are activating several domains at once, check back on the OTTO SEO page after a few hours to confirm all crawls have completed successfully.

# **💬 Need More Help?**

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.