🧭 Overview

OTTO is Search Atlas's AI-powered SEO automation tool. For it to work properly, it must be installed on your website and actively deployed to your pages. If you see a message saying OTTO is not installed properly — or you're unsure whether it's running — this article will walk you through how to verify and resolve the issue.

⚙️ Step 1: Open the OTTO Dashboard

1. Log in to your Search Atlas account.
2. In the left sidebar, click OTTO SEO, then open SEO Automation inside it. This will take you to the OTTO dashboard at /seo-automation-v3.
3. Select the website project you want to check from the project list.

🔎 Step 2: Check the Installation Status

Once you're inside your project, OTTO will display an installation status indicator near the top of the dashboard. Look for one of the following statuses:

• Installed & Active — OTTO is correctly connected to your site and is running.
• Not Installed — OTTO has not been connected to your site yet.
• Installation Error — OTTO was set up but something went wrong with the connection.

If your status shows Not Installed or Installation Error, continue to Step 3.

🛠️ Step 3: Install or Reinstall OTTO

OTTO connects to your website using either a JavaScript snippet or a WordPress plugin. Follow the method that applies to your site:

Option A — JavaScript Snippet

1. In the OTTO dashboard, click Get Installation Code.
2. Copy the JavaScript snippet provided.
3. Paste the snippet into the section of every page on your website, or add it through your tag manager (such as Google Tag Manager).
4. Save and publish the changes on your site.
5. Return to the OTTO dashboard and click Verify Installation.

Option B — WordPress Plugin

1. In your WordPress admin panel, go to Plugins → Add New.
2. Search for the Search Atlas plugin and install it.
3. Activate the plugin, then open its settings.
4. Enter your Search Atlas API key, which you can find in your account settings.
5. Save the settings, then return to the OTTO dashboard and click Verify Installation.

📊 Step 4: Check Deployment Status Across Pages

Being installed is only the first step. OTTO also needs to be deployed to specific pages to apply SEO optimisations. To review which pages OTTO is active on:

1. From the left sidebar, navigate to OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation).
2. Review the list of URLs. Each page will show one of these statuses:

• Deployed — OTTO's recommendations are live on this page.
• Pending — Changes have been queued but not yet applied.
• Not Deployed — OTTO has not applied any changes to this page.

If important pages show Not Deployed, select them and click Deploy to push OTTO's optimisations live.

✅ Step 5: Confirm OTTO Is Running on Your Live Site

You can do a quick manual check to confirm OTTO is active on a specific page:

1. Open the page in a web browser.
2. Right-click anywhere on the page and select View Page Source (or press Ctrl+U on Windows / Cmd+U on Mac).
3. Press Ctrl+F (or Cmd+F) to search within the source code.
4. Type searchatlas or otto in the search box.
5. If the script appears in the results, OTTO is successfully installed on that page.

💡 Common Reasons for Installation Issues

• The snippet was placed in the instead of the section.
• A caching plugin is serving an old version of the page — clear your site cache after installation.
• The snippet was only added to the homepage and not to other pages or templates.
• The WordPress plugin API key was entered incorrectly — double-check for spaces or typos.
• A Content Security Policy (CSP) on your server is blocking the OTTO script — ask your developer to whitelist the Search Atlas domain.

💬 Still Need Help?

If you have followed all the steps above and OTTO still shows as not installed, or if deployment is not working as expected, we are here to 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.