🧭 Overview

When you first connect OTTO and trigger an audit, you may notice the Installation Guide still shows OTTO as not connected — even while the audit is actively running. This is expected behavior, not an error. This article explains the audit timeline, what each status means, and the steps OTTO follows to complete onboarding.

⏱️ Why the Audit Takes Time

After you connect OTTO to your website, it immediately begins crawling and analyzing your site. This process can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours, depending on the size and complexity of your site. During this window:

• The audit is running in the background.
• OTTO is collecting data on technical issues, on-page factors, and site structure.
• No action is required from you — the process is fully automated.

Larger sites with thousands of pages naturally take longer. Avoid disconnecting or re-connecting OTTO while an audit is in progress, as this will restart the process.

❓ Why the Installation Guide Shows OTTO as Not Connected

The Installation Guide is a checklist that tracks whether each onboarding step has been fully verified and confirmed. The connection status shown there reflects a completed verification — not simply whether OTTO has started running.

Here is what happens step by step:

1. You add the OTTO code snippet or connect via plugin.
2. OTTO begins the audit immediately.
3. The Installation Guide waits for OTTO to complete its first full audit before marking the connection as verified.
4. Once the audit finishes and OTTO confirms a successful data exchange with your site, the status updates to Connected.

This means it is completely normal to see a pending or disconnected status in the Installation Guide while an audit is still running. The two indicators serve different purposes.

🛠️ How to Check Your Audit Progress

To monitor the current state of your OTTO audit:

1. Go to OTTO SEO → Site Audit → All Audits.
2. Select the project you connected OTTO to.
3. Look for the audit progress indicator on the project dashboard. A spinning icon or percentage bar confirms the audit is actively running.
4. Once the audit completes, OTTO will surface recommendations and the Installation Guide will update its connection status automatically.

✅ What a Fully Onboarded OTTO Looks Like

You will know OTTO onboarding is complete when all of the following are true:

• The Installation Guide marks OTTO as Connected.
• SEO recommendations and fixes are visible in the OTTO SEO V3 dashboard.
• OTTO is actively deploying or queuing approved optimizations on your site.

If any of these are missing after a reasonable wait time, there may be an installation issue worth investigating.

🚨 When to Be Concerned

Most audits complete without any issues. However, contact support if:

• The audit has shown no progress for more than 24 hours.
• The Installation Guide still shows not connected after the audit visibly completed.
• You see an explicit error message rather than a progress indicator.
• OTTO recommendations never appear in your OTTO SEO V3 dashboard after the audit finishes.

💡 Tips to Avoid Common Issues

• Do not disconnect and reconnect OTTO while an audit is running — this resets progress.
• Make sure your OTTO code snippet is installed on every page of your site, not just the homepage.
• If you use a caching plugin, clear your cache after installing the OTTO snippet to ensure it fires correctly.
• Confirm your website is publicly accessible — OTTO cannot crawl password-protected or staging environments without additional configuration.

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.