🔍 What Is Happening?

If you have installed the OTTO pixel through Google Tag Manager (GTM) and confirmed it fires correctly in GTM preview mode, but Search Atlas still shows the pixel as not installed, this is expected behaviour. OTTO pixel verification is tied directly to your site audit. Search Atlas can only confirm the pixel is present after the audit crawl has finished scanning your website.

⚙️ Why Verification Depends on the Site Audit

OTTO verifies pixel installation by detecting the tracking script during a crawl of your site's pages. Until that crawl completes, the platform has no data to confirm whether the pixel exists in your page source. This means:

• A pending or in-progress site audit will leave the pixel status showing as unverified, even if the pixel is correctly installed.
• GTM preview mode confirms the tag fires in your browser session, but it does not update Search Atlas verification — these are two separate systems.
• Once the site audit finishes, Search Atlas re-evaluates the crawled page data and updates the pixel status automatically.

🚀 How to Check Your Site Audit Status

1. In the left sidebar, click OTTO SEO, then open All Sites (SEO Automation) (URL: /seo-automation-v3).
2. Locate your OTTO project and look for the site audit progress indicator on the project card.
3. If the audit is still running, wait for it to complete — crawl time varies depending on site size.
4. Once the audit status shows complete, return to the OTTO pixel section and refresh the page to see the updated verification status.

✅ Confirming Your Pixel Is Installed Correctly

While waiting for the site audit to finish, you can double-check your GTM setup to make sure the pixel will be detected correctly during the crawl:

• Confirm the OTTO pixel tag is set to fire on All Pages (or at minimum your homepage), not just specific triggers.
• In GTM preview mode, load your homepage and verify the OTTO tag appears under Tags Fired.
• Publish your GTM container if you have made any recent changes — unpublished changes are not visible to the Search Atlas crawler.
• Ensure no consent management or cookie banner is blocking the tag from firing for non-consented visitors, as this can prevent crawl-time detection.

⏱️ How Long Does the Site Audit Take?

Audit duration depends on the number of pages on your website. Small sites (under 500 pages) typically complete within a few minutes. Larger sites can take significantly longer. You do not need to keep the platform open — Search Atlas runs the audit in the background and updates your project automatically when it finishes.

🛠️ What to Do If Verification Still Fails After the Audit

If your site audit has completed and the pixel is still showing as unverified, work through the following checks:

• Confirm your GTM container is published, not just saved in draft.
• Check that the OTTO pixel snippet is the correct one for your project — copying the snippet from another OTTO project will not verify correctly.
• Temporarily disable any script-blocking plugins or performance optimisations (such as script delay or lazy loading) that may prevent the tag from appearing in the page source at crawl time.
• Trigger a new site audit from your OTTO project to force a fresh crawl with your latest GTM 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.

Additional Notes

Manual recrawl: If you trigger a manual recrawl after installing the pixel, allow up to 24 hours for the crawl to finish and for the pixel status to refresh. Scheduled crawl: verification will update automatically once that scheduled crawl completes. The unverified status is a display limitation tied to crawl availability, not a signal that the pixel has stopped working.