🤖 What OTTO Does With External Footer Links
When OTTO is activated on your site, it may add external backlinks to a footer element that it controls. OTTO takes ownership of these links — it monitors them and handles any that become broken or return a 404 error automatically.
You do not need to find, edit, or replace these links yourself. Any attempt to manually modify this footer element is unnecessary and may interfere with OTTO's management of it.
🔍 Why You Might Notice a 404 on These Links
If a site audit or external tool flags a broken link inside OTTO's footer element, this is expected behaviour during normal operation. There is a short window between when a linked resource becomes unavailable and when OTTO detects and resolves it. Specifically:
- OTTO monitors external links it has placed in your footer.
- When a link returns a 404 or is otherwise unreachable, OTTO automatically handles the replacement.
- The broken link is resolved without any action required from you.
⚠️ What You Should NOT Do
Because OTTO fully manages its footer backlink element, please avoid the following actions, as they can cause conflicts or unexpected behaviour:
- Do not manually edit, remove, or replace links inside OTTO's footer element through your CMS, theme editor, or any other tool.
- Do not use the Site Audit Tool to attempt to fix these specific external links — the Site Audit Tool is designed for links you own and manage, not for OTTO-controlled footer links.
- Do not raise a 404 flagged on this footer element as a site error that needs your intervention. It is already being handled by OTTO.
🛠️ What the Site Audit Tool Is Used For
The Site Audit Tool is the right place to find and fix broken links across your own site content — internal links, links within your pages and posts, and other elements you control. Use it to address issues in content you manage directly, not for links inside OTTO-controlled footer elements.
✅ What You Can Expect From OTTO
OTTO's automatic management of its footer backlink element means:
- Broken external links in that element are detected and replaced without your involvement.
- You will not receive alerts or tasks asking you to fix these links — they are outside your action queue by design.
- Your site audit reports may temporarily show a 404 on one of these links, but it will clear once OTTO completes its replacement process.
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.