## **🤖 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.