🧭 Overview
If you have noticed unfamiliar links appearing on your website and suspect they were inserted by the OTTO pixel, this article will help you identify the source and work toward removing those links. These steps also apply if you believe a team member's action or a misconfigured automation may have injected links without your direct approval.
⚠️ Understanding How OTTO Inserts Links
OTTO can insert internal links, schema markup, and other on-page optimizations through its pixel, which is a small JavaScript snippet installed on your website. OTTO only applies changes that have been approved and deployed inside the platform. If you see links you did not knowingly approve, one of the following may have occurred:
- A team member with platform access approved and deployed an OTTO recommendation on your behalf.
- A previously approved fix is still active and you no longer want it.
- The OTTO pixel is conflicting with another plugin or script on your site.
- A third-party script unrelated to OTTO is inserting the links.
Working through each possibility in order will help you find and fix the issue quickly.
🔍 Step 1 — Confirm OTTO Is the Source
Before removing anything, confirm that OTTO is actually responsible for the links.
- Open your browser, navigate to the affected page, and right-click the suspicious link.
- Select Inspect to open DevTools and look at the HTML around that link.
- If the link is wrapped in a comment or attribute that references OTTO or Search Atlas, OTTO inserted it.
- If there is no such reference, the link may be coming from a different plugin, theme, or script — investigate those sources separately.
📋 Step 2 — Audit Your Deployed OTTO Fixes
Every link OTTO inserts corresponds to a deployed fix in your account. Reviewing your deployed fixes will show you exactly what OTTO has changed on your site.
- Log in to your Search Atlas account and navigate to OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation).
- Select the website where the unwanted link appears.
- Locate the area that lists fixes currently active and live on your site.
- Look for any fix related to internal linking or anchor text on the affected page.
- Review the fix details and confirm it matches the link you want to remove.
🗑️ Step 3 — Remove the Unwanted Link
Once you have identified the deployed fix responsible for the unwanted link, you will need to deactivate or remove it within the OTTO platform. The exact controls available to you may vary depending on your account configuration and permissions.
- Within the deployed fix you identified in Step 2, use the available option to deactivate or remove that fix.
- Confirm the action when prompted.
- Clear your website's cache and any CDN cache if applicable.
- Revisit the affected page to confirm the link has been removed.
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.