🔍 Why Tracking Pixels Appear in Alt Text Tasks
When Search Atlas crawls your site, it detects every image — including invisible 1×1 tracking pixels served by third-party domains such as bat.bing.com, Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, and similar advertising or analytics services. These images have no meaningful content, so adding alt text to them does not improve accessibility or SEO. However, because they are technically missing alt attributes, they appear in your Site Audit alt text tasks and can inflate the issue count significantly, dragging down your overall SEO score.
The correct fix is to exclude these third-party URLs directly inside OTTO settings so Search Atlas ignores them during analysis.
⚙️ How to Exclude Tracking Pixel URLs in OTTO
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Open the platform and navigate to OTTO SEO → SEO Automation using the left sidebar (URL: /seo-automation-v3).
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Select your project and open OTTO for the site you want to configure.
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Locate the Settings or Exclusions section within OTTO.
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Find the field that allows you to add URLs or URL patterns to exclude from audits.
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Enter the tracking pixel domain or URL pattern you want to ignore. For example:
- bat.bing.com — Microsoft Advertising pixel
- facebook.com/tr — Facebook Pixel
- google-analytics.com/collect — Google Analytics beacon
- googletagmanager.com — Google Tag Manager
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Save your exclusions.
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Re-run the Site Audit so Search Atlas recrawls your site with the new exclusion rules applied.
Once the audit completes, the excluded tracking pixel URLs will no longer appear in your alt text tasks or count against your SEO score.
✅ How to Confirm the Exclusions Worked
After the audit finishes, open your Site Audit results and navigate to the Images or Alt Text task list. The number of missing alt text issues should drop substantially. If you still see entries from the excluded domains, double-check that the URL pattern you entered matches the exact format shown in the audit detail — including any subdomains or path prefixes.
💡 Best Practices for Managing Third-Party Image Exclusions
- Use domain-level patterns where possible. Excluding the root domain (e.g., bat.bing.com) covers all paths served from that domain, so you do not need to add individual pixel URLs one by one.
- Review your exclusion list periodically. If you add new advertising platforms or analytics tools, add their beacon domains to the exclusion list before your next audit to keep your score accurate.
- Only exclude true third-party tracking assets. Do not exclude images hosted on your own domain or CDN — those may have legitimate alt text requirements that affect real users and accessibility scores.
- Document your exclusions. Keep a record of which domains you have excluded and why, so your team understands why certain images do not appear in audit tasks.
🧩 Understanding the Impact on Your SEO Score
Search Atlas calculates your SEO score based on actionable issues on your site. Tracking pixels are not actionable — you cannot and should not add descriptive alt text to a 1×1 invisible beacon. By excluding them, your score reflects only real opportunities for improvement, giving you a more accurate picture of your site's SEO health and helping you prioritise the tasks that actually move the needle.
🆘 Need More Help?
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.