🔍 Overview
When OTTO detects and pushes H1 tag fixes through your CMS, you may notice that the updated values do not appear in your Search Atlas project even after deployment. This is a known discrepancy between what OTTO detects during a crawl and what is ultimately reflected at the project level. This article walks you through the most common causes and the exact steps to resolve them.
⚠️ Understanding the Crawl Detection vs. Project Reflection Gap
OTTO scans your pages during a crawl and identifies the correct H1 values. However, the project view may still show outdated H1 tags for several reasons:
- The WordPress plugin has not been updated to the latest version required to write H1 changes correctly.
- Server-side or browser cache is serving old page content, preventing the new H1 from being read.
- A theme-level H1 override is replacing the page-level value after OTTO applies the fix.
- The project has not been reprocessed since the fix was deployed, so the crawl data is stale.
Each of these causes requires a different resolution step. Work through them in the order listed below.
🔌 Step 1 — Update the Search Atlas WordPress Plugin
An outdated plugin version is the most common reason H1 fixes deploy to the CMS but do not render correctly on the live page.
- Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard.
- Navigate to the Plugins section of your dashboard.
- Locate the Search Atlas plugin in the list.
- If an update is available, apply the update and wait for it to complete.
- Once updated, visit one of the affected product pages in your browser and check the page source to confirm the H1 tag now contains the correct value in the raw HTML.
If the plugin is already on the latest version, proceed to Step 2.
🗑️ Step 2 — Clear All Caches
Even after a successful plugin update, caching layers can serve stale HTML that still contains the old H1 value. Clear every cache layer in this order:
- WordPress caching plugin: Open your caching plugin (for example, WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, or LiteSpeed Cache) and use its option to purge or clear all cached files.
- Hosting-level cache: Log in to your hosting control panel and flush any server-side page or object cache. Contact your host if you are unsure how to do this.
- CDN cache: If your site uses a CDN such as Cloudflare, log in and purge the cache for the affected URLs according to your CDN provider's instructions.
- Browser cache: Open the affected page in an incognito or private browser window to rule out locally cached content.
After clearing all caches, reload the affected product page and check the H1 tag in the page source again before moving to the next step.
🔄 Step 3 — Reprocess Your Project
If the H1 values are now correct on the live page but still appear outdated inside Search Atlas, the project needs to be reprocessed so the platform picks up the latest crawl data.
- Open your Search Atlas project.
- Trigger a new crawl or reprocessing run so the platform re-reads your updated pages.
- Once the reprocessing is complete, return to the affected pages in your project and verify the H1 tags now reflect the correct values.
🎨 Step 4 — Check for Theme-Level H1 Overrides
If H1 tags are still incorrect after completing the steps above, a theme-level override may be replacing the values OTTO writes. Check your active theme's template files and any page builder settings to ensure no hardcoded or dynamically generated H1 is overwriting the page-level value set by OTTO. If you are unsure how to identify theme overrides, consult your theme or page builder documentation.
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.