Search Atlas Help Center

🚀 Control OTTO Deployments and Book Onboarding

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Camilo Aponte

Camilo Aponte

Last updated on Sep 30, 2026

🎯 Overview

Search Atlas offers a guided onboarding experience to help you get the most out of the platform. At the same time, OTTO — our OTTO SEO automation engine — can deploy recommendations automatically, which may raise concerns if you already have high-quality technical SEO and custom schemas in place. This article explains how to book your onboarding call and how to take full control of what OTTO deploys on your site.

📅 How to Book Your Onboarding Call

Every Search Atlas account is eligible for a personalised onboarding session with a member of our team. To schedule your call, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to Search Atlas and navigate to Home in the left sidebar (URL: /home).
  2. Look for the onboarding prompt or playbook on the Home dashboard. Click Browse all playbooks to view available getting-started guides.
  3. If you do not see a scheduling link on the dashboard, 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 who can book your session directly.

During the onboarding call, you can share your existing SEO setup, discuss your goals, and configure OTTO to work alongside your current strategy rather than replacing it.

⚙️ Understanding OTTO Recommendation Deployment

OTTO analyses your site and generates SEO recommendations across technical, on-page, and schema categories. By default, OTTO does not automatically publish fixes to your live site — it creates suggestions that you approve and deploy from the dashboard. Automatic deployment only occurs if you explicitly enable OTTO's auto-deploy setting. If your site already has carefully crafted technical SEO settings or custom schemas, it is important to review and control which recommendations OTTO is allowed to apply.

Key things to know about how OTTO works:

  • Suggestions vs. deployments: OTTO first surfaces recommendations. Deployment only happens when a recommendation is approved or when auto-deploy is enabled for a specific category.
  • Todo List: OTTO maintains a structured to-do list of on-page recommendations so you can review each item before it goes live.
  • Bulk deploy: OTTO supports bulk deployment for efficiency, but you remain in control of which items are selected before confirming.
  • Site freeze: You can freeze a site entirely to prevent any OTTO changes from being applied.

🛠️ How to Review and Control OTTO Deployments

To manage OTTO recommendations and prevent unwanted changes to your existing SEO or schemas, follow these steps:

  1. In the left sidebar, click OTTO SEO → SEO Automation (URL: /seo-automation-v3).
  2. You will see your active sites listed. Sites marked Active are eligible for OTTO recommendations and deployments. Sites marked Deep Frozen are fully protected — OTTO will not deploy anything to them.
  3. To freeze a site and block all OTTO deployments, select the site using the checkbox and click Freeze sites at the top of the list. Confirm the action when prompted.
  4. To review individual recommendations before anything is deployed, click into a specific site and open the Todo List. Here you can approve, skip, or dismiss each recommendation one by one.
  5. If you want OTTO to suggest improvements without deploying them automatically, ensure auto-deploy is disabled for sensitive categories such as schema markup and technical SEO. Review each item manually before selecting Deploy.
  6. For bulk actions, use Clear selection to deselect all queued items if you want to start a fresh review before deploying.

🔍 Protecting Existing Technical SEO and Schemas

If you have invested time in building high-quality technical SEO configurations or structured data schemas, here is how to keep them safe:

  • Freeze the site immediately after connecting it to OTTO while you review all pending recommendations. This gives you time to audit suggestions without any risk of overrides.
  • Review schema recommendations individually. OTTO will flag schema opportunities, but you can dismiss any recommendation that conflicts with your existing structured data.
  • Use the Todo List to track what OTTO has queued. Nothing in the Todo List is deployed until you explicitly approve it (when auto-deploy is off).
  • Communicate your setup during onboarding. Let the onboarding specialist know which elements of your site are off-limits. They can help you configure OTTO's scope accordingly.

💡 Best Practices for New Accounts

  • Book your onboarding call before activating OTTO on a live, high-value site.
  • Start with one lower-priority site to get familiar with OTTO's recommendation style.
  • Freeze production sites until you have reviewed and approved the initial batch of recommendations.
  • Check the Todo List regularly to stay on top of new suggestions as OTTO continues to analyse your site.

🙋 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.