Use this guide to diagnose and fix the most common Keyword Research errors in Search Atlas — including blank results, outdated rankings, stuck bulk jobs, and incorrect country data.
🔎 Error 1: Keyword Search Returns Blank Results or All Dashes
What's happening: The Search Atlas keyword database or a third-party data source is temporarily unavailable.
- Check your spelling and try keyword variations.
- Change the target country — a keyword with no US data may have data for UK or CA. If a specific country code consistently returns results for the wrong region (e.g., UK selection returning US data), that is a country-routing bug — escalate using Error 7 below.
- Wait 10 minutes and retry — data provider outages are usually brief.
- Try a completely different keyword to determine whether all searches are failing or just this one.
- Contact support if all keyword searches return empty for more than 30 minutes.
A working search returns keyword metrics in the results table.
📊 Error 2: Competitor Data Columns (SpyFu, SEMrush) Show Empty Values
What's happening: A third-party data provider (SpyFu or SEMrush) is temporarily unavailable.
- Refresh the page and retry after 15 minutes.
- Try a different competitor domain — the issue may be specific to that domain's data coverage.
- Switch between data source tabs if available (e.g., from SpyFu to SEMrush view).
- Note that very new or very small sites have no data in third-party databases — this is expected behavior, not a bug.
- Contact support if all competitor columns remain empty across all keywords for more than 24 hours.
Competitor columns populate once the data provider is back online.
⚙️ Error 3: Bulk Keyword Analysis Is Stuck on "Processing"
What's happening: Large keyword lists take time to process, and very large lists can time out.
- For lists over 500 keywords, allow 20–40 minutes before concluding something is wrong.
- Refresh the page — the job may have completed but the status indicator didn't update.
- Check your job history: Left Sidebar → Keywords → Keyword Research (Keyword lists tab).
- Split large lists into batches of 250 keywords and resubmit.
- Remove duplicate keywords from the list before resubmitting.
A completed job appears in Keyword Lists with a downloadable results file.
📈 Error 4: Keyword Rankings Haven't Updated in Several Days
What's happening: Rank tracking updates on a schedule determined by your plan tier.
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Check the Last checked timestamp in the Rank Tracker.
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Confirm the correct search engine, country, and device type are selected.
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Verify the exact domain format being tracked (www vs. non-www).
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Check your tracking frequency setting using either path:
- Left Sidebar → Keywords → Rank Tracker → Select Your Site → Settings
- Left Sidebar → Keywords → Rank Tracker → [your site card] → ⋮ (three vertical dots) → Settings
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Contact support if daily-tracked keywords haven't updated in more than 72 hours.
Rankings update on your next scheduled tracking cycle once settings are confirmed correct.
🌐 Error 5: "Live SERP" Check Never Loads
What's happening: Live SERP checks are rate-limited and load slower than cached data because they retrieve real-time search results.
- Wait up to 3 minutes — live SERP checks involve real-time data retrieval.
- Avoid triggering multiple live checks simultaneously.
- Wait 15 minutes between runs if you've made several recent requests.
- Confirm this feature is included in your current plan.
- Try during off-peak hours (early morning) for faster response times.
A successful Live SERP check displays the current search results page for your keyword.
🧠 Error 6: Keyword Difficulty Scores Look Very Different from Other Tools
What's happening: This is expected — each SEO tool calculates difficulty using different data sources, weighting factors, and SERP signals. Score differences across tools are normal, not a bug.
- Compare relative difficulty trends rather than absolute scores across tools.
- Use Search Atlas Keyword Difficulty as one signal among several.
- Cross-reference with SERP analysis and competitor strength for high-value terms.
No action is needed — treat Search Atlas Keyword Difficulty as a directional signal alongside other metrics.
🌍 Error 7: Country-Specific Results Are Wrong (e.g., UK Returns US Data)
What's happening: The country-targeting layer occasionally routes queries to the wrong regional dataset, or URLs redirect to the wrong country's SERP. This is a backend routing issue — users cannot fix it directly.
- Confirm the selected country code in the dropdown matches your intended target.
- Clear your browser cache and retry once to rule out a stale session.
- Record a short screen capture showing the country selection and the incorrect results returned.
- Contact support immediately with the recording and example keywords — this issue requires escalation to the specialized data team and cannot be resolved through standard retries.
- If you've already reported it, re-test periodically; fixes are deployed without notice and previously failing country codes begin loading correctly once resolved.
After escalation, the affected country code returns correct regional data once the fix is deployed.
🎯 You now know how to diagnose and resolve the most common Keyword Research issues in Search Atlas. If a problem persists after trying all steps, contact the Search Atlas support team with your account details and a description of the issue.