🔄 Why OTTO still shows issues you've already fixed
OTTO analyzes your site on a weekly crawl cycle. The flags and recommendations you see are based on the data from the most recent crawl. If you fixed an issue today, it will not disappear from OTTO until the next weekly analysis runs.
⚠️ Common false positive scenarios
- "Multiple Meta Descriptions" flagged on pages you've already corrected
- "Too Many External Links" on pages you've edited
- Missing H1 or title tag errors on pages that now have them
- Schema markup warnings on pages where you've deployed correct schema
- Missing alt tag or "image not in NextGen/modern format" warnings on images that are actually correct — this can happen when the crawler reaches an authenticated, cached, or origin-layer version of the page instead of the public view (see Known issues below)
- Redirect-related false positives, such as a page flagged as redirecting only because of trailing-slash differences (for example
example.com/vsexample.com)
In all these cases, the flag reflects stale crawl data, not your current site state.
✅ What to do
- Wait for the next weekly analysis — if you've fixed the issue, it will automatically disappear after OTTO's next crawl
- Trigger a manual recrawl — if your plan supports it, you can request a fresh crawl from OTTO SEO → Site Audit → Overview (Website Overview) using the 'Recrawl Site' button
- Don't re-fix what you've already fixed — making additional changes based on stale flags can create new problems
🔍 How to verify your fix is live before the next crawl
Use Google Search Console's URL Inspection Tool to fetch and render your page as Google sees it.
You can also open the affected page in an incognito/unauthenticated browser window. OTTO audits the public, anonymous version of your page, so the incognito view is the closest match to what the crawler should see. If the page looks correct in incognito but OTTO still flags it, the flag is most likely a false positive rather than a real issue.
🛠️ Known issues we're tracking
- Alt tag and modern-image-format false positives: We have identified a bug where the audit can incorrectly flag images as missing alt tags or as not being in NextGen/modern format (such as WebP/AVIF) even when they are correctly implemented on the public page. This occurs when the crawler accesses a non-public variant of the page; the incognito view shows the correct state. A fix is currently awaiting release.
- Redirect false positives: Several redirect-handling false positives — including pages flagged as redirecting due to trailing-slash normalization and lowercase-URL checks incorrectly flagging the domain or scheme — have been fixed and released.