A bug caused domains with non-standard top-level domains (TLDs) — such as .download — to be incorrectly rejected with an "Invalid URL" error in Site Explorer and OTTO. This issue is now resolved; re-add your domain and it should be accepted.

🔍 What Was Happening

Search Atlas's URL validator did not recognize certain non-standard TLDs as valid, even when the domain was live and fully reachable. Affected customers saw this error message:

Invalid URL [https://website.groww.download]

The error blocked two key workflows:

• Adding a domain to Site Explorer for competitive research and backlink analysis
• Creating a new OTTO project for SEO automation on that domain

Any domain using a non-standard TLD — not only .download — may have triggered this error.

📡 Engineering Status

This issue has been resolved for most domains. The URL validator has been updated to correctly accept non-standard TLDs. No changes are required on your end — simply retry adding your domain. If you still encounter the error after retrying, use the workaround below or contact support.

⚙️ Steps to Retry Your Domain

1. Open Site Metrics → Overview or navigate to OTTO SEO in your Search Atlas dashboard.
2. Enter your full domain URL exactly as before (e.g., https://website.groww.download).
3. If you are in Site Explorer, click Analyze.
4. If you are in OTTO, click Create Project.
5. If the domain is accepted, no further action is needed — you are all set.

🧩 Workaround (if the error persists)

If the standard OTTO project creation UI continues to reject your domain after retrying, add the OTTO project through the Atlas Agent chat interface as an interim step. Several customers have confirmed this approach successfully creates the project when the standard UI still throws the "Invalid URL" error. Open the Atlas Agent chat and request that it create the OTTO project for your domain.

❓ Not Your Issue?

If the "Invalid URL" error appears during WordPress plugin setup or API key entry rather than when entering your domain in Site Explorer or OTTO, this article does not apply. Consult the OTTO WordPress plugin connection guide instead — the root cause is unrelated to TLD validation.

⚠️ Known Limitation

If you use MCP to deploy domain-level schemas, you may encounter a separate HTTP 400 error (otto_urls not found). This is a distinct issue currently under active resolution and is unrelated to the TLD validation fix described above. Page-level schema deployment is unaffected. If this affects you, contact support for the latest status.

📞 When to Contact Support

If you retry your domain and still see the "Invalid URL" error, contact our support team and include your full domain URL. Our team will investigate your account and domain configuration directly.

🌀 The URL validator fix is live — re-adding your domain to Site Explorer or OTTO should now work without error. If anything still looks off, our support team is ready to step in right away.