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🛠️ Fix OTTO Stuck on 301-Redirect Domains

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Camilo Aponte

Camilo Aponte

Last updated on Sep 30, 2026

🔍 Overview

When your domain uses a 301 redirect (for example, redirecting http:// to https://, or non-www to www, or a trailing-slash variant), OTTO's homepage discovery process can fail silently. The result is a project that stays stuck in Processing for 72 hours or longer, and a dashboard message reading OTTO not found — even though the OTTO script is correctly installed and visible in your rendered DOM.

This article explains why this happens, how to confirm it is the cause, and the steps you can take right now to get OTTO running.

⚙️ Why This Happens

OTTO's homepage discovery engine sends an initial request to the URL you registered during project setup. If that URL returns a 301 redirect, the crawler follows the redirect chain to reach the final destination page. Under certain server and CMS configurations — particularly WordPress sites — the redirect strips the query string that OTTO appends to its internal fetch request. This causes the crawler to land on an unexpected page, crawl 0 pages, and throw a PageImportException error internally. Because no pages are successfully crawled, OTTO cannot confirm the script installation and marks the project as unresolvable.

Common redirect scenarios that trigger this issue include:

  • http → https redirects where the server drops query parameters
  • non-www → www (or www → non-www) redirects
  • Trailing-slash redirects (e.g., example.com/page → example.com/page/)
  • WordPress permalink redirects that lose incoming query strings mid-chain

✅ How to Confirm This Is Your Issue

  1. Go to Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation) (URL: /seo-automation-v3).
  2. Locate your project and check its status. If it shows Processing and has been in that state for more than a few hours, or shows OTTO not found, this redirect issue is a likely cause.
  3. In a browser, paste your registered domain URL into the address bar and press Enter. Watch the address bar — if the URL changes at all (protocol, subdomain, or trailing slash), a 301 redirect is active on your homepage.
  4. Confirm your OTTO script is present by right-clicking your homepage, selecting Inspect, and searching the DOM for the OTTO script tag. If it appears, the script is installed correctly and the problem is the redirect, not the installation.

🛠️ Steps to Resolve the Issue

  1. Identify the final, canonical URL of your homepage. This is the URL your browser settles on after all redirects complete (check the address bar). For example, if you entered http://example.com and landed on https://www.example.com/, the canonical URL is https://www.example.com/.
  2. Update your OTTO project to use the canonical URL. Navigate to OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation), select your project, and open project settings, and ensure the domain registered matches the final destination URL exactly — including the correct protocol (https), subdomain (www or non-www), and trailing slash if applicable.
  3. Verify your server preserves query strings through redirects. If you manage your own server or WordPress installation, check that your redirect rules (in .htaccess, Nginx config, or a redirect plugin) pass query parameters to the destination URL. A correct Apache rule looks like: RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L,QSA] — note the QSA flag (Query String Append).
  4. Re-trigger homepage discovery. After correcting the registered URL or the redirect configuration, go to Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation), select your project, and use the Refresh data action to restart the discovery process.
  5. Wait up to 30 minutes for the new crawl to complete. If the project moves from Processing to an active state and the OTTO dashboard populates data, the issue is resolved.

🚫 What Not to Do

  • Do not register a URL that still redirects. OTTO must be pointed at the final destination URL, not an intermediate one.
  • Do not reinstall the OTTO script if it is already present in the rendered DOM — reinstalling will not fix a redirect-related discovery failure.
  • Do not wait longer than 24 hours after making changes without re-triggering the crawl manually. The system will not automatically retry indefinitely.

📊 Known Limitations and Fixes in Progress

Our engineering team has identified and addressed several related issues:

  • A fix for the core PageImportException / 0 pages crawled error on reachable sites is currently in release.
  • A fix for WordPress redirect configurations that drop OTTO's query string is awaiting release.
  • Improvements to homepage detection speed (splitting JavaScript rendering from discovery) and canonical URL resolution (www vs non-www) have already been deployed.

Once the remaining fixes are fully released, many of these scenarios will be handled automatically. Until then, following the manual steps above will unblock your project.

💬 Still Need 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.