🔍 Overview
After approving and deploying OTTO recommendations, the Search Atlas dashboard may show a Deployed status while the changes are not yet visible on your live website. Installation Diagnostics may also flag unverified deployment errors. This article explains why this happens and walks you through the steps to resolve it.
⚠️ Why This Happens
The Deployed status in the OTTO dashboard reflects that Search Atlas has sent the approved changes — it does not always confirm that your live site has received and applied them. Several factors can break the sync between the dashboard and your website:
- WordPress plugin disconnection: The Search Atlas or OTTO WordPress plugin may have lost its authenticated connection to the platform.
- Plugin version mismatch: An outdated plugin version may not be able to process the incoming deployment correctly.
- Caching layers: Server-side, plugin-based, or CDN caches can serve old versions of your pages even after changes have been applied to the database.
- Hosting or firewall restrictions: Some hosting environments block outbound or inbound API calls, preventing OTTO from writing changes to your site.
- Theme or plugin conflicts: A third-party plugin or active theme may be overriding the changes OTTO is attempting to apply.
✅ Step-by-Step Troubleshooting
- Verify the WordPress plugin is active and connected. Log in to your WordPress admin panel, go to Plugins → Installed Plugins, and confirm the Search Atlas plugin is active. Then return to your OTTO dashboard and check that the site connection shows a green Connected status.
- Update the Search Atlas WordPress plugin. In your WordPress admin panel, go to Plugins → Installed Plugins and check for any available updates to the Search Atlas plugin. Install the latest version and then re-run the OTTO deployment.
- Re-authenticate the site connection. Inside the OTTO dashboard, locate your connected property, disconnect it, and reconnect it using a fresh API key or reconnection flow. This resolves token expiry issues that can silently block deployments.
- Clear all caching layers. Clear the cache in your WordPress caching plugin (such as WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, or LiteSpeed Cache), your hosting control panel, and your CDN (such as Cloudflare). After clearing, revisit your live site to check whether the changes now appear.
- Run Installation Diagnostics. Inside the OTTO dashboard, open Installation Diagnostics and review each line item. Resolve any items flagged as Unverified or Error before attempting to redeploy.
- Temporarily disable conflicting plugins. Deactivate other SEO or optimisation plugins one at a time to identify any plugin that may be overriding OTTO's changes. Recheck the live site after each deactivation.
- Redeploy the affected items. Once the connection is confirmed and caches are cleared, return to the OTTO dashboard, select the affected recommendations, and redeploy them. Confirm the changes are now visible on the live site.
💡 Prevention Tips
- Keep the Search Atlas WordPress plugin updated whenever a new version is released.
- Clear your site cache immediately after every OTTO deployment to avoid stale page delivery.
- Check Installation Diagnostics after each major deployment batch to catch errors early.
- Avoid running multiple SEO plugins simultaneously, as conflicting meta or schema output can cause unexpected behaviour.
🆘 Still Need Help?
If you have followed all the steps above and your OTTO deployments are still not reflecting on the live site, our team can investigate the connection logs and deployment records for your specific property. 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.