📌 Overview
If the Publication Media sites in your Search Atlas account suddenly show as Inactive or Not Approved, you are not alone. This is a common question, and in most cases the cause can be found with a few quick checks. This article explains what these statuses mean, why they appear, and what you can do about them.
🔎 What These Statuses Mean
- Inactive: The site is currently not available for use. You cannot publish to it or select it for new content until it is active again.
- Not Approved: The site has not passed review yet, or it was reviewed and needs changes before it can go live.
These two statuses can look similar, but they usually have different causes, so it helps to know which one you are seeing.
❓ Common Reasons Sites Become Inactive
When many or all of your sites become inactive at the same time, the cause is usually something that affects the whole account rather than each site individually. Common examples include:
- Plan or billing changes: A plan change, a lapsed payment, or an expired subscription can pause features tied to your account, including connected sites.
- Plan limits: Your current plan may allow a limited number of active sites. If you exceed that limit, extra sites may be deactivated.
- Broken connection: If the link between your website and the platform was interrupted, the site can show as inactive. This can happen after a hosting change, a security plugin update, or changed login credentials.
- Domain or hosting changes: Moving to a new domain, changing DNS settings, or switching hosts can disconnect a site.
- Temporary system updates: Occasionally, a platform update can change site statuses until the next sync completes.
🚫 Common Reasons Sites Are Not Approved
- Review still in progress: New sites often need to be reviewed before they can be used. This can take some time.
- Incomplete site details: Missing or incorrect information, such as the site URL or required profile details, can delay approval.
- Site not reachable: If the site is offline, password-protected, or blocking access, the review cannot be completed.
- Quality or content guidelines: Sites that do not meet publishing standards may not be approved until the issues are addressed.
🛠️ Step-by-Step: What to Check First
- Log in to your Search Atlas account and open the Publication Media section.
- Look at the status shown next to each site. Note whether it says Inactive, Not Approved, or something else.
- Open your account or billing settings and confirm that your subscription is active and that your plan includes the number of sites you are using.
- Visit each affected site in your browser. Make sure it loads normally and is not offline, under maintenance, or password-protected.
- Confirm the site URL and details saved in the platform are correct and match your current domain.
- If you recently changed hosting, plugins, security settings, or login credentials, review those changes and reconnect the site if the platform prompts you to.
- Refresh the page or log out and back in to make sure you are seeing the latest status.
⏱️ How Long Does Approval Take?
Approval times can vary depending on the number of sites in the queue and whether any information is missing. If a site has been waiting for longer than expected and all of its details are complete, contact our team so they can look into it.
✅ Tips to Keep Your Sites Active
- Keep your subscription and payment details up to date.
- Stay within the site limits of your current plan.
- Do not change your domain, hosting, or access settings without checking that the connection still works afterward.
- Keep your site publicly accessible so it can be reviewed and verified.
- Make sure site details in your account always match your live website.
- Check your site statuses regularly so you can catch issues early.
💬 When to Contact Our Team
Reach out if any of the following apply:
- All of your sites became inactive at the same time and your subscription looks active.
- You completed the checks above and the status has not changed.
- A site has stayed in Not Approved status for a long time without any update.
- You need help reactivating several sites at once.
To help us resolve the issue faster, please include the following details in your chat:
- The names or URLs of the affected sites
- The status each site is showing
- When you first noticed the change
- Any recent changes to your plan, billing, domain, or hosting
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be instantly connected with a member of our team.
📚 Quick Summary
- Inactive usually points to an account, plan, or connection issue.
- Not Approved usually means a review is pending or something needs to be fixed.
- Check your subscription, plan limits, site accessibility, and site details first.
- If the problem continues, contact our team through the live chat widget with the details above.