Home 🛠️ Troubleshooting

🛠️ Troubleshooting

Camilo Aponte
By Camilo Aponte
• 93 articles

📣 Signal Genesys (Press Release Distribution & GBP Deployment)

Use this article to diagnose and fix the most common Signal Genesys distribution failures — press releases stuck in Pending, AI summaries rejected for length, and API token errors when publishing a press release. Signal Genesys distribution depends on backend validation, outlet syndication queues, entity verification, external publisher acceptance, Google indexing, and API synchronization between Search Atlas and Signal Genesys. Because distribution spans multiple third-party systems and publishing partners, some delays and partial propagation are expected. ⚠️ Error 1: Press Release Stuck in "Pending" and Not Distributing This is the highest-volume Signal Genesys issue (41,000+ occurrences). The distribution service rejects a press release when required fields fail backend validation. Common causes include missing fields, invalid formatting, summaries exceeding limits, invalid scheduling dates, incomplete contact information, or malformed company profiles. How to fix it: 1. In the Search Atlas left sidebar, go to Authority → PR Distribution (Press Releases) → [Your PR] → Edit. 2. Confirm all required fields are completed: headline, body, summary, company name, contact details, and website URL. 3. Ensure the body contains at least 300 words. 4. Confirm the summary is under 45 words. 5. Verify the scheduled distribution date is not in the past. 6. Remove unusual formatting or unsupported symbols. 7. Save the press release again before resubmitting. 8. Retry distribution after refreshing the dashboard. 9. Test with a simplified version of the press release if validation keeps failing. 10. Contact support if the press release stays stuck longer than 2 hours. Validation failures happen before distribution begins, so saving and resubmitting often refreshes invalid backend states automatically. When all required fields are complete and valid, distribution proceeds normally. Visual status glitch on "publishing" If your press release appears stuck on "publishing" or "publishing content" for more than a few hours, it may have failed validation even though the UI did not update. Refresh the dashboard or open the PR details. If the status has not changed after 24 hours, contact support for backend verification. ⚠️ Error 2: AI Summary Rejected — "Must Contain at Most 45 Words" Signal Genesys enforces a strict 45-word limit for press release summaries. AI-generated summaries occasionally exceed this limit even when they look short on screen. How to fix it: 1. Open Edit Press Release → Summary. 2. Count the words manually. 3. Reduce the summary to 45 words or fewer. 4. Write one concise sentence that covers what happened, who is involved, and why it matters. 5. Remove filler language and marketing phrases. 6. Use the company name only once. 7. Save the summary before resubmitting. 8. Re-run AI summary generation if it is available. 9. Contact support if valid summaries keep failing validation. Word count validation is strict and automated, and hyphenated words may count differently depending on formatting. Once the summary is within the 45-word limit, the press release proceeds to distribution. 🔑 Error 3: "Invalid Scope Provided — Check API Key Permissions" This error indicates a platform-level API permission mismatch between Search Atlas and Signal Genesys. It is not caused by your account settings. How to fix it: 1. Refresh the Signal Genesys dashboard and retry distribution. 2. Confirm you are signed in to the correct Search Atlas account. 3. Complete the steps in the next section to remove and re-check your Signal Genesys API token. 4. Contact support if the error persists after re-checking your token. Once the correct API token is in place and permissions match, distribution resumes normally. 🔑 Signal Genesys API Error When Publishing a PR — Remove and Re-Check Your API Token If you get a Signal Genesys API error while publishing a PR article (including categories such as pop culture), the most common cause is an incorrect or stale API token. Removing the token and re-running the PR with the correct token resolves it in most cases. How to fix it: 1. Open your Signal Genesys integration settings where your API token is stored. 2. Remove the existing API token. 3. Confirm you have the correct Signal Genesys token — using a token from another service or account triggers this error. 4. Re-enter the correct token and save. 5. Run your PR again. 6. Contact support if the API error continues after re-checking the token. Our engineering team is actively investigating the root cause of this API error under ticket SPE-868. If removing and re-adding the correct token does not resolve it, reach out to support and reference SPE-868 so we can link your case to the investigation. ⚠️ "Please Fill Knowledge Graph's Website in Order to Deploy" If you receive "Please fill knowledge graph's Website in order to deploy" even though you already completed the Knowledge Graph website field: 1. Re-save the Knowledge Graph entry. 2. Wait 2–3 minutes for synchronization. 3. Create a new press release draft. If the error persists, contact support. ✅ Known Issue (Resolved): Duplicate Headline Detection If the system rejects your press release as a duplicate headline even after you change the headline, this was caused by a validation cache bug (ticket AB-1059). Confirm you are running the latest version of Signal Genesys; if the issue persists, contact support. 🎯 You now know how to clear a Pending press release, fix a rejected 45-word summary, and resolve Signal Genesys API token errors by removing and re-checking your token. If your PR still fails to publish after these steps, contact Search Atlas support and reference SPE-868 for the latest status.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

📰 Authority Building — PR Distribution

This article covers: - press release submission - distribution workflow errors - company profile configuration - AI-generated PR content - outlet reporting - distribution credits - and post-submission limitations. Authority Building distribution workflows involve: - validation systems - asynchronous distribution queues - external publisher synchronization - and outlet-specific formatting pipelines. Because multiple systems participate in the distribution process, delays or validation failures may occur before a press release reaches publication status. ⚠️ Error 1: "Submit for Distribution" button is greyed out What's happening The distribution system requires all mandatory fields before submission becomes available. Even one incomplete or invalid field prevents activation of the submission button. Steps to try 1. Open the press release editor in a supported browser (Chrome is recommended) and review all sections carefully. 2. Confirm all required fields are completed: - Headline - Body - Summary - Company Name - Publish Date - Publish Time. 3. Ensure the press release body meets the editor's minimum word count (confirm the current minimum against the in-app validation message). 4. Confirm the summary is within the editor's word cap (confirm the current cap against the in-app validation message). 5. Check for validation warnings highlighted in red. 6. Verify the distribution date is not in the past. 7. Remove unsupported special characters from fields if validation still fails. 8. Save the draft and refresh the page. 9. Contact support if the submission button remains disabled despite all fields being completed. Important Notes - Hidden validation errors are often caused by formatting issues such as unsupported characters, stray HTML, or trailing whitespace. - Saving the draft usually refreshes validation states. ⚠️ Error 2: Press release submitted but status stays on "Processing" for more than 2 hours What's happening The backend distribution system may have encountered: - silent validation failures - queue delays - or incomplete company profile data. The press release remains in a pending state until validation succeeds. Steps to try 1. Go to: Left Sidebar → Authority Building → PR Distribution → [your PR] → Status 2. Refresh the status page after several minutes. 3. Click Retry Distribution if available. 4. Review your company profile completely. 5. Ensure all required company fields are populated: - company name - address - phone - website - country code. 6. Verify the summary is within the editor's word cap. 7. Confirm there are no placeholder values left in the PR. 8. Avoid duplicate submissions while processing is active. 9. Wait several additional queue cycles during high-traffic periods. 10. Contact support if processing remains active longer than 2 hours. Important Notes - Backend validation failures are not always surfaced immediately. - Retry Distribution often clears transient queue issues. ⚠️ Error 3: Distribution report shows 0 outlets after 24 hours What's happening A press release may have been submitted successfully but never actually distributed. "Submitted" status does not always mean: - distributed - published - or syndicated. Steps to try 1. Open the distribution status page. 2. Verify the status shows: - Distributed - Published - or Completed. 3. If the status only says Submitted, the PR likely never entered the distribution network. 4. Refresh the distribution report after several hours. 5. Confirm your company profile passed validation. 6. Check whether the PR was rejected silently. 7. Retry the distribution if available. 8. Avoid editing the PR repeatedly while distribution is pending. 9. Contact support for manual push verification. 10. Request a distribution audit if no outlets appear after 24 hours. Important Notes - Outlet reports populate asynchronously. - Initial reports may appear incomplete during the first several hours. ⚠️ Error 4: PR generated by AI has content I did not approve What's happening AI-generated PR content quality depends heavily on: - prompt specificity - company profile quality - and contextual business information. Vague inputs produce: - generic - inaccurate - or off-brand content. Steps to try 1. Always review AI-generated content before submission. 2. Edit any inaccurate sections manually. 3. Use Regenerate Section instead of regenerating the entire PR. 4. Add more detailed: - product information - announcement details - audience context - and brand positioning. 5. Avoid short prompts like: "write a press release." 6. Include: - what happened - why it matters - who it affects - and business context. 7. Update your Brand Vault information for better personalization. 8. Generate shorter sections first if results are inconsistent. 9. Save revisions before distribution. 10. Treat AI-generated PRs as first drafts, not final publications. Important Notes - More context produces dramatically better output quality. - Human review should always occur before distribution. ⚠️ Error 5: My company profile is not appearing in the distribution form dropdown What's happening Only fully saved company profiles appear in the PR distribution selector. Incomplete profiles may fail silently. Steps to try 1. Go to: Local → GBP Projects (GBP Projects) 2. Click Connect GBP Account if no profile exists. 3. Complete all required fields. 4. Save the profile completely. 5. Refresh the distribution form and reopen the company profile dropdown. 6. Wait several seconds for the list to refresh. 7. Confirm validation passed on every required field. 8. Contact support if the profile still does not appear after saving. Important Notes - Only fully validated company profiles surface in the selector. - Incomplete profiles may not display validation errors immediately. ⚠️ Error 6: Press release stuck in "Pending" or "Publishing" status What's happening A known visual glitch (referenced internally as AB-1006, marked resolved) can display a press release as "Pending" or "Publishing" even when the PR has actually been rejected by one or more distributors. In confirmed-rejection cases, HDC credits are refundable. Steps to try 1. Open the PR distribution status page and confirm the displayed status. 2. Allow 5–7 business days from submission for a publication link to appear. 3. If no publication link appears within 5–7 business days, contact support and reference the "stuck in Pending/Publishing" behavior (AB-1006). 4. Ask support to verify backend status — the PR may have been rejected by distributors even though the UI still shows it as publishing. 5. If rejection is confirmed, request a credit refund. 6. Avoid resubmitting the same PR while the status is still under investigation. Important Notes - AB-1006 is a known and resolved issue; edge cases may still require backend intervention by support. - HDC credits are refundable on confirmed rejection. Approximate credit cost per PR by tier: Street Insider 35, Digital Journal 30, News & Media 20, Local & National 15. - Do not wait several weeks before escalating — 5–7 business days with no publication link is the recommended threshold. ⚠️ Error 7: Distribution fails due to a temporary API outage or proxy authentication error (407) What's happening Transient backend failures can block distribution, including: - temporary API downtime - proxy authentication errors (e.g. 407 Auth failed) - and image-fetching failures from Brand Vault or Google Cloud Storage. These are server-side issues and are typically resolved without any customer action. Steps to try 1. Wait several minutes and retry submission once. 2. Check whether assets in Brand Vault load correctly in a separate tab. 3. Avoid repeatedly resubmitting while an outage is active — duplicate attempts will not bypass the failure. 4. Contact support if the error persists, and include the exact error text (for example, the 407 message or the failed image URL). Important Notes - These errors are usually resolved server-side; no customer action is required beyond a short wait and a single retry. - Persistent failures should be reported to support rather than retried indefinitely. ⚠️ Error 8: Logo or image upload fails with a "fetching image size" error What's happening Logo or image uploads can fail during PR submission with errors such as "fetching image size." When the error persists after resizing, reformatting, and trying a different browser, the root cause is usually a temporary backend or image-service outage — not a problem with the file itself. Steps to try 1. Confirm the image meets the documented format and size requirements (e.g. JPG or PNG, within the allowed dimensions). 2. Re-upload the image once. 3. Try uploading from a different supported browser. 4. If the error persists after these steps, stop retrying and contact support — repeated uploads will not resolve a backend outage. 5. Share the exact error text and the asset filename with support to speed up investigation. Important Notes - Persistent image errors are usually a sign of a temporary API outage rather than a user-side issue. - Once the file is confirmed to meet requirements, escalate to support instead of continuing to retry. ⚠️ Error 9: My press release was rejected by an outlet — what happens to my credits and notifications? What's happening When a distributor rejects a press release, the in-app status does not always visually update. A rejected PR can continue to display as "Pending" or "Publishing," which makes silent rejections difficult to identify from the UI alone. Steps to try 1. Wait 5–7 business days from submission for a publication link to appear. 2. If no link appears in that window, contact support and ask them to verify rejection status via the backend. 3. If support confirms a rejection, request a refund of the HDC credits consumed by the rejected distribution. 4. Review the rejection reason (when provided) before resubmitting, so the next draft can be adjusted accordingly. Important Notes - HDC credits are refundable on confirmed rejection. Approximate credit cost per PR by tier: Street Insider 35, Digital Journal 30, News & Media 20, Local & National 15. - A "Publishing" status alone is not proof of acceptance — backend verification by support is the reliable signal. - Escalate after 5–7 business days without a publication link rather than waiting several weeks.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔎 Authority Building — URL Indexer

Overview This article covers: URL submission workflows, Left sidebar → Authority → Indexer (URL Indexer), CSV imports, indexation delays, quota handling, pending URLs, Google Search Console verification issues, quota balance corruption, and schema deployment failures. The URL Indexer submits pages to Google's indexing systems, but final indexation decisions are controlled entirely by Google. Because Google evaluates content quality, crawlability, authority, canonical structure, and technical SEO signals, successful submission does not guarantee immediate crawling, indexation, or rankings. ⚠️ Error 1: URL submission shows "Queued" for more than 24 hours What's happening The Indexer submits URLs through Google's Indexing API. When daily quotas are reached, submission volume spikes, or multiple properties compete for requests, URLs remain queued until the quota resets. Steps to try - Wait for the daily quota reset at midnight UTC. - Refresh the queue status periodically. - Avoid resubmitting the same URLs repeatedly. - Prioritize critical URLs first. - Submit urgent pages manually using Google Search Console → URL Inspection. - Verify the domain is connected properly to GSC. - Remove low-priority URLs from bulk queues. - Break large submissions into smaller batches. - Confirm the URLs are publicly accessible. - Contact support if the queue remains frozen across multiple days. Important Notes Queued status does not mean failure. Processing resumes automatically after quota resets. If the quota balance itself appears corrupted (negative, doubled, or not updating after submissions), see Error 4 — this requires manual correction by support and will not self-resolve at the daily reset. ⚠️ Error 2: URLs show as "Submitted" but are not appearing in Google Search What's happening "Submitted" only confirms the request was sent to Google. Google still independently decides whether to crawl, index, delay, or ignore the page. Steps to try - Use Google Search Console → URL Inspection. - Check the page's actual indexation status. - Confirm the page is not blocked by robots.txt. - Verify no noindex tags, canonical conflicts, or redirect loops exist. - Improve thin or duplicate content. - Add internal links pointing to the page. - Build supporting backlinks to increase crawl priority. - Ensure the page loads correctly in incognito mode. - Wait several additional crawl cycles. - Re-submit only after underlying issues are fixed. Important Notes Submission alone does not guarantee indexation. Google prioritizes quality and authority signals. ⚠️ Error 3: Bulk URL import from CSV is failing What's happening CSV uploads fail when formatting is invalid, unsupported characters exist, headers are included, or URLs are malformed. The importer expects strict formatting. Steps to try - Open the CSV file in a plain text editor. - Ensure one URL per line, no headers, no blank rows, no extra columns. - Confirm every URL begins with https://. - Remove all http:// URLs. - Delete hidden formatting characters if present. - Save the file as UTF-8 plain text. - Avoid Excel auto-formatting whenever possible. - Re-upload the cleaned file. - Test with a smaller batch first. - Contact support if correctly formatted files still fail. Important Notes CSV formatting errors are the most common import issue. UTF-8 encoding prevents hidden character corruption. ⚠️ Error 4: Quota balance is corrupted, negative, or blocks a valid batch submission What's happening In rare cases, the URL Indexer quota balance becomes corrupted — for example, showing a negative credit total, double-charged submissions, or a balance that does not update after Atlas Brain processes new activity. When this happens, even valid batch submissions (e.g., a 141-URL batch) may be blocked even though the user has sufficient credits. This is a back-end sync issue and will NOT self-resolve at the daily quota reset. Steps to try - Confirm the issue is not a normal quota exhaustion (see Error 1). - Note the exact credit balance shown, the expected balance, and any recent submissions that may have been double-charged. - Record a Jam or screen video showing the corrupted balance and the blocked batch attempt. - Contact support and request a manual quota correction — this must be done by a senior agent. - Once support confirms the total has been corrected, retry the batch submission. Important Notes Manual quota corrections are tracked and require senior-agent involvement. Do not repeatedly retry the batch while the balance is corrupted — this can compound the issue. Support has successfully restored credits in cases of double-charging (example: ~267 credits restored on a blocked 141-URL batch). ⚠️ Error 5: Schemas show "pending" and fail to deploy despite API success messages What's happening In some cases, the schema deployment API returns a success response, but schemas remain in a "pending" state and never actually deploy to the live site. This has been observed with large schema queues (e.g., 97 pending schemas) and is a back-end deployment issue, not a user configuration problem. Steps to try - Verify the site connection and authentication are still valid. - Confirm the schemas appear as "pending" rather than "failed" or "error." - Record a Jam video reproducing the deployment attempt and the pending state. - Contact support and request escalation to the dev team. - Reference the existing tracking ticket: Linear OTTO-1827. Important Notes This is a known, dev-tracked issue. An API success response does not always mean the schema deployed — always verify deployment on the live page. Do not bulk re-submit pending schemas, as this can compound the queue and complicate dev troubleshooting.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

📣 Digital PR troubleshooting

Resolve the most common Digital PR errors in Search Atlas — from failed campaign creation and CSV imports to email spam filtering, stuck press releases, and incorrect citation data. ⚠️ Error 1: Creating a new campaign fails or shows no publication results What's happening: Campaign creation depends on the publication discovery index loading correctly. If the index is refreshing, filters are too restrictive, or the discovery service is temporarily unavailable, the campaign builder may return zero results. 1. Reload the page completely. 2. Wait 2–3 minutes and retry the search. 3. Use broader niche filters first — start with wide industries like health, finance, marketing, or technology. 4. Avoid stacking multiple filters simultaneously. 5. Remove advanced filtering temporarily. 6. Refresh the publication search panel. 7. Try a different browser session. 8. Confirm the campaign service is loading normally. 9. Contact support if all publication searches consistently return empty results. Note: Narrow filters are the most common cause of zero results. Publication databases refresh asynchronously, so a brief delay is normal. ⚠️ Error 2: Contact list import (CSV) is not loading contacts What's happening: CSV imports require exact column names and UTF-8 encoding. Files with renamed headers, extra columns, hidden formatting, or unsupported encoding may fail silently. 1. Download the official CSV template: Digital PR → Contacts → Import → Download Template. 2. Do not rename any columns. 3. Keep only supported fields and ensure these required columns exist: First Name, Last Name, Email. 4. Remove all blank rows. 5. Save the file as UTF-8 CSV. 6. Avoid Excel auto-formatting where possible. 7. Open the file in a plain text editor to verify formatting before importing. 8. Test with a small import batch first. 9. Contact support if properly formatted files still fail. Note: Header mismatches are the most common import failure. UTF-8 encoding prevents hidden character issues. ⚠️ Error 3: Outreach emails are going to spam for recipients What's happening: Cold outreach campaigns are heavily affected by spam filtering, domain reputation, email authentication, and bulk sending patterns. New sending domains are especially vulnerable. 1. Configure SPF records for your sending domain. 2. Set up DKIM authentication. 3. Verify DMARC settings if possible. 4. Avoid spam-trigger phrases such as: free, guaranteed, act now, limited time. 5. Personalize outreach emails using template variables. 6. Avoid sending identical emails to large batches. 7. Warm up new sending domains gradually. 8. Limit outreach volume initially. 9. Test deliverability with small campaigns first. 10. Use a dedicated outreach sending domain when possible. ⚠️ Error 4: Press release stuck in 'publishing' status for an extended period What's happening: Press releases may appear stuck in publishing status for 3–4 weeks or more, even after a distributor has already rejected them. This is a UI display issue — the interface fails to update the PR status after a rejection event. Digital Journal is a commonly observed rejecting distributor, though other partners may also reject submissions. 1. Confirm the PR has been in publishing status for more than 7–10 days. 2. Check the PR detail page for any distributor feedback or rejection notes. 3. Contact support with your campaign/PR ID so the team can verify the actual distributor status. 4. Request a status correction if the PR was silently rejected. 5. Request a Hyperdrive credit refund for rejected PRs (e.g., 200 Hyperdrive credits per rejected PR, depending on your plan). - The publishing status in the UI may not reflect the actual submission state — the underlying PR may already have been rejected. - Support can manually correct PR statuses and issue Hyperdrive credit refunds for rejected submissions. - Always include your campaign ID when contacting support to expedite the fix. ⚠️ Error 5: Local citation published with incorrect business information What's happening: Local citation submissions are distributed to third-party data aggregators (such as Dataaxle) that publish business information across directory networks. In some cases, the distributor may publish incorrect details — such as a wrong business name, phone number, or address — that differ from what was originally submitted. 1. Locate the affected campaign and note the campaign ID (e.g., id-6010). 2. Identify the specific distributor publishing the incorrect information (e.g., Dataaxle). 3. Capture screenshots or URLs showing the incorrect listing. 4. Compare the published data against your original campaign submission. 5. Contact support with the campaign ID, distributor name, and details of the incorrect information for escalation. - Third-party citation distributors may take time to correct published data even after escalation. - Support will escalate citation accuracy issues directly to the responsible distributor. - Always provide your campaign ID to ensure the correct submission record is reviewed. 🎯 You now have the steps to diagnose and resolve the most common Digital PR issues in Search Atlas. If a problem persists after following these steps, contact support with your campaign ID for direct escalation.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔗 Search Atlas — Backlink Analysis Issues

This article covers the Backlink Overview, monitoring alerts, disavow, and link data accuracy. ⚠️ Error 1: Backlink Overview fails to load or shows an error What's happening: A brief database interruption is preventing data from loading. Steps to try: - Hard-refresh the page. - Wait 5 minutes and try again. - Try a shorter date range or navigate to Site Metrics → Backlinks (Referring domains tab). - Check if the issue is site-specific by viewing a different project's backlinks. - Contact support with your site URL if the overview has been failing for more than 30 minutes. 📊 Error 2: My backlink count is much lower than Ahrefs or SEMRush What's happening: This is normal. Every tool has a different web crawler and database — counts will differ. What to do: - Focus on trends over time within Search Atlas rather than comparing absolute counts to other tools. - Use Referring Domains as a more stable metric than raw link count. - Confirm you're looking at the same domain version (www vs. non-www) in both tools. - No action needed — cross-tool count differences are an industry-wide reality. 🔔 Error 3: Backlink monitoring alerts aren't being sent What's happening: Alerts may be misconfigured or the emails are landing in spam. Steps to try: - Check spam for emails from our Intercom live chat (click the messenger icon — type Human Teammate when the chatbot responds to reach a human agent). - For Slack alerts, confirm the Search Atlas app is still authorized in your Slack workspace. 🆕 Error 4: New backlinks I built aren't appearing What's happening: Our crawler needs time to discover and index newly published pages. Steps to try: - Allow 7–14 days after a new link is published — this is normal crawler delay. - Confirm the linking page is publicly accessible (not behind a login or paywall). - Confirm the link is dofollow. - Verify the link points to your exact domain with correct protocol (https vs. http, www vs. non-www). - Cross-reference in GSC — if Google sees it, SearchAtlas will find it soon too. ⚠️ Error 5: Ahrefs data columns show empty or zero values What's happening: The Ahrefs API account may have hit its monthly row limit, or the API key needs renewal. Steps to try: - Refresh and try again — brief API timeouts resolve quickly. - Try a different domain in Site Explorer to confirm the issue is widespread. - If only Ahrefs data is missing while other data loads, contact support — the Ahrefs integration may need attention. - Use the SearchAtlas native Domain Authority metric as a fallback while Ahrefs data is unavailable. 📥 Error 6: Backlink data export is incomplete What's happening: Most export formats have a row limit, or your filter is narrowing the results. Steps to try: - Clear all active filters before exporting to get the full dataset. - Check if there's a row limit in export settings — standard exports often cap at 10,000 rows. - For large profiles, export in segments using date range filters. - Try exporting by Referring Domain instead of individual links for a smaller file. - Use CSV format instead of Excel — CSV has no row limit. 🔁 Error 7: Duplicate backlink records appearing in the report What's happening: A data processing issue created duplicate entries, or the same link exists on multiple pages of the same domain. Steps to try: - Apply the "One link per domain" filter in the Backlinks table to deduplicate at the domain level. - Check if the duplicates are truly the same link or the same domain linking from multiple pages (which is valid). - If filtering confirms actual duplicates (identical URL, identical date), contact support with a screenshot. Most backlink issues are not errors—they are a reflection of how web crawlers discover, index, and process link data over time. Differences between tools, delays in discovery, and variations in data coverage are expected across the industry. Focus on trends, domain quality, and consistency rather than isolated data points.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔗 Search Atlas — Backlink Analysis & Site Explorer Issues

This article covers Backlink Analysis, Site Explorer, referring domains, disavow exports, anchor text reporting, competitor backlink intelligence, and backlink verification behavior inside Search Atlas. ⚠️ Error 1: Backlink report takes very long to load What's happening: The Backlink service and its telemetry layer both experience connectivity timeouts, slowing data delivery. Steps to try: - Wait up to 60 seconds for the report to load — the service is functioning but under load - If data still doesn't appear, refresh the page ⚠️ Error 2: New backlinks not appearing even after 48 hours What's happening: Backlink discovery depends on crawler schedules. Not all backlinks are discovered immediately. Steps to try: - Go to Left Sidebar → Site Metrics → Backlinks → Type your domain and request a fresh crawl - New backlinks from very new referring domains may take 7–14 days to appear ⚠️ Error 3: Site Explorer competitor data is empty What's happening: Site Explorer pulls data from multiple external sources. If one source is unavailable, some competitor metrics may be missing. Steps to try: - Refresh the page after 5 minutes - Try a different competitor domain to confirm if the issue is specific to that domain or broader ⚠️ Error 4: Backlink database shows a connection error message What's happening: The Backlink service database occasionally drops connections during maintenance windows. Steps to try: - Reload the page — the connection resets automatically - If the error persists for more than 10 minutes, the team has been alerted and is actively resolving it ⚠️ Error 5: Anchor text distribution chart is blank What's happening: Anchor text requires a minimum number of backlinks to render the distribution chart (at least 10). Steps to try: - If your domain has fewer than 10 indexed backlinks, the chart will remain blank - Try adding your domain to the Indexer via Left Sidebar → Authority → Indexer to help increase crawled backlink count ⚠️ Error 6: Disavow file download is empty What's happening: The disavow feature requires you to first flag backlinks as "toxic" or "disavow" before the file generates content. Steps to try: - In the Backlinks report, use the filter to show Toxic Links - Select the links you want to disavow and mark them - Then download the disavow file — it will now include the flagged links ⚠️ Error 7: Referring domains count differs from other SEO tools What's happening: Each SEO tool uses its own crawler database. Discrepancies of 10–30% between tools are normal. Steps to try: - Search Atlas uses its own backlink index alongside SEMrush data - For the most comprehensive view, cross-reference with Left Sidebar → Site Metrics → Backlinks ⚠️ Error 8: Lost backlinks section shows backlinks that are still live What's happening: Lost backlink detection runs on a schedule. There can be a 48–72 hour lag between a link going live/offline and the status updating. Steps to try: - Click Verify next to any backlink to trigger an on-demand check - Allow a few minutes for the verification to complete Most backlink analysis issues are not caused by missing data or broken reports. They are usually related to: - crawler scheduling delays - third-party source synchronization - temporary database connectivity interruptions - backlink verification lag - or differences between SEO crawler ecosystems Because backlink intelligence depends on continuous large-scale crawling across the web, delays and discrepancies between tools are expected industry-wide. 👉 The most reliable strategy is to: - focus on backlink trends over time - monitor referring domains instead of raw link counts - allow sufficient crawl time for new links - and use multiple backlink sources for validation

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

⚠️ Press Release Image Upload — WEBP Publish Error (Resolved)

We're aware of an issue in the Press Release editor where uploaded JPG or PNG images were silently converted to WEBP during upload, causing a publish error even though the original file was in a supported format. This issue has been resolved — re-uploading your image in the draft editor is all it takes to publish successfully. 🔍 What's Happening When you uploaded a JPG or PNG to a Press Release draft, the editor silently converted the image to WEBP format. When you then tried to publish, Signal Genesys — the press release distribution platform — rejected the file with this error: "WEBP is not supported by Signal Genesys. Please upload JPG or PNG." Because no warning appeared during upload, the error at publish time was unexpected. Any press release draft where an image was uploaded before the fix was deployed may show this behavior. 🛠️ Workaround Steps Re-uploading your image inside the draft editor resolves the issue. The fix is now live, so your file will retain its original format. 1. Open the affected Press Release draft. 2. In the Press Release editor, click the image thumbnail or the image upload area to open the image selector, then remove the current image. 3. Re-upload your original JPG or PNG file. 4. Publish your press release. After completing these steps, your press release will publish without the WEBP format error. 📡 Engineering Status This issue is fully resolved. The Press Release editor now passes the file's original format directly to Signal Genesys instead of converting it to WEBP. JPG and PNG are confirmed supported end-to-end. The fix is live for all customers and no further customer action is required beyond re-uploading affected images. ⚠️ Known Issue: Publish-Time HTTP 500 Separately, we are tracking an active HTTP 500 error on the Signal Genesys publish endpoint that can prevent some publishes from completing even after the WEBP issue is resolved. This is under investigation. If you still cannot publish after re-uploading your image, please contact support so we can investigate. This article will be updated once that fix ships. 🚧 Other Publish Errors If you encounter a different publish error, the following are the most common cases and what to do: - 401 API Token invalid — Verify that your Signal Genesys API key is correct and is not a placeholder value. If you do not have a valid key, contact your account manager or reach out via the Authority Building support channel to request one. - Proxy / image-fetch errors (407) — These can appear when the publish flow fetches images from Brand Vault. Retry the publish, and contact support if the error persists. - Temporary API downtime or "fetching image size" loops — These errors are usually transient. Wait a few minutes and try again; if it continues, contact support. 📊 Dashboard Status Sync Delay After a successful publish, the distribution dashboard may briefly show a "failed" status due to a synchronization delay between Signal Genesys and our reporting. Wait a few minutes and refresh the page before contacting support. Credits are automatically refunded for genuine failures. 📞 When to Contact Support If re-uploading your image does not resolve the publish error, contact our support team. When you reach out, include: - The name of the affected press release draft. - A screenshot of the error message you're seeing. - The file format of the image you're uploading (JPG or PNG). Our team will investigate and follow up with you directly. 🎯 The image format issue in the Press Release editor is fully resolved. Re-upload your JPG or PNG in the draft editor and your press release will publish without error — if you're still seeing issues, our support team is ready to help.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

📊 Fixing Incorrect Holistic Pillar Authority Scores

📊 Understanding Holistic Pillar Authority Scores The Holistic Pillars feature inside the OTTO SEO tool measures the topical authority of your website across key content pillars. Each pillar is scored across Content, Authority, and UX signals, and the Authority Score reflects how strongly your site demonstrates expertise on that topic, based on crawled content, indexed pages, and connected data sources. Because these scores draw on several data sources, they update on a schedule rather than instantly. If you have recently published content or fixed an issue, the score you see may still reflect a previous crawl. This is the most common reason customers believe the data is incorrect. 🔍 Why Your Scores May Look Incorrect or Outdated Before reporting a problem, it helps to know the typical causes of inaccurate or stale Authority Scores: - Pending data refresh: Scores recalculate on a regular cycle. Recent changes may not yet appear. - Disconnected integrations: If Google Search Console or Google Analytics has lost its connection, the tool cannot pull current performance data. - Incorrect project settings: A wrong domain, location, or language in your project can pull data for the wrong site or market. - Crawl restrictions: Pages blocked by robots.txt, noindex tags, or login walls cannot be read, lowering the score. - Cached browser data: Your browser may be displaying an old version of the dashboard. - New or low-content pillars: Pillars with few supporting pages naturally show lower scores until more content is added. - Dashboard vs. AI Agent figures: A score shown in the AI Agent or in a generated report may temporarily differ from the dashboard while data is syncing across views. This can also affect related metrics such as AI Visibility (formerly LLM Visibility) and Sentiment.​ 🛠️ Steps to Refresh and Verify Your Data​ Work through these steps in order. Most score issues are resolved within the first few checks. 1. Confirm project settings: Open your project and verify the domain, target country, and language are correct. 2. Check your integrations: Make sure Google Search Console and Google Analytics are connected and authorized. Reconnect any that show an error. 3. Refresh the data: Use the refresh or re-crawl option within the OTTO SEO tool to request an updated calculation. 4. Clear your cache: Log out, clear your browser cache, then log back in. You can also test in an incognito or private window. 5. Allow time to process: After requesting a refresh, give the system time to recrawl and recalculate before reviewing the scores again. 6. Compare against the source: Cross-check the figures with your connected Search Console data to confirm whether the difference is real or a display delay.​ ⏱️ How Often Scores Update​ Authority Scores are recalculated on a recurring schedule, not in real time. After publishing new content, improving existing pages, or fixing a technical issue, expect to wait through at least one full refresh cycle before the change is reflected. Repeatedly requesting refreshes in a short period will not speed up the process and may reset the timer. 🐞 Known Issues We've Resolved​ If your scores look wrong, check whether your situation matches one of the issues below. These were previously reported by customers and have since been fixed, so the first step is to request a refresh and confirm you are on the latest data: - Scores stuck at or dropping to 0: Content, Authority, and UX signals showing 0 — including an Authority Score dropping to 0 after a weekly analysis — even while a site scan was active. This occurred in cases where the primary data API returned 0 with no fallback in place. These issues have been resolved. - Score showing 100/100 incorrectly: An Authority Score reading 100% on a new domain with no activity, or on pillars made up mostly of platform-generated content (including in AI Agent V2). This has been corrected. - Dashboard, AI Agent, and report mismatches: Discrepancies where the dashboard, the AI Agent results, and Report Builder showed different values for the same metrics — including AI Visibility (formerly LLM Visibility) and Sentiment, and discrepancies noticed during Agentic Onboarding when comparing against the dashboard. Related Report Builder report delivery problems were also fixed. These data-consistency issues have been addressed.​ If you still see any of these behaviors after a full refresh cycle, report it to our team so we can check your specific project. ​ 💡 Tips to Keep Scores Accurate​ - Keep your integrations connected and re-authorize them whenever you change Google account passwords. - Ensure important pages are crawlable and not blocked by noindex or robots.txt rules. - Maintain consistent project settings so the tool always reads the correct domain and market. - Build out each pillar with relevant, high-quality content to strengthen its score over time. - Review scores after a full refresh cycle rather than immediately after making changes.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🛠️ Signal Genesys: Fixing an Invalid Publish Date Error on Press Releases

Overview If you receive an "Invalid publish date" error when trying to publish a press release in Signal Genesys, the date entered in the publish date field is either incorrectly formatted, set in the past, or missing entirely. This article shows you where to find the publish date field and how to correct it to resolve the error. What the Error Means Signal Genesys validates the publish date before submitting a press release to distribution partners. The invalid publish date error appears when: - The date is set in the past — press releases must be scheduled for today or a future date and time. - The date format does not match the expected format for your region. - The publish date field was left blank. - A previously scheduled release was never published and its scheduled date has now passed. Where to Find the Publish Date Field 1. Open the press release you want to publish inside Signal Genesys. 2. In the press release editor, look for the Article Details, Distribution Settings, or Settings panel — this is typically located in the right-hand sidebar or at the top of the editing form. 3. Locate the field labeled Publish Date or Publication Date. 4. Click the field to open the date and time picker. Note: If you do not see the Publish Date field immediately, scroll down within the settings panel — it may appear below other metadata fields such as Category or Tags. How to Fix the Invalid Publish Date Error 1. Click the Publish Date field to open the date picker. 2. Select today's date or any future date. 3. If a time field is also present, ensure the time is set to a future time when using today's date. 4. Click Save, Update, or Apply to confirm the change within the editor. 5. Attempt to publish the press release again — the error should no longer appear. Additional Tips - If the date picker does not accept your input, try typing the date manually using the format shown in the placeholder text (commonly MM/DD/YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD). - Ensure your browser's timezone matches your intended publish timezone — Signal Genesys evaluates dates against server time. - If the publish date field appears greyed out or read-only, the press release may be in a locked or processing state. Cancel the current submission attempt, return to the draft, update the date, and resubmit. - For releases stuck in a Pending state with an expired date, create a new draft rather than attempting to republish the old entry. Still Getting the Error? If you have set a valid future date and the error persists, contact Search Atlas Support via the in-app Help Widget. Provide the title of the press release, the date and time you are trying to set, and a screenshot of the error message if possible. Related Articles - Signal Genesys (Press Release Distribution & GBP Deployment) - Search Atlas — Signal Genesys (Press & PR) Issues - Create a Press Release in Search Atlas - Core Components of a Press Release: Structure and Formatting Guide

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🛠️ Resolving Errors When Publishing a Press Release

If you see an error when publishing a Press Release, it usually means a required field is missing, the content does not meet distribution guidelines, or your account is short on credits. This guide walks you through the most common causes and how to fix each one so your release publishes successfully. ✅ Before You Start Most publishing errors can be prevented by confirming a few basics first: - You are signed in to the correct workspace. - Your subscription is active and you have at least one available Press Release credit. - Your release includes a title, body content, and a target URL. - Your internet connection is stable. 🔧 Common Errors and How to Fix Them 1️⃣ Missing or Incomplete Required Fields This is the most frequent cause of a failed publish. The system blocks submission if any required field is empty. 1. Open your Press Release draft. 2. Check that the title, summary, and main body are all filled in. 3. Confirm you have added at least one valid anchor text and target URL. 4. Confirm the country field is set, as it is required for distribution. 5. Make sure the target URL begins with https:// and points to a live, public page. 6. Save your changes and try publishing again. If you receive an error stating the country field is empty even though it is filled in, this was a known issue that has since been fixed. Refresh the page and try publishing again, and contact Search Atlas Support if it persists. 2️⃣ Content Does Not Meet Distribution Guidelines Press Release distribution networks (Signal Genesys) apply editorial standards. Releases may be rejected if they contain prohibited content. - Remove promotional or sales-heavy language (for example, "buy now" or pricing-only content). - Avoid adult, gambling, or other restricted topics. - Ensure the content is original and written in a news or announcement style. - Keep the body within the recommended word count (typically 400–800 words). - Check that links point to legitimate, working pages and not redirects or shorteners. 3️⃣ Insufficient Credits or Plan Limits Publishing requires available Press Release credits. The number of credits required depends on the distribution channel you select (for example, some channels cost more credits than others), so a release that needs more credits than you have available will fail, often with the message "Signal Genesys: Insufficient credits!". 1. Open your account billing or usage page. 2. Review your remaining Press Release credits and compare them to the credits required by your chosen distribution channel. 3. If you have too few, upgrade your plan or purchase additional credits. 4. Return to your draft and publish once enough credits are available. 4️⃣ Invalid or Unreachable Target URL If the URL you are linking to cannot be reached, the release will not publish. - Open the target URL in a new browser tab to confirm it loads. - Remove any password protection or "noindex" restrictions on the page. - Replace any broken or staging URLs with a live, public address. 5️⃣ Image Upload Errors An oversized, unsupported, or missing image can stop publishing. - Use PNG or JPG format. - Keep the file under 2 MB and at least 300×300 pixels. - Re-upload the image and confirm it appears in the preview before publishing. You may occasionally see "WEBP is not supported by Signal Genesys. Please upload JPG or PNG" even when your original image is a JPG or PNG. This happened because AI-generated or imported images were sometimes stored internally as WEBP. This has been fixed so eligible images are converted automatically; if you still see it, re-upload the image and try again. If you see "Missing images: The press release requires at least one image in order to be deployed" even though images are present, this could occur when images were added to the Knowledge Graph after the release content was generated. This has been resolved so images on the linked Knowledge Graph are now picked up at publish time. If you encounter it on an older draft, open the editor and re-attach the image before publishing. 6️⃣ Session Timeout or Temporary Glitch Occasionally an error is caused by an expired session or a brief connection issue. 1. Refresh the page and confirm you are still signed in. 2. Clear your browser cache or try an incognito/private window. 3. Switch to a supported browser such as Chrome or Firefox. 4. Attempt to publish again. 7️⃣ Distribution Channel Not Available If a previous publish attempt failed partway through, a leftover "coming soon" distribution channel can be attached to your release and cause a retry to fail with an error such as "Distribution channel <name> is not available" — even though you never selected that channel. - This has been fixed so unavailable "coming soon" channels are excluded automatically, and retrying the publish should now succeed. - If you still see this error, contact Search Atlas Support with your draft details so the stale channel can be cleared. 💬 Still Seeing an Error? If you have worked through the steps above and the release still will not publish, gather a few details to help our team resolve it faster: - The exact error message text (a screenshot is ideal). - The name or ID of the Press Release draft. - The date and time you attempted to publish. - The browser you are using. Send these details to Search Atlas Support through the in-app chat or your support email, and our team will investigate and help you publish your release.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔗 How to Audit and Reduce a Client's High Spam Score

If you've just onboarded a client with a high spam score, Search Atlas gives you the tools to audit their backlink profile, identify harmful links, and take targeted action to reduce that score over time. This article walks you through exactly how to do that — including what the data means and how to confirm your efforts are working. 🛠️ Step-by-Step 1. Open the Site Explorer tool. In the left sidebar, go to Site Metrics → Backlinks (Organic Research) and open it. Enter your client's domain in the search field and run the analysis. This pulls a full picture of the domain's backlink profile. 2. Navigate to the Backlinks report. Once the domain analysis loads, find the Backlinks section of the report. This lists every detected inbound link pointing to the client's site, along with associated metrics such as domain authority, spam score, and anchor text. 3. Sort or filter by Spam Score. Find the Spam Score in the Domain Metrics panel (Site Metrics → Backlinks (Organic Research)), shown as a domain-level metric rather than a column in the backlinks table. Sort by this column in descending order so the highest-risk links appear at the top. A spam score of 30% or higher on a linking domain is generally a strong signal of a toxic or low-quality link source. 4. Identify toxic link patterns. As you review high-score links, note the following red flags: exact-match anchor text repeated across many referring domains, links from domains with no real content or clear link-farm structure, and links from domains flagged across multiple spam indicators simultaneously. Prioritize links where spam score is high and the linking domain has very low authority. 5. Export the toxic link list. Use the export option in the backlinks report to download the list. This file will serve as the basis for your disavow file or your outreach-for-removal list. 6. Build and submit a disavow file. For links you cannot have removed manually, compile the domains (not individual URLs, unless needed) into a disavow file formatted to Google's specifications. Submit this file through Google Search Console under the Legacy Tools and Reports section. Note: disavow file effects are not instant — allow several weeks for Google to process the file and recrawl affected pages. 7. Use Authority Building to strengthen clean signals. In parallel with link removal, build high-quality backlinks through Search Atlas's Authority Building features to improve the ratio of clean links to toxic ones. A stronger clean backlink profile helps dilute residual spam signals over time. ✅ How to Confirm It Worked Return to the Site Explorer and re-run the domain analysis for your client after 4–6 weeks. Compare the current spam score reading against your baseline from step one. A successful cleanup typically shows a measurable reduction in overall spam score and fewer high-risk domains appearing in the backlinks table. Additionally, check Google Search Console for any manual action notices — if a manual penalty related to unnatural links was present, you should see it lifted once the disavow and removal process has taken effect. Track domain authority trends week-over-week as a secondary indicator: stabilization or improvement suggests the profile is recovering. If the spam score remains unchanged after 6–8 weeks, revisit the backlinks report to check whether new toxic links have appeared, which may indicate the client's site is still being targeted by negative SEO. 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. Additional Notes Topical Relevance sub-tool: links from topically unrelated domains compound spam risk even if raw spam score is moderate. Backlink Velocity sub-tool: sudden link acquisition spikes from low-quality domains can trigger algorithmic penalties; correlate spikes with ranking drops.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

📘 Why You Might Not See PR News Sites in Google SERPs

🔍 Why Aren't PR Articles Showing Up in Google SERPs? It's completely normal not to see all, or any, of your media and PR articles directly in Google's search results (SERPs). This is intentional and part of how our PR distribution technology, powered by Signal Genesys, is engineered to drive maximum SEO value where it matters most: your website and Google Business Profile. This is by design. Our syndication process is optimized to rank your domain and GBP listing, not the duplicate media articles themselves. Visibility in SERPs for PR links is not a sign of success and is not how SEO value is measured in our system. ⚙️ What's Really Happening Behind the Scenes Signal Genesys uses a proprietary syndication and signal-distribution method that: - Submits content to hundreds of media outlets - Sends powerful trust and authority signals to your target assets - Avoids duplicate content penalties by limiting how many versions appear in SERPs Google's algorithm intentionally filters out duplicate content in its public-facing search results. That does not mean your content is not indexed or isn't providing value. 🗂️ Does This Mean Google Didn't Index My PR Pages? No. Even if you don't see the PR pages in search results, Google has: 1. Crawled the pages 2. Rendered the content 3. Indexed the source and signals 4. Assigned authority and trust to your website and GBP listing Google's public-facing index (what you see in SERPs) is only a small slice of what it actually indexes. Indexation does not equal visibility in SERPs. 📈 The Real KPI: Your Website & Map Pack Rankings You hired us to rank your domain and your Google Business Profile. That's exactly what our system is built to do. - Our process boosts local map pack performance - Enhances organic search ranking of your actual site - Drives lasting value that PR visibility alone cannot match ✅ Next Steps: How to Maximize Your Results - Focus on tracking your own website's rankings, not PR article appearances - Review the Signal Genesys Blueprint to ensure your SEO strategy is on track - If desired, you can use third-party tools to force additional crawling of media links, but it's not required for SEO performance 💡 Pro Tip Don't fall into the trap of using "indexed PR pages" as your success metric. Trust the system and focus on what really grows traffic, revenue, and retention: your own digital properties. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🖼️ Fixing OTTO vs Press Release Image Count

📌 What This Article Covers When you launch a traditional press release, OTTO validates your Knowledge Graph (which OTTO may refer to as your Brand Vault) before the campaign can go live. Sometimes OTTO reports more images than you can see in your Knowledge Graph editor. For example, you may see 3 images on screen while OTTO flags 5. This article explains why that happens and how to reconcile the count so your campaign can launch. 🤔 Why the Image Counts Differ Your Knowledge Graph stores images from several places, and not all of them appear in the main visible gallery. OTTO counts every image record attached to the Knowledge Graph, while the editor usually shows only the primary, visible images. Common reasons for a higher OTTO count include: - Logo and profile images that are stored separately from the main gallery. Logos are also validated for their dimensions when loaded from the Knowledge Graph, so they count as image records even though they sit outside the gallery. - Images pulled from connected sources such as a linked website, social profile, or business listing. - Previously uploaded images that were replaced but not fully removed. - Duplicate entries created when the same image was added more than once. Because these images still exist in the record, OTTO includes them in its total even when they are not shown in the visible gallery. Keep in mind that the press release tool enforces a maximum number of images. If the Knowledge Graph holds more image records than the press release allows, validation will treat it as a blocker and stop the campaign from launching until the extra images are removed. 🔍 How to Review Every Stored Image Follow these steps to see the full list of images OTTO is counting: 1. Open the Knowledge Graph for your project. 2. Enter edit mode so all fields are visible. 3. Scroll through each section, including logo, profile image, and any gallery or media sections. 4. Check any fields linked to connected sources, as these can add images automatically. 5. Compare the total number of stored images against the count OTTO reported. This helps you find the images that are counted but not shown in the main view. 🛠️ How to Align the Image Count Once you have located all stored images, adjust them to match what the press release requires: 1. Remove duplicates: delete any repeated images so each appears only once. 2. Delete outdated images: remove replaced or unused images that are still attached. 3. Stay within the image limit: if OTTO's count is higher than the press release allows, remove the extra records so the total no longer exceeds the maximum. 4. Add missing images: if the press release needs more images, upload high-quality files that represent your brand. 5. Save your changes so the Knowledge Graph updates. After saving, return to OTTO and refresh the validation. The image count should now reflect your updates. 🚀 Relaunching Your Press Release With the counts aligned, you can activate your campaign: 1. Reopen the press release setup. 2. Confirm the image validation now passes. 3. Complete any remaining required fields. 4. Click activate to launch the campaign. If OTTO still reports a mismatch after saving, refresh the page and allow a short time for the Knowledge Graph to sync before trying again. 💡 Tips to Prevent Future Mismatches - Keep only the images you actively use in your Knowledge Graph. - Remove old images instead of leaving them attached when replacing them. - Review connected sources, as they can add images automatically. - Check the full image list before launching any campaign, and confirm it stays within the press release's image limit. 💬 Need More Help If you need further assistance, click the chat icon in the bottom-right corner of the platform to start a live chat with a member of our team.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🚀 Fix a Stuck Quest LLM Digital PR Campaign

🔍 Overview The Quest AI Visibility (formerly LLM Visibility) tool inside the Authority module lets you run AI-powered Digital PR campaigns that pitch your content to language models. If your campaign is stuck on Paused — even after a support team member has said the issue was resolved — this article walks you through the most common causes and the steps to fix them. 📍 How to Find Your Campaign 1. Open Search Atlas and click Authority in the left sidebar. 2. Select QUEST AI Visibility (formerly LLM Visibility) from the sub-menu. 3. Locate your campaign in the table. Check the status column for Paused. ⚠️ Common Reasons a Campaign Gets Stuck on Paused - Credit balance dropped below the required threshold — even briefly. The system pauses a campaign the moment credits fall short and does not always auto-resume when credits are topped up. - No active contacts selected — a campaign needs at least one valid contact assigned before it can run. - Campaign saved in draft state — if the setup wizard was closed before the final confirmation step, the campaign remains paused. - A recent platform update reset campaign states — UI and styling migrations can occasionally affect campaign status flags. Our engineering team actively monitors and resolves these cases. - Contact list issues — invalid, duplicate, or unverified contacts can prevent delivery and trigger an automatic pause. 🛠️ Step-by-Step Troubleshooting 1. Check your credit balance. Go to the top-right avatar → Billing (Plans & Top-ups) and confirm you have enough credits for the campaign scope. If your balance is sufficient but the campaign is still paused, continue to the next step. 2. Manually resume the campaign. In Authority → PR Distribution (Press Releases), find your release row and click the Resume link/button directly in that row. If the row is not visible, try refreshing the page — a recent fix addressed missing column headers in this table. 3. Verify your contact selection. Open the campaign and review the contacts assigned to it. Make sure at least one contact is active and verified. Remove any contacts marked as invalid or bounced. 4. Re-save the campaign. Open the campaign editor, review each step of the setup wizard, and click Save or Confirm on the final step. This forces the system to re-evaluate the campaign state. 5. Check the Campaigns sub-page. Navigate to Authority → Campaigns for a full list of all campaign statuses. Compare the status here with what you see in QUEST AI Visibility (formerly LLM Visibility) to rule out a display discrepancy. 6. Review Sent and Inbox logs. Go to Authority → Sent and Authority → Inbox to confirm whether any outreach was delivered before the pause. This helps identify exactly when the campaign stopped. 👥 How to Review and Update Contact Selection Correct contact selection is critical for a Digital PR campaign to run successfully. Follow these steps to audit your contacts: 1. Open your campaign from Authority → QUEST AI Visibility (formerly LLM Visibility). 2. Navigate to the Contacts or Sources step inside the campaign editor. 3. Confirm that all listed contacts have a verified status. Remove or replace any that are flagged as invalid. 4. Add new contacts if the list is empty. Use relevant, niche-specific contacts to maximise campaign reach. 5. Save your changes and attempt to resume the campaign. ✅ What to Do If the Campaign Is Still Paused If you have followed all the steps above and the campaign remains stuck on Paused, the issue may require a backend investigation by our team. This can happen after platform updates that affect campaign state flags — our engineering team resolves these on a case-by-case basis. 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. When you reach out, have the following ready to speed up the investigation: - Campaign name and the date it was last active - A screenshot of the current status in QUEST AI Visibility (formerly LLM Visibility) and in Campaigns - Your current credit balance - Any error messages displayed in the Actions menu or campaign editor

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔗 Fix the Approved Backlink Opposite Direction Error

🧭 Overview When approving outlinks in Wildfire, you may see this error: "There is already an approved backlink in the opposite direction." This means the platform has detected an existing approved link from the target domain pointing back to your site — and is blocking a reciprocal link to prevent circular linking arrangements. However, some users report that the domain flagged in the error does not appear in their visible backlinks list. This article explains what the error means, why there may be a visibility gap, and what to do next. ⚠️ What This Error Means Wildfire prevents outlinks from being approved when a backlink from the target domain to your site already exists in the system and has been approved. This is a built-in safeguard. When the error appears, it means one of the following is true: - A backlink from that domain was approved previously and is recorded in the system, even if it is not currently visible in your backlinks list. - The backlink data on screen has not yet refreshed to reflect the current state of the database. - The domain appears in a campaign or outreach record that is connected to your account but not displayed in the standard backlinks view. 🔍 Why the Domain May Not Appear in Your Backlinks List There are a few reasons the flagged domain might not show up when you look at your backlinks: - Display lag: The backlinks list may not have updated to reflect the most recent approvals. Try refreshing the page before investigating further. - Filtered view: Active filters on your backlinks list may be hiding the domain. Check that no domain, status, or date filters are applied. - Data source difference: Wildfire's approval logic pulls from the full system database. Your visible backlinks list may show a subset depending on your current view settings. - Cross-campaign records: If your account includes multiple campaigns, the backlink may be associated with a different campaign than the one you are currently viewing. 🛠️ Troubleshooting Steps 1. Refresh the page and attempt the approval again. Confirm the error still appears before proceeding. 2. Check your backlinks list with no filters applied. Go to More Features → Backlinks → Backlink Research and search for the flagged domain directly. Remove any active filters to ensure you are seeing all records. 3. Search across all campaigns. Navigate to Left sidebar → Authority → Campaigns and check whether the domain appears in a different campaign's outreach or inbox history. 4. Check your Inbox and Sent records. Go to Left sidebar → Authority → Inbox and Left sidebar → Authority → Sent to look for any prior communication or approval tied to that domain. 5. Clear browser cache and reload the platform. Stale cached data can sometimes cause list views to display outdated records. 6. Try a different browser or incognito window to rule out local browser issues affecting what is displayed. 📋 If You Still Cannot Find the Domain If you have followed the steps above and the flagged domain still does not appear anywhere in your account, this may indicate a data inconsistency that requires manual investigation by our team. Do not attempt to work around the error by re-submitting the outlink — this will not bypass the validation and may cause additional issues. To help our team investigate quickly, please capture the following before reaching out: - A screen recording or screenshot showing the exact error message and the domain name it references. - A screenshot of your Backlink Research with the domain searched and no filters applied, showing no results. - The campaign name and outlink you were trying to approve when the error appeared. A Jam screen recording (jam.dev) is the most effective way to capture this information in one step, as it records your screen along with network activity that can help our team diagnose the root cause. ✅ Summary The "approved backlink in the opposite direction" error is a real validation check — not a system glitch — but a mismatch between the error and your visible backlinks list is a legitimate issue that warrants investigation. Always check across all campaigns and filter states before concluding the domain is missing, and contact our team with recorded evidence if the problem persists. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔗 Link Laboratory: What to Do When Your Assigned Publication Becomes Inactive

When a publication assigned to your Link Laboratory order is deactivated, Search Atlas automatically detects the conflict, pauses your order, and emails you with replacement options. Select a replacement directly from that email and your order resumes without any manual support request. ⚠️ Why You Received This Notification In Link Laboratory, each order is matched to a specific publication for content placement. After an order is assigned, a publication can be deactivated — for example, if it no longer meets network quality standards or has been removed from the Search Atlas publisher network. When this happens, Search Atlas automatically detects the conflict and pauses your order. You receive a notification email immediately so you can choose a replacement and keep the order moving. No action has been taken on your content yet. 📋 What the Notification Email Includes - The name of the affected Link Laboratory order - The name of the publication that became inactive - A curated list of alternative publications you can choose from - A direct link to select your replacement and confirm the reassignment ⚙️ How to Select a Replacement Publication 1. Open the inactive-publication notification email from Search Atlas. 2. Review the alternative publications listed. Each option displays the publication name and relevant metrics so you can compare quality and fit. 3. Click Select next to the publication you want. 4. Confirm your choice when prompted. Your order is reassigned immediately. A confirmation message appears on screen, and the updated publication assignment is reflected in your Link Laboratory dashboard. 📊 What Happens to Your Order After You Choose Once you confirm a replacement publication, your order re-enters the normal Link Laboratory fulfillment workflow. All original order details — content, anchor text, and target URL — carry over to the new publication automatically. Nothing needs to be re-entered. If none of the alternative publications meet your requirements, contact the Search Atlas support team directly from your dashboard to request additional options. 💡 Tips for Choosing the Best Replacement - Compare domain authority and traffic metrics between the alternatives before selecting. - Choose a publication in the same niche as your original to preserve topical relevance for your link. - Act promptly — your order remains paused until you make a selection. 🎯 You now know how to handle an inactive-publication alert in Link Laboratory — select a replacement from the notification email and your order resumes automatically. For a full overview of how Link Laboratory orders are placed and managed, see the Link Laboratory Overview article.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

Fix Gmail SMTP Authentication Errors in Authority

🔍 Overview When connecting a Gmail account to Authority's Digital PR outreach features, some customers see an SMTP authentication failed error even after generating a Google App Password. This article explains why this happens and walks you through the steps to resolve it. ⚙️ Why This Error Occurs Google no longer allows standard password-based login for third-party apps. To connect Gmail to Authority, you must meet all three of the following requirements: - Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) must be enabled on your Google account. - You must generate a dedicated Google App Password — your regular Gmail password will not work. - The App Password must be entered exactly as Google displays it, with no extra spaces. If any one of these conditions is not met, SMTP authentication will fail. 🛠️ Step-by-Step Fix 1. Enable 2-Step Verification on your Google account. Go to myaccount.google.com → Security → 2-Step Verification and follow the prompts to turn it on. App Passwords are only available after this step is complete. 2. Generate a Google App Password. Go to myaccount.google.com → Security → App Passwords (you may need to search "App Passwords" in the search bar at the top). Select Mail as the app and Other (Custom name) as the device — name it something like "Search Atlas". Click Generate. 3. Copy the 16-character password exactly. Google will display a 16-character code. Copy it carefully. Do not add spaces, even though Google displays it in groups of four. 4. Navigate to the email connection settings in Authority. Locate the option within Authority to connect or edit your email account for outreach. 5. Enter your Gmail address and the App Password. In the password field for your email connection, paste the 16-character App Password you generated — not your regular Gmail password. Save your settings. If the connection succeeds, you will see a confirmation and your Gmail account will be active for outreach. 🚫 Common Mistakes to Avoid - Using your regular Gmail password: This will always fail. Only App Passwords work for third-party SMTP connections. - Skipping 2FA: Google hides the App Passwords section entirely if 2-Step Verification is not enabled. - Pasting the password with spaces: The 16-character code must be entered without spaces, even though Google shows it as four groups of four characters. - Using a Google Workspace account without admin approval: If your account is managed by an organisation, your admin may need to enable App Passwords at the domain level before you can generate one. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔗 Troubleshoot a Link Laboratory Order Issue

🔍 Overview Link Laboratory is the link-building order center inside Search Atlas. If your order appears stuck, unconfirmed, or is not progressing as expected, this article explains what to do and how to escalate effectively so the support team can resolve your issue as quickly as possible. ⚠️ Common Order Problems - Order shows no status update: Orders can take time to move through the fulfilment pipeline. Allow up to the estimated timeframe shown on your order before escalating. - Order appears stuck or pending: This may indicate a technical issue that requires investigation by the Search Atlas team. - Order not visible in your dashboard: Confirm you are viewing the correct workspace. If you manage multiple projects, switch to the relevant project from within the platform. - Unexpected order status change: Check any in-platform notifications or messages associated with your account for any related communications. 🛠️ How to Escalate a Link Laboratory Order Issue Because Link Laboratory order issues may involve backend processing that cannot be resolved through self-serve steps alone, the most effective path is to contact the support team directly. To help the team investigate and resolve your issue as quickly as possible, please have the following information ready before you reach out: - Your project or workspace name — the specific Search Atlas project the order is associated with. - The order details — including the target URL, anchor text, and any other details visible on the order. - A description of the problem — for example, what status the order is currently showing, how long it has been in that state, and any error messages you have seen (copied exactly as displayed). - The approximate date and time the issue was first noticed. - Any relevant screenshots — if you are able to capture the order view showing the unexpected status or missing information, this will speed up the investigation. Having these details ready when you contact support will allow the team to look into the backend status of your order without back-and-forth delays. 📋 Before You Escalate — Quick Checks 1. Confirm you are in the correct workspace: If you manage multiple projects, make sure you are viewing the project where the order was placed. 2. Check for in-platform notifications or messages: Your account may have received a communication from the Search Atlas team regarding an action required on your order. 3. Verify your billing information is current: If payment did not complete, the order may not have entered the fulfilment queue. Check your account settings to confirm your billing details are up to date. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

Digital PR Outreach Blocked Despite Available Credits

Overview Some accounts have a configuration setting that prevents the Digital PR email connection feature from being activated. When this setting is missing, your campaign will appear as Paused and any attempt to start outreach will fail with an error — even if you have sufficient credits available. This is a backend account configuration issue, not a problem with your campaign setup or credit balance. Symptoms - Your Digital PR campaign shows a Paused status. - Clicking the option to start outreach does nothing or returns an error. - You have enough credits but the feature remains inaccessible. - Reconnecting your email account or refreshing the page does not resolve the issue. How to Confirm This Is Your Issue 1. Navigate to your Digital PR campaigns and open the affected campaign. 2. Confirm the campaign status shows Paused and that starting outreach produces no result or triggers an error. 3. Verify your credit balance is sufficient for outreach by checking your account quota information. 4. If both conditions are true — campaign is paused and credits are available — the issue is very likely a disabled account-level feature flag that only our support team can escalate to an admin to enable. How to Fix It This issue requires a Search Atlas admin to enable the Digital PR email connection feature flag for your specific account. Because this is a backend configuration change, you will need to contact our support team to get it resolved. Here is how to do that as efficiently as possible: 1. Open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and start a conversation with our support team. 2. In your message, include: - The name of the affected campaign. - Your account email address. - Confirmation that your credits are available but outreach cannot be started. - A screenshot of the error or Paused status if possible — this helps our team locate your account and escalate faster. 3. Our support team will identify the disabled feature flag on your account and escalate to an admin to enable the Digital PR email connection on the backend. 4. Once our team confirms the fix has been applied, return to your Digital PR campaign and attempt to start outreach again. 5. If outreach still does not start after the flag has been enabled, reply in the same chat thread so our team can verify the change took effect on your account. Why Self-Service Is Not Possible for This Issue The feature flag that controls Digital PR email connection access is set at the backend account level and cannot be toggled from within the platform interface. There are no settings in your account dashboard that will resolve this — the change must be made by a Search Atlas admin. Contacting support is the only path to resolution, and our team is equipped to escalate and apply the fix on your behalf.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔗 GSC vs Site Explorer: Understanding Backlink Discrepancies

🔍 Overview If you have ever compared the backlink or referring domain counts in Google Search Console (GSC) with those shown in Search Atlas Site Explorer, you have likely noticed the numbers do not match. This is expected behaviour — the two tools use fundamentally different data sources. Understanding why they differ, and knowing what to do about toxic links that GSC does not surface, will help you make smarter decisions for your site's authority and rankings. 📡 Why GSC and Site Explorer Use Different Data Google Search Console shows backlink data pulled directly from Google's own index. It reflects only the links that Google has crawled, processed, and chosen to associate with your site at a given point in time. Because Google selectively crawls the web and continuously updates its index, GSC will often show fewer links than third-party tools — and it does not expose every link Google is aware of. Search Atlas Site Explorer (Left sidebar → Site Metrics → Backlinks (Site Explorer), URL: /site-explorer/list) aggregates backlink data from multiple independent crawl sources. This multi-source approach means it captures a broader universe of links pointing to your domain, including many that Google has crawled but not surfaced in GSC, links from recently indexed pages, and links from lower-authority or potentially harmful sources that GSC deliberately omits from its reporting. ⚖️ Key Reasons the Counts Differ - Crawl coverage: Site Explorer's crawlers visit a wider range of pages more frequently than what GSC reports back to site owners. - Google's selective reporting: GSC does not show all links Google knows about — it surfaces a representative sample, which may exclude spammy or low-quality sources. - Data freshness windows: GSC data can lag by weeks; Site Explorer indexes new links faster in many cases. - Link status filtering: GSC may drop lost or disavowed links from its visible count sooner than third-party tools refresh their records. - Referring domain deduplication: Each tool applies its own logic for grouping subdomains and root domains, which causes referring domain counts to diverge even when raw link counts are similar. In short: neither tool is wrong. They are measuring overlapping but not identical datasets. Use GSC for a baseline of what Google officially associates with your site, and use Site Explorer for a fuller audit of your link profile — especially when hunting for toxic links. ☠️ Do Toxic Backlinks GSC Doesn't Show Still Hurt Rankings? Yes — and this became especially important after Google's Link Spam Update (December 2021) and its subsequent reinforcements. Google's systems now automatically neutralise many spammy links by ignoring them rather than penalising sites for them. However, this neutralisation is not guaranteed for every toxic link, and sites with large concentrations of manipulative or low-quality links can still experience: - Manual actions flagged in GSC under Security & Manual Actions, even for links GSC does not display in its backlink report. - Algorithmic suppression where Google's spam systems reduce the positive signal weight of your entire link profile. - Reputational risk if your link profile is audited during a manual review. Because GSC does not show you every link Google has crawled, a toxic backlink that is absent from GSC's report is not necessarily being ignored by Google's ranking systems. Site Explorer's broader dataset gives you visibility into these hidden risks. 🛡️ When and How to Use the Disavow Tool Google's Disavow Tool should be used responsibly and sparingly. Misusing it — for example, disavowing healthy links — can actively harm your rankings. Follow these guidelines: 1. Run a full backlink audit in Site Explorer. Navigate to Left sidebar → Site Metrics → Backlinks (Site Explorer) to review your referring domains and identify patterns of spammy anchor text, low Domain Authority sources, or link networks. 2. Attempt manual removal first. Use Search Atlas's outreach tools (Left sidebar → Authority → Campaigns and Left sidebar → Authority → Inbox) to contact site owners and request link removal before disavowing. 3. Build your disavow file only for confirmed toxic links. Disavow at the domain level (domain:example.com) when an entire domain is problematic. Disavow at the URL level only when a specific page is harmful but the rest of the domain is clean. 4. Submit your disavow file in GSC. Go to Google's Disavow Links Tool page, select your property, and upload the formatted .txt file. Google recommends disavowing only if you have received a manual action or have clear evidence of a past link-building campaign that violated guidelines. 5. Do not disavow links simply because they appear in Site Explorer but not GSC. A link missing from GSC's report may already be ignored by Google. Only disavow links you have reason to believe are manipulative or part of a scheme. ✅ Best Practice Summary - Use GSC as your official Google-perspective baseline for backlink health and manual action alerts. - Use Search Atlas Site Explorer for comprehensive link auditing and toxic link discovery. - Treat count discrepancies between the two tools as normal — focus on link quality, not volume. - After the 2021 Link Spam Update, Google neutralises many spammy links automatically, but large-scale toxic profiles can still trigger manual reviews. - Reserve the Disavow Tool for confirmed manipulation cases or post-penalty cleanup, and always attempt outreach removal first. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔍 Fix Toxic Backlinks After an SEO Decline

🧭 Overview If your site experienced an SEO decline after a backlink campaign — including one run through Wildfire — toxic or spammy backlinks may be the cause. This article walks you through finding the Backlink Analyzer inside Search Atlas, identifying harmful links, and disavowing them so Google stops counting them against your site. 📍 How to Locate the Backlink Analyzer The Backlink Analyzer is available inside Search Atlas. To access it: 1. Log in to your Search Atlas account. 2. Navigate to the Backlink Analyzer by clicking the apps-grid icon in the top-right header, then selecting More Features → Backlinks (Backlink Research). 3. Select the domain or project you want to audit. 4. Open the backlink report for that domain to begin your audit. Important: The Backlink Analyzer is project-specific. Make sure you have the correct client domain selected before running an audit. If you manage multiple workspaces, confirm you are in the correct workspace before proceeding. ⚠️ Common Access Issues - I do not see the Backlink Analyzer in the sidebar. Your account plan may not include this feature, or your user role may have restricted access. Contact your account owner to verify your permissions. - The domain I need is not listed. You may need to add it as a new project within Search Atlas. Look for an option to add or create a new site or project and enter the root domain. - I am in the wrong workspace. Switch workspaces using the workspace selector in the sidebar, then repeat the navigation steps above. 🔎 Identifying Toxic Backlinks Once you are inside the Backlink Analyzer for your domain, review your full backlink profile to surface harmful links: 1. Load the backlink profile for the selected domain. 2. Filter or sort your backlinks to bring low-quality or suspicious links to the top. 3. Look for links with indicators of low quality, such as high spam signals, irrelevant anchor text, or links from clearly unrelated or low-authority domains. 4. Flag or select the suspicious backlinks you want to disavow. 5. Export or compile your list of flagged links — you will need this to create your disavow file. Pay close attention to any backlinks acquired through recent campaigns, including those run through Wildfire, as bulk link-building activity can sometimes introduce spammy referring domains. 📄 Creating and Submitting a Disavow File Once you have identified the toxic backlinks you want to remove from Google's consideration, follow these steps: 1. Compile your flagged links into a plain text (.txt) disavow file, listing one URL or domain per line. Use the domain: prefix (e.g., domain:example.com) to disavow an entire domain. 2. Go to the Google Search Console Disavow Tool (search for it at search.google.com/search-console/disavow-links) and select your property. 3. Upload your disavow file and confirm the submission. 4. Allow several weeks for Google to reprocess your backlink profile and for any ranking improvements to reflect in your site's performance data. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

📰 Fix Signal Genesys Press Release Embed Code

📋 Overview If your press releases are not displaying on your website, or you are unsure where to find the embed code inside Signal Genesys, this article walks you through the exact steps to locate the snippet and resolve the most common loading issues. 🔍 Where to Find Your Press Release Embed Code Follow these steps to locate the embed code inside your Signal Genesys account: 1. Log in to your Signal Genesys account at app.signalgenesys.io. 2. In the left-hand navigation, click Media Room. 3. Select the Embed or Widget tab — the exact label may vary depending on your plan. 4. Copy the full code snippet displayed in the box. Make sure you copy everything from the opening tag to the closing tag without leaving anything out. 5. Paste the snippet into your website where you want the press releases to appear. If you use a CMS such as WordPress, paste it into an HTML block, not a plain text block. ⚠️ Common Reasons Press Releases Are Not Loading If you have already placed the embed code on your site but press releases are still not showing, check the following: - Outdated embed code: Signal Genesys periodically updates its embed system. If your code was copied several months ago, it may be pointing to a deprecated endpoint. Return to app.signalgenesys.io, generate a fresh snippet, and replace the old one on your website. - Incorrect paste location: The code must be placed inside an HTML-enabled section of your page. Pasting into a plain-text or visual editor field will break the script. - Content Security Policy (CSP) blocking the script: Some websites have security rules that block third-party scripts from running. Ask your web developer to whitelist the Signal Genesys domain in your site's CSP headers. - Browser cache: After updating the embed code, clear your browser cache or test in a private/incognito window to confirm the new code is loading. - Ad blockers or script blockers: Browser extensions can prevent the widget from rendering. Test in a clean browser profile with extensions disabled to rule this out. - Press releases not yet published: The embed widget only displays press releases that have been fully published inside Signal Genesys. Draft or scheduled releases will not appear. ✅ Step-by-Step: Replace an Outdated Embed Code 1. Log in to app.signalgenesys.io. 2. Navigate to Media Room > Embed / Widget. 3. Copy the current code snippet. 4. Open your website's backend or CMS. 5. Find the page or template where the old snippet was placed. 6. Delete the old code completely and paste the new snippet in its place. 7. Save and publish the page. 8. Open the page in an incognito browser window to confirm press releases are now loading. 🛠️ Quick Checklist Before Contacting Support - Confirmed the snippet was copied from app.signalgenesys.io today (not weeks ago). - Pasted into an HTML block, not a plain-text field. - At least one press release is fully published in Signal Genesys. - Tested in an incognito window with browser cache cleared. - Tested with browser extensions disabled. - Asked your developer to check for CSP restrictions if the issue persists on a custom site. 💬 Still Need Help? If you have followed all the steps above and press releases are still not loading, 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🚨 Digital PR Campaigns Stuck in FAILURE Status

Overview Some Digital PR outreach campaigns can become stuck in a FAILURE status during contact processing. When this happens, you may see 0 contacts extracted and no processing activity — even after waiting an extended period. This article explains what causes this issue and what steps to take if you encounter it. What Causes This Issue A platform-level issue has been identified where outreach campaigns that reach a FAILURE status may not be automatically retried by the system. As a result, contact discovery never re-executes and the campaign remains stuck with no contacts processed and no further progress. This is not caused by anything in your account settings or campaign configuration. It is a backend processing issue that requires intervention to resolve. How to Identify This Problem Your campaign is likely affected if you observe all of the following: - One or more outreach campaigns display a FAILURE or failed processing status - The contact discovery stage shows 0 contacts extracted - The campaign has not progressed or updated over a significant period of time - Refreshing or waiting does not change the status You can review your campaign statuses by navigating to your Digital PR outreach campaigns section of the platform. What to Do If Your Campaigns Are Stuck If your campaigns show a FAILURE status and contacts are not being discovered or processed, follow these steps to get your campaigns re-triggered as quickly as possible: 1. Navigate to your Digital PR outreach campaigns in the platform and identify which campaigns are showing a FAILURE status. 2. Note the name or ID of each affected campaign, how long it has been stuck, and when each campaign was originally created. 3. Note the total number of campaigns affected in your account. 4. Take a screenshot of the FAILURE status for each affected campaign if possible. 5. Try duplicating the affected campaign and launching the duplicate as a new campaign. In some cases, creating a fresh copy allows the contact discovery pipeline to run successfully and avoids the stuck state entirely. 6. If duplicating and relaunching the campaign does not resolve the issue, contact our support team with the information gathered above so they can manually re-trigger contact discovery for your specific campaigns. What Happens After You Report It Once our team receives your report, they will escalate to engineering to re-trigger the contact discovery pipeline for your affected campaigns. You should see your campaigns move out of FAILURE status and begin processing contacts after the re-trigger is applied. Our team will follow up to confirm when the fix has been applied to your account. If you are unsure whether your campaigns are affected or need help identifying the issue, please don't hesitate to reach out — use the chat button below to contact our support team and we will investigate on your behalf.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔗 Why Disavowed Backlinks Still Appear in Referring Domains

🔍 Overview If you recently disavowed a backlink or removed a link from your site and it still appears as a referring domain in Search Atlas, you are not experiencing an error. This is expected behavior. This article explains why disavowed backlinks persist in your reports and what the typical timeline looks like before they disappear. 📋 How Referring Domain Reporting Works in Search Atlas Search Atlas populates your referring domains data based on what is currently indexed and recorded in its link database. When a backlink is removed from the source website or added to your Google disavow file, Search Atlas does not instantly remove it from your report. The link remains visible until the following conditions are met: - Google recrawls the source page and confirms the link is no longer present. - Search Atlas updates its index based on the refreshed crawl data from that source page. Both steps must occur before the referring domain is removed from your report. Neither step is triggered by your action on your own website or in Google Search Console. ⏱️ How Long Does It Take for a Disavowed Link to Disappear? There is no fixed timeline. The removal of a referring domain from your Search Atlas report depends entirely on how frequently Google recrawls the source page. Typical ranges are: - Low-authority or infrequently updated pages: Several weeks to a few months. - High-authority or frequently updated pages: Days to a few weeks. Seeing a disavowed link still listed 2–3 weeks after removal is completely normal. Most customers see the link drop from their referring domains list within 4–8 weeks, though outliers exist in both directions. 🛠️ What Re-crawling Your Own Site Does (and Does Not) Do Re-crawling your own website in Search Atlas refreshes the data Search Atlas holds about your pages. It does not trigger a recrawl of the external source pages that link to you. For that reason, re-crawling your site will not accelerate the removal of a backlink from your referring domains list. ✅ How to Confirm Your Disavowal Was Processed Correctly While the link persists in Search Atlas, you can verify your disavowal is in place by following these steps: 1. Go to Google Search Console and open the Disavow Links tool for your property. 2. Confirm that the domain or URL you want ignored (for example, fudogmedia.com) is included in your uploaded disavow file. 3. Return to Search Atlas and navigate to Left sidebar → Site Metrics → Backlinks to view your backlink and referring domain data. 4. Note the referring domain and check the date it was first detected. This helps you track how long it has been present after disavowal. If your disavow file is correctly submitted to Google, no further action is required. The link's presence in Search Atlas at this stage does not mean Google is still passing negative signals from it. ⚠️ What This Does Not Affect It is important to understand what the persistent listing does and does not mean for your SEO: - Google's treatment of the link: Once Google processes your disavow file, it ignores the link for ranking purposes regardless of what Search Atlas displays. - Your domain's authority score in Search Atlas: Search Atlas may still count the referring domain in aggregate metrics until the crawl data is updated. This is a reporting lag, not a signal that the disavowal failed. - Your action required: None. If the disavow file is submitted correctly, no additional steps are needed on your end. 📊 Monitoring the Link Over Time To keep track of when the referring domain eventually drops from your report, you can follow these steps: 1. Navigate to Left sidebar → Site Metrics → Backlinks in Search Atlas. 2. Open your backlink or referring domains report for the relevant project. 3. Search or filter for the specific domain you disavowed. 4. Note the current date and check back in 2–4 week intervals. Once Google recrawls the source page and Search Atlas updates its data, the referring domain will be removed from your list automatically with no action needed from you. 💬 Still Have Questions? 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

📰 Fix Press Release Category Before Distribution

🔍 Overview When you distribute a press release through Search Atlas, the category you select is permanently locked once the release is submitted for distribution. This means it cannot be changed after the press release has been sent out. Understanding this limitation before you submit will save you time and help ensure your release reaches the right audience. ⚠️ Why Categories Cannot Be Changed After Distribution Once a press release is submitted, it is immediately processed and forwarded to the distribution network. Because the release has already been accepted and published, Search Atlas has no ability to edit or update the category retroactively. ✅ What You Can Do If you submitted a press release with the wrong category, here are your options: - Accept the current categorisation: If the content of your press release is still relevant to the published category, the release may still perform well. Readers and search engines also rely on the body text to understand the topic, not only the category label. - Submit a new press release: If the wrong category significantly misrepresents your business or content, the most effective solution is to create and submit a new press release with the correct category selected. You can use the same or revised content. - Contact support for guidance: In some circumstances our team may be able to advise on the best course of action for your specific situation. See the section below on how to reach us. 🛡️ How to Avoid Category Mistakes in the Future Follow these steps before submitting any press release to make sure the correct category is selected: 1. Review the category field carefully during the press release creation process. Do not rely on a default pre-filled value without confirming it matches your industry or topic. 2. Check the available categories before finalising your selection to find the most accurate match for your business type. 3. Read through all fields before completing your submission, including the category, headline, and target outlets. 4. Ask a colleague to review it if the press release is high priority. A second set of eyes can catch errors before they become permanent. 📋 Frequently Asked Questions Can Search Atlas update the category on my behalf after distribution? No. Once a press release has been submitted and distributed, the category cannot be changed. If the wrong category was selected, the recommended course of action is to submit a new press release with the correct category. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔗 Link Lab Wrong Placement Refund and Removal

🔍 Overview Link Lab orders are fulfilled by third-party publishers, and in rare cases a backlink placement may appear on a domain that does not match the site you ordered. If you received a placement on an irrelevant, low-quality, or policy-violating domain instead of the one you selected, you may be eligible for a refund and, where possible, removal of the link. ⚠️ What Counts as a Fulfillment Mismatch - Your order was placed for a specific domain but the backlink appeared on a completely different website. - The placement domain is a piracy site, link farm, or otherwise violates quality standards. - The published content or anchor placement does not reflect what was agreed at checkout. 📋 What to Do Immediately 1. Gather your order details. Note your order ID, the domain you originally selected at checkout, and the domain where the link was actually placed. You can find this information inside your Link Lab order history. 2. Take screenshots. Capture proof of the incorrect placement, including the live URL where the backlink appears. 3. Contact support as soon as possible. Refunds and removals are time-sensitive. Orders that were completed a significant time ago may no longer be eligible for a refund or link removal (see the policy section below). 💰 Refund Policy for Mismatched Orders When a fulfillment mismatch is confirmed by our team, a refund can be issued for the affected order. Please be aware of the following: - Eligibility window: Refunds can only be processed for recent orders. If an order was completed a significant time before you raise the dispute, we may be unable to issue a refund. - Act quickly: Submit your dispute as soon as you identify the mismatch to preserve your eligibility. 🗑️ Link Removal Requests If you need the incorrectly placed backlink removed from the publisher's site, our team will escalate the removal request internally on your behalf. Please note: - Link removal is coordinated internally and depends on the publisher's cooperation. - Removal cannot be guaranteed for orders that were completed a long time ago. - Raising the issue promptly gives the best chance of a successful removal. If you believe you have received a fulfillment mismatch, please reach out to our support team with your order ID, the domain you selected, and evidence of where the link was actually placed. We're here to help resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔗 Link Laboratory Publisher Auto-Assign & HDC Refund Issues

Overview Some customers have encountered a situation in Link Laboratory where a publication is rejected but no alternative publisher can be selected — the selection page loads blank with nothing actionable. In some cases, the platform then auto-assigns the order to a publisher without consent. This article explains what is happening and exactly what to do if you are affected. ​ What Causes This Issue These problems are related to the publisher assignment flow in Link Laboratory and can involve: - The publisher selection page appearing blank when a replacement is needed after a rejection. - An order being automatically reassigned to another publisher without your approval. - Orders remaining in an unclear state with no path to select a new publisher. How to Resolve Affected Orders If your Link Laboratory orders are affected by auto-assign issues, a blank publisher selection page, or incorrect publisher assignments, follow these steps to prepare your request and understand what the support team will do on your behalf: 1. Identify the affected orders. Note all Link Laboratory order numbers where a publication was rejected, auto-assigned without your approval, or where you were unable to select a replacement publisher. Having these order numbers ready will speed up resolution. 2. Contact the Link Laboratory Exchange support team and provide your list of affected order numbers. In your message, specify which of the following actions you need: - Disable auto-assign for your account, so no further orders are reassigned to a publisher without your explicit approval. - Cancel incorrectly assigned orders for any orders that were auto-assigned to a publisher you did not approve. - Process an HDC credit refund for each cancelled order, returning the HDC credits to your account balance. - Manually assign a replacement publisher for any links that still need to be placed after the affected orders are resolved. 3. Confirm the changes with the support agent. Once the team has acted on your request, verify that auto-assign is turned off on your account, that the cancelled orders no longer appear as active, and that your HDC credit balance reflects the refunded amounts. 4. Place new orders manually. After your account is corrected, you can return to Link Laboratory and manually select your preferred publisher when placing or replacing orders, ensuring you retain full control over publisher assignments going forward. If you are unsure which orders are affected or need help identifying them, the support team can review your account and flag impacted orders for you. ​ Contact Support Because disabling auto-assign, processing HDC credit refunds, and cancelling incorrectly assigned orders require action from the Link Laboratory Exchange team, please reach out to our support team so an agent can review your account and apply these corrections as quickly as possible. You can contact us by visiting the Search Atlas Help Center and starting a conversation with our team.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

📣 Fix PR Distribution Duplicate Titles and UTM Tracking

🔍 Overview When using the PR Distribution feature in Search Atlas, two common issues can affect your press releases: duplicate titles appearing in the published content and the inability to track distribution links with UTM parameters. This article explains why these happen and how to resolve both issues. 🗺️ How to Access PR Distribution To reach the PR Distribution feature, follow these steps: 1. Log in to your Search Atlas account. 2. In the left sidebar, click Authority. 3. Select Campaigns from the expanded menu. 4. Open an existing campaign or create a new one to access the press release editor. You can also navigate directly to /outreach/press-release in your browser. ⚠️ Why Duplicate Titles Appear A duplicate title occurs when the press release title is entered in two places during the creation process: - The dedicated Title field at the top of the press release form. - The body content of the press release itself, where some users manually type the title again as the first line. Because the platform automatically publishes the content from the Title field as the headline, repeating it inside the body results in the title appearing twice in the final distributed release. ✅ How to Fix Duplicate Titles Follow these steps to ensure your press release title appears only once: 1. Navigate to Authority → Campaigns and open your press release. 2. Check the Title field at the top of the form — confirm your headline is entered here. 3. Scroll into the body content area and review the first line of your text. 4. If the first line of the body matches or closely mirrors the Title field, delete it from the body. 5. Begin your body content with the first paragraph of the press release text instead. 6. Save your changes before submitting for distribution. Best practice: Always treat the Title field as the sole location for your headline. Keep the body focused on the press release content only. 🔗 Adding UTM Parameters to Distribution Links UTM parameters allow you to track traffic from your distributed press releases in Google Analytics or any other analytics platform. Here is how to add them to the links included in your press release body: 1. Before writing your press release, build your UTM-tagged URLs using a UTM builder tool (such as Google's Campaign URL Builder). 2. Define your UTM values — for example: - utm_source: press_release - utm_medium: pr_distribution - utm_campaign: your_campaign_name 3. Copy the full UTM-tagged URL generated by the tool. 4. In Search Atlas, navigate to Authority → Campaigns and open your press release. 5. In the body content area, paste your UTM-tagged URL wherever you want the link to appear. 6. Highlight the anchor text, apply the hyperlink, and paste the full UTM URL as the destination. 7. Review the link to confirm the UTM parameters are intact before submitting. Important: UTM parameters must be added to your links before you submit the press release for distribution. They cannot be appended after the release has been published. 💡 Tips for Clean Press Releases - Always preview your press release before submitting to catch formatting issues like duplicate titles early. - Keep links to a minimum and ensure each one serves a clear purpose — search engines and syndication partners may flag releases with excessive outbound links. - Use consistent UTM naming conventions across all campaigns to make analytics reporting easier to interpret. - Check your Sent tab (left sidebar → Authority → Sent) to review previously distributed releases and verify how links and titles appeared after publication. 🆘 Need More 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

📢 Fix Press Release Category Selection Before Publishing

🔍 Overview When you submit a press release through Search Atlas PR Distribution, the category you select at the time of submission is permanent. Once your press release is distributed to outlets such as USA Today, AP News, or other syndication partners, neither the category nor other core distribution settings can be changed or reassigned. This article explains why this limitation exists and what steps you can take to handle this situation. ⚙️ Why Categories Cannot Be Changed After Submission Press release distribution works by immediately syndicating your content to a network of publishers. The moment you click Publish, your press release is transmitted to partner outlets along with all the metadata you provided — including the category. Each publisher ingests and indexes this data in their own systems, which are outside Search Atlas's control. Because the content already lives on third-party platforms, retroactive edits to the category are not technically possible from our end. This is an industry-wide constraint across all press release distribution platforms, not a limitation unique to Search Atlas. ✅ How to Select the Right Category Before Publishing Follow these steps every time you create a new press release to make sure you choose the correct category: 1. In the left sidebar, go to Authority → PR Distribution. 2. Click New Release to open the submission form. 3. Fill in your headline, body content, and all required fields. 4. Locate the Category dropdown. Scroll through the full list carefully — do not rely on the default pre-selected option. 5. Select the category that most closely matches your business or the subject of your press release (for example, Home Cleaning Service rather than the default Apps and Software). 6. Review all fields one final time before clicking Publish content. Important: Treat the review step as mandatory. Once you click Publish, the submission is final and cannot be recalled or edited. 🛠️ What to Do If You Already Published With the Wrong Category If your press release has already been distributed with an incorrect category, here is what you should know: - The existing distribution cannot be edited or deleted. The syndicated content will remain live on partner outlets under the category selected at submission. - You may submit a new press release with the correct category. This will be treated as a fresh distribution and will use additional press release credits from your plan. - The incorrectly categorised release will not be removed from publisher sites, as Search Atlas does not control third-party editorial systems. Before submitting a new press release, review the content carefully to ensure it is not a duplicate of the original, as some outlets may flag near-identical submissions. 💡 Best Practices to Avoid Category Mistakes - Do not rush the submission form. Read each field label carefully, especially the Category dropdown, before proceeding. - Search for your industry keyword in the category list rather than scrolling through the full dropdown — many lists are long and the default selection may not reflect your business. - Use a pre-publish checklist. Before clicking Publish, confirm: headline, body copy, target URL, category, and distribution outlets are all correct. - If you are unsure which category applies, consult your marketing team or refer to how your business is classified on major directories before submitting. 📊 Understanding the Submission Workflow To help you visualise where the point of no return occurs, here is the standard PR Distribution workflow inside Search Atlas: 1. Draft — You enter the press release details and select settings including category. 2. Review — The final opportunity to check all fields for accuracy. 3. Publish — You click Publish content. The press release is immediately sent to the distribution network. 4. Published — The release appears under the Published tab in Authority → PR Distribution. At this stage, all settings are locked and distribution is complete. The transition from step 3 to step 4 is instantaneous. There is no queued state where edits are still possible after clicking Publish. 🆘 Need More 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🛠️ Fix Press Release Project Selection via Brand Vault

Why Your Press Release Defaults to the Wrong Project The Press Release tool does not include a standalone project selector on its own page. Instead, it pulls your active project from Brand Vault. If you see an unexpected project name, it means that project is currently set as your active Brand Vault profile. Updating your active Brand Vault profile is the correct way to change which project appears in Press Release. This also applies to your Google Business Profile (GBP) project selection within Press Release. What You Will Need Before You Start - At least two projects already created inside Search Atlas - A Brand Vault profile set up for each project you want to use in Press Release - Sufficient access rights to your Search Atlas workspace How to Switch Your Active Project in Brand Vault 1. Log in to Search Atlas and navigate to Authority (Press Releases) in the left sidebar. 2. Review the list of your saved brand profiles. 3. Locate the profile that matches the project you want to use in Press Release. 4. Within Brand Vault, set that profile as your active profile using the options available in the Brand Vault interface. 5. Navigate to Authority (Press Releases) in the left sidebar. 6. Confirm the project name now reflects the correct project. If it does not update immediately, refresh your browser tab and check again. How to Set Up a Brand Vault Profile for a New Project If the project you need does not yet have a Brand Vault profile, you must create one before it can be selected in Press Release. This also applies if you want to associate a specific Google Business Profile (GBP) with a project in Press Release. 1. Go to Brand Vault and look for the option to create a new brand profile. 2. Select the correct project and fill in your brand details as prompted. 3. Save the new profile. 4. Follow the steps in the previous section to set this new profile as your active profile. Using Press Release After Switching Your Active Profile Once the correct Brand Vault profile is active, Press Release will reflect that project. If you manage multiple clients or projects, remember to return to Brand Vault and switch the active profile each time you want to generate a press release for a different project. Troubleshooting Common Issues - The project name still shows the old project after switching: Refresh your browser tab and navigate back to Authority (Press Releases). Browser cache can sometimes display stale data. - You cannot find the option to change the active profile or the Brand Vault setup is not behaving as expected: Our support team can review your account configuration and walk you through the correct steps for your workspace. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🛠️ Fix PR Distribution Blocked by Blog Headline Error

🔍 What This Issue Looks Like You fill in the Blog Headline and Blog Summary fields for your press release, the dashboard shows both fields as complete, but when you attempt to publish, the distribution is blocked. The underlying API reads those fields as null, and you receive an error similar to: "The blog headline field is required." Your press release stays unpublished and your HDC quota is not consumed. 📋 What Caused This This was a confirmed platform bug where the PR Distribution system did not correctly pass filled-in blog metadata to the publishing API, causing it to treat populated fields as empty. An engineering fix has been deployed to production, so new press releases should publish without this error. Failed press releases also do not consume your HDC quota, so you will not lose credits for a blocked attempt. ✅ Steps to Resolve 1. Navigate to the PR Distribution section of the platform. 2. Locate the press release that failed to publish. If it shows a failed or blocked status, do not attempt to re-submit it immediately — first confirm the steps below. 3. Open the press release and verify that the Blog Headline and Blog Summary fields contain your intended content. Even if they appeared filled before, clear each field and re-enter the content to ensure the platform registers the values correctly after the fix. 4. Save your changes before attempting to publish again. 5. Proceed to publish the press release. With the engineering fix now live in production, the API should correctly receive the blog metadata and allow distribution to proceed. 6. If the press release still shows a blocked or failed status after re-entering your content and saving, do not re-submit multiple times. Contact support using the method described below so a specialist can review your specific press release. 💡 About Your HDC Quota Press releases that fail due to this error do not consume your HDC quota. A failed distribution is not counted against your credits. If you believe credits were incorrectly deducted as a result of this bug, note the affected press release details and contact support — the team can review and apply a correction where appropriate. ⚠️ If the Problem Persists This bug has been patched, but if you continue to see the same error after following the steps above, it is important to escalate promptly rather than retrying repeatedly. Provide support with the name of your press release and the approximate time you attempted to publish so the team can investigate your account directly. 💬 Get 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔗 Fix CMS URL Mismatch and Build Backlinks

🔍 Overview This article covers two common questions: how to fix a domain mismatch in the CMS connector (for example, your project is set to grandeplants.com but the CMS displays dahingplants.com), and where to find Search Atlas's backlink-building tools. ⚙️ Understanding the CMS Domain Mismatch A CMS connector URL mismatch happens when the domain saved in your Search Atlas project does not match the domain connected in your CMS integration. This prevents articles from publishing to the correct site. 🛠️ How to Fix the CMS URL Mismatch 1. Confirm your project domain. Open your project and check the domain listed in the project settings. This should match the site you want to publish to (for example, grandeplants.com). 2. Check your CMS connection. Go to your CMS integration settings and verify which domain is authorised. If it shows a different domain (for example, dahingplants.com), the connection was made under the wrong account or subdomain. 3. Reconnect the CMS under the correct domain. Disconnect the current CMS integration, then reconnect it while logged in to the CMS account that manages the correct domain. Make sure you grant all requested permissions during reconnection. 4. Re-attempt publishing. Once the CMS shows the correct domain, retry publishing your article. The mismatch error should no longer appear. Tip: If you manage multiple sites, double-check that you are inside the correct Search Atlas project before connecting your CMS. Each project should have its own dedicated CMS connection. 📊 Where to Build Backlinks in Search Atlas Search Atlas includes dedicated backlink analysis and link-building tools. To locate them, log in to your Search Atlas account and explore the navigation menu for backlink-related sections. These tools allow you to review your existing backlink profile and identify opportunities to grow your link profile against competitors. If you are unsure where to find a specific backlink feature in your account, our support team can point you to the correct location based on your current plan and workspace setup. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🛠️ Fix Press Release Summary Word-Count Publish Error

🔍 What Is This Issue? When publishing a press release in PR Distribution, some users see an error reading 'The blog summary must contain at most 45 words' even when their summary is 45 words or fewer. This is caused by a known discrepancy between the word counter displayed in the editor and the stricter validation check that runs at the moment of submission. The editor may show your summary as compliant, but the final check can count words differently and block publishing. ⚙️ Step 1: Try a Clean Browser Session Before anything else, rule out a browser caching issue: 1. Clear your browser cookies and cache. 2. Open a private or incognito window. 3. Navigate to Left sidebar → Authority → PR Distribution. 4. Reopen your press release and attempt to publish again. In some cases this alone resolves the error. If the error persists, continue to Step 2. ✂️ Step 2: Reduce Your Summary Below 44 Words Because the editor's word counter and the submission validator can disagree, the reliable workaround is to keep your blog summary noticeably under the stated 45-word limit. Aim for 43–44 words or fewer to give enough margin for both counters to agree. 1. Open your press release in Left sidebar → Authority → PR Distribution. 2. Locate the blog summary field. 3. Edit the summary so it is 43–44 words at most. Remove filler phrases, conjunctions, or secondary details to trim the count without losing meaning. 4. Save your changes, then attempt to publish again. This has resolved the issue for most affected users. If publishing still fails after trimming to 43 words or fewer, move to Step 3. 💡 Tips for Counting Words Accurately - Paste your summary into a plain-text editor (such as Notepad or TextEdit) and use that tool's word count rather than relying solely on the in-editor counter. - Hyphenated compounds (e.g. AI-generated) may be counted as one or two words depending on the validator — split or merge them to test. - Avoid trailing punctuation or line breaks that could affect how words are parsed at submission. 📊 Known Engineering Status This word-count validation discrepancy was identified and a fix was filed with the engineering team (ticket #109383477). A related fix addressing blog summary word-count validation has been marked as resolved for affected accounts. If you are still experiencing the error after following the steps above, your account may need to be reviewed individually by the engineering team. 🚀 Still Blocked? Escalate With a Screen Recording If reducing your summary to 43 words or fewer and using an incognito session does not resolve the issue, the engineering team will need a recording to investigate further. Before contacting support, prepare the following: - A screen recording that shows your summary text, the word count visible in the editor, and the error message that appears when you click publish. - The exact word count of your summary (verified in a plain-text editor). - The title of the affected press release. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🗓️ Fix the Digital PR Outreach Schedule Configuration Error

🔍 What This Error Means The 'Please configure outreach schedule first!' error appears in Digital PR when you attempt to launch or send a campaign before the outreach schedule has been fully set up. This is not just about connecting an email account — the schedule itself must be created and saved as a separate step. Both requirements must be completed before a campaign can run. ✅ Step 1 — Confirm Your Email Account Is Connected Before configuring a schedule, verify that an email account is linked to your workspace: 1. Go to Left sidebar → Authority → Campaigns. 2. Open or create a campaign, then look for the sending email address field. 3. If no email is connected, navigate to your account settings and connect a valid sending email address. 4. Return to Campaigns and confirm the email address now appears as an option. If your email is already connected and the error persists, do not stop here — proceed to Step 2. A connected email alone is not enough to clear this error. 📅 Step 2 — Create and Save an Outreach Schedule This is the most commonly missed step. Even with a connected email, you must configure a dedicated outreach schedule: 1. Go to Left sidebar → Authority → Campaigns. 2. Open the campaign that is triggering the error. 3. Locate the Schedule or Outreach Schedule section within the campaign settings. 4. Set your preferred sending days and time windows. 5. Click Save to confirm the schedule. Do not navigate away before saving. 6. Return to the campaign overview and attempt to launch or send again. The error should clear once a schedule has been saved against the campaign. If the error still appears after completing both steps, continue to the decision tree below. 🔁 Persistent Error — Decision Tree Use the following checks in order if the error has not resolved after Steps 1 and 2: - Did you save the schedule before leaving the settings page? Navigating away without clicking Save discards the schedule. Repeat Step 2 and confirm the save action completes before moving on. - Is the schedule attached to the correct campaign? Schedules are campaign-specific. If you have multiple campaigns, confirm the schedule was saved inside the campaign you are trying to launch, not a different one. - Did you create the campaign in draft mode? Some draft campaigns require you to fully publish or activate the campaign record before a schedule can be applied. Look for an Activate or Publish button and complete that step first, then re-add the schedule. - Has your connected email account been disconnected since you last used it? Token expiry or password changes can silently disconnect an email. Go to Left sidebar → Authority → Campaigns, check the sending email field, and reconnect if needed. - Are you seeing the error on a cloned or duplicated campaign? Duplicated campaigns do not carry over schedule settings. You must configure a new schedule for each copy. 📥 Check Your Inbox and Sent Items After a successful campaign launch, you can monitor activity in two places: - Left sidebar → Authority → Inbox — incoming replies from your outreach. - Left sidebar → Authority → Sent — confirmation that emails were dispatched by the schedule. If the Sent folder remains empty after your scheduled send window has passed, the schedule may not have saved correctly. Repeat Step 2 and verify the send window covers the current time and day. ⚠️ When to Contact Support If you have completed all steps above and the error still appears, or if the Sent folder remains empty after two full schedule cycles, this may indicate a backend configuration issue that requires investigation. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔗 Fix Low-Quality or Broken Link Lab Articles

🔍 Overview Link Lab articles are generated automatically and placed on third-party sites to build backlinks. Occasionally, articles may be low quality, irrelevant to the linked business, or render with broken formatting. In rare cases, an unexpected billing charge may also appear on your account. This article explains what to do in each situation. ⚠️ Known Issue: Article Quality and Broken Rendering Our engineering team has identified and resolved a bug that caused Link Lab articles to ignore Brand Vault information during generation, resulting in irrelevant content and broken page rendering (missing headers). This fix has been deployed. If you submitted your Brand Vault details before this fix, your existing articles may still be affected. What was fixed: Article generation now correctly reads Brand Vault data, and broken page rendering has been resolved. If your articles were generated before the fix: Affected orders can be regenerated. You will need to contact our support team to request regeneration — this cannot be triggered from within the platform at this time. ✅ Before Contacting Support: Check Your Brand Vault To give your articles the best chance of being relevant and accurate, make sure your Brand Vault is fully populated before new articles are generated. A complete Brand Vault helps the AI understand your business, tone, and target audience. 1. Log in to your Search Atlas account. 2. Navigate to your Brand Vault and confirm that all business details, keywords, and brand descriptions are filled in and up to date. 3. If anything is missing or outdated, update it now so future articles reflect the correct information. 📋 What to Do If Your Articles Are Low-Quality or Broken If you have already checked your Brand Vault and your Link Lab articles are still irrelevant, missing headers, or otherwise broken, follow these steps: 1. Note the specific article titles or order numbers that are affected. 2. Contact our support team through the chat option available in the platform. 3. Share the affected order numbers and describe the issue (e.g., irrelevant content, broken rendering, missing headers). 4. Our team will review the articles, file a ticket with the engineering team if needed, and arrange for the affected orders to be regenerated and reposted. Refund or deletion requests: If a regenerated article is still not acceptable, you can request that the article be deleted and a refund issued for that placement. Our support team can process this on your behalf. 💳 What to Do About an Unexpected Charge If you see an unexpected charge on your account — for example, an add-on renewal you did not intend to activate — our support team can cancel and reverse it. 1. Open the chat option available in the platform and reach out to our support team.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🛠️ Troubleshooting the Authority Building Feature

🔍 What Is the Authority Building Feature? The Authority section in Search Atlas is your hub for building backlinks, improving domain authority, and increasing your visibility across the web and AI-generated results. You can access it by clicking Authority in the left sidebar. It includes the following sub-sections: - Cloud Stacks – Build tiered link structures to strengthen your backlink profile. - URL Indexer – Submit URLs to get them crawled and indexed faster. - QUEST LLM Visibility – Monitor and improve how your content appears in large language model outputs. - Campaigns – Manage outreach and authority-building campaigns. - Inbox – Review incoming outreach messages and responses. - Sent – Track outreach messages you have already sent. ⚙️ Experiencing an Issue with the Authority Section? The Authority Building feature covers several sub-tools, and issues can vary widely depending on which area you are using. Because the root cause of many Authority-related problems requires account-level investigation by our support team, the steps below will help you prepare the information needed to get your issue resolved as quickly as possible. 📋 What to Have Ready Before Contacting Support To help our team diagnose and resolve your issue efficiently, please gather the following before reaching out: - The specific sub-section where the issue is occurring (e.g., Cloud Stacks, URL Indexer, QUEST LLM Visibility, Campaigns, Inbox, or Sent). - Your project name and the domain or URL affected. - A description of the exact error message or unexpected behavior you are seeing, copied or screenshotted verbatim. - The date and approximate time when the issue first appeared. - Any steps you have already tried (e.g., refreshing the page, resubmitting a URL, recreating a campaign). 🔎 Basic Checks to Try First Before escalating, confirm the following: - Make sure you are logged into the correct account and are viewing the intended project or workspace. - Try a hard refresh of your browser (Ctrl+Shift+R on Windows or Cmd+Shift+R on Mac) to rule out a cached page state. - Confirm that the URL or domain you are working with is publicly accessible and not returning an error status. - Check that all required fields in any form or setup wizard are fully completed before submitting. If none of the above resolves the issue, our support team will need to investigate further on the backend. Please have the information listed above ready when you reach out. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

⚡ LinkLab Checkout Errors Consuming Credits or Charges

What Is This Issue? Some customers experience persistent 500 errors when trying to complete a LinkLab order — even after multiple attempts. In some cases, Hyperdrive Credits (HDC) are deducted and a card charge is applied, but the order never successfully creates. This is a known platform bug. If you are currently affected, this article explains what to do. Symptoms - Checkout in Link Laboratory fails repeatedly with a 500 error or a message such as "An unexpected error occurred. Please try again later." - Hyperdrive Credits have been deducted from your balance - Your payment card has been charged even though no order was completed - Retrying checkout does not resolve the problem on its own Why This Happens A bug in the LinkLab checkout flow can cause an error that consumes Hyperdrive Credits or triggers a card charge without actually creating the order. If you encountered this bug, your account may reflect incorrect balances or an outstanding charge. What To Do Right Now 1. Stop retrying checkout. Additional attempts will not resolve a billing discrepancy already caused by the error and may complicate your case. 2. Check your HDC balance and billing history. Review your account to confirm whether your Hyperdrive Credit balance is lower than expected and whether a card charge appears for the failed order. Note the exact HDC amount deducted, the card charge amount if applicable, and the date and time the failed attempts occurred — you will need these details in the next steps. 3. Submit a refund or credit restoration request by contacting our support team. Reach out to us and include: (1) the date and approximate time of the failed checkout, (2) the HDC amount you believe was incorrectly deducted, and (3) the card charge amount if applicable. Request that our team restore your HDC balance and reverse any erroneous charge. Our team will review your account, confirm whether credits or charges are tied to a failed order, and process the correction directly. If you need help, contact our support team and we'll be happy to assist. 4. Wait for confirmation before retrying. Once our team confirms that your HDC balance and any card charge have been corrected, return to Link Laboratory and complete your order. Do not retry checkout before receiving this confirmation, as a duplicate charge or double deduction could occur. What Our Team Will Do When you reach our support team, they will review your account to confirm that credits were consumed or a charge was applied without a successful order being created. Based on that review, they will restore your Hyperdrive Credits and address any card charge. You will receive confirmation of any corrections before being asked to retry checkout. If you have questions or are unsure whether your account was affected, contact our support team and we'll be happy to assist.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

📊 Authority Pillar Score Dropped to Zero

🔍 What Happened Some users noticed their Authority pillar score dropping suddenly to 0/100 inside the Holistic SEO Pillars section, even though no changes were made to their site or settings. This was caused by a known bug affecting how the Holistic SEO Pillars calculate and display Authority, Content, and UX scores after a weekly analysis or recrawl. The engineering team has since resolved the underlying issues. 📊 Where to Check Your Score You can view your Holistic SEO Pillars scores by navigating to the Holistic SEO Pillars section of the platform. Your Authority, Content, and UX pillar scores are displayed on this page. If you are still seeing a score of 0, follow the steps below. 🛠️ What to Do If Your Score Still Shows 0 1. Refresh the page. A simple browser refresh can clear a display glitch and load the most current data. 2. Wait and check again. Score calculations can take some time to complete. Allow a few minutes, then reload the page to see if the Authority score has been restored. 3. Check back after the next scheduled analysis. Because the bug was tied to weekly analysis and recrawl processing, scores may update automatically once the next analysis cycle runs. 💡 Why This Happened The bug was triggered during the processing of weekly analysis and recrawl data, causing the Authority pillar score — and in some cases the Content and UX scores — to drop to 0 despite no changes being made to the site. Your data was not lost — the drop was a display and calculation error only. The engineering team has since resolved the underlying issues. ✅ Confirmed Resolution The known bugs causing Authority pillar scores to drop to 0 have been marked as resolved. If your score has returned to its expected range, no further action is needed. 🚀 Still Seeing a Score of 0? If you have followed the steps above and your Authority pillar score remains at 0, this may indicate a separate issue specific to your account or site configuration. If you need further assistance, please reach out to our support team so we can investigate further.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

Press Release 'Headline Taken' Error Fix

What This Article Covers Some users encountered an issue where attempting to publish a press release returned a 'headline already taken' validation error, even when the headline was unique and had not been used before. This article explains what is known about the problem and how to get it resolved. What Caused the Issue This was a confirmed bug in the press release publishing process. The platform's validation logic was incorrectly flagging valid, unique headlines as duplicates when they were not. The error did not reflect a real conflict — it was a false positive produced by a fault in the backend validation check. What To Do Because this issue is caused by a backend validation bug, it cannot be resolved through self-service steps alone. To get your press release published, please contact the Search Atlas support team directly. When you reach out, have the following ready so the team can locate and correct your record as quickly as possible: - The URL of the affected press release - The exact headline text you are trying to use Do not repeatedly attempt to publish while waiting for a response — this will not resolve the underlying issue. Once the support team confirms the fix has been applied, return to your press release and attempt to publish again. The 'headline already taken' error should no longer appear. If you need help, please contact our support team via the chat icon in your Search Atlas dashboard.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

Fix a USAToday Press Release Nofollow Link Issue

🔍 Overview If your press release distributed through Search Atlas was published on USAToday with a nofollow link instead of a dofollow link, this article explains what happens next and what you can expect from the resolution process. Important: Search Atlas cannot directly edit or delete content published on USAToday. Changes must be requested through the publisher, which our team handles on your behalf. ⚠️ Why This Happens - USAToday and other third-party publishers control how links are tagged on their platforms. In some cases, a press release may be published with a nofollow attribute even when a dofollow link was expected. - This issue originates at the publisher level and cannot be corrected by editing the press release inside the Search Atlas platform after publication. 🛠️ What Search Atlas Does to Resolve It 1. Contacts the publisher directly. Our team reaches out to USAToday to request a correction or removal of the affected press release. 2. Confirms the outcome. Once the publisher has acted — whether that means correcting the link attribute or removing the press release — our team will update you on the result. 💡 How to Get This Resolved To initiate the correction process, follow these steps: 1. Locate the URL of the published press release on USAToday. 2. Confirm the link in question is tagged as nofollow when it should be dofollow. 3. Decide whether you want the press release corrected (link attribute fixed) or removed entirely from USAToday. 4. Contact our support team and provide: the USAToday press release URL, confirmation that the issue is a nofollow link, and your preferred resolution (correction or removal). 5. Our support team will immediately contact USAToday on your behalf to request the appropriate action — no further information will be needed from you if you include the details above. Submitting complete details in your first message allows our team to contact the publisher right away without additional back-and-forth. 📊 What to Expect After Reporting - Action: Our team will contact USAToday to request that the press release is corrected or removed, depending on your preference. - Confirmation: Our team will follow up with you once USAToday has acted on the request. If you have any questions about the status of your request, please contact our support team and we will be happy to help.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🖼️ Brand Vault Logo Converting to WEBP Blocking Press Release Distribution

🔍 What Is Happening When you upload a PNG or JPG logo to the Brand Vault, the platform may automatically store it as a WEBP file internally. Because press release distribution does not support the WEBP format, any press release that references that logo will fail to distribute and display an error indicating a WEBP image was detected — even though you originally uploaded a supported file type. This is a known platform issue (tracked internally as AB-1048). Engineering has already shipped fixes to prevent WEBP blocking during press release distribution, and additional improvements are in progress. However, if you are currently seeing this error, the steps below can help you clear it right now. ⚠️ Symptoms - Your press release fails to distribute with a message about a WEBP image being present. - You re-upload a PNG or JPG logo in Brand Vault, but the error persists. - The logo appears to change format after uploading, even though your original file is a supported type. 🛠️ How to Fix It 1. Go to your Brand Vault. From the header, click the apps-grid icon → More Features → Brand Vault. 2. Locate the logo that is causing the issue. Find the logo associated with the brand profile linked to your press release. 3. Remove the existing logo. Delete or replace the current logo stored in the Brand Vault — do not skip this step, as simply re-uploading on top of the existing file may not resolve the conversion issue. 4. Re-upload a clean PNG or JPG file. Use a freshly exported PNG or JPG version of your logo. Make sure the file has not been previously processed or saved in WEBP format by any other tool before uploading. 5. Save your Brand Vault changes. Confirm the update is saved within the Brand Vault before returning to your press release. 6. Return to your press release and attempt distribution again. After updating the logo directly in the Brand Vault, the WEBP-related error should clear and distribution should proceed normally. 💡 Additional Tips - Always use a PNG or JPG file exported directly from your design tool (such as Adobe Illustrator, Figma, or Canva) rather than a file downloaded from a website, which may already be in WEBP format. - If you have multiple brand profiles in your Brand Vault, check that the press release is linked to the profile whose logo you just updated. - Once the logo is updated in Brand Vault, you do not need to re-create the press release — simply retry distribution from the existing draft. 📋 Platform Improvements Already in Place Search Atlas engineering has resolved the error that blocked press release distribution for PNG and JPG images stored as WEBP (ticket AB-1048). If you continue to experience this issue after following the steps above, please reach out to our support team for further assistance.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🛠️ Fix Press Release Publishing Errors Fast

Overview When a press release fails to publish, a common root cause is an insufficient Hyperdrive credits error. If your account does not have enough Hyperdrive credits, publishing will be blocked. Use this article to understand what is happening and how to resolve it. Why Publishing Fails: Hyperdrive Credits Publishing a press release in Search Atlas consumes Hyperdrive credits. If your account balance does not have enough credits to cover the action, the publish will not go through. This is a billing-related block — your content itself may be perfectly valid, but the action cannot complete without sufficient credits. How to Resolve an Insufficient Credits Error To unblock publishing, you will need to purchase additional Hyperdrive credits through your account's billing settings. Follow these steps: 1. Navigate to the Billing section from the top-right avatar (Avatar Menu (👤)) of your Search Atlas account. 2. Review your current Hyperdrive credit balance to confirm it is too low to complete the publish action. 3. Purchase additional Hyperdrive credits through the available options in the Billing section. 4. Once the credits have been added to your account, return to your press release draft and attempt to publish again. If you are unsure how many credits are required to publish a press release, or if you have purchased credits and publishing is still blocked, please have the following ready before contacting support: your account or project name, the exact error message you see on screen, and the approximate date and time of the failed publish attempt. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔥 Fix Wildfire Backlink Validation Errors Fast

🔍 Overview When approving outlinks in Wildfire, you may encounter this error message: "There is already an approved backlink in the opposite direction." This can be confusing because the conflicting domain may not appear anywhere in your visible backlinks list. This article explains what causes this error and the steps you can take to resolve it. 💡 What This Error Means Wildfire prevents circular or duplicate link relationships between domains. The error means that a backlink from the target domain pointing back to your domain has already been approved in the system — even if it is not currently visible in your active backlinks list. This is a validation rule designed to protect the integrity of your link network, not a system malfunction. Common reasons the conflicting backlink may not be visible to you include: - The backlink was approved in a previous campaign that is now inactive or archived. - The link was approved by a different team member under the same account. - The backlink exists in the system database but has not yet been reflected in your current filtered view. - A previous approval was made and the live link was later removed from the target site, but the system record was not cleared. 🛠️ How to Investigate the Conflict 1. Go to More Features → Backlinks → Backlink Research to view all backlinks associated with your domain. 2. Use the search or filter options to look up the specific domain mentioned in the error. Check for any record of a link from that domain — including older or low-authority entries. 3. Navigate to More Features → Backlinks → Link Gap Analysis to cross-reference the domain against your competitors and confirm whether a reverse link relationship exists. 4. Go to Authority → Campaigns in the left sidebar and review both active and past campaigns. Look for any outlink or backlink approvals involving the conflicting domain. 5. Check Authority → Inbox and Authority → Sent for any prior outreach to or from the domain in question. An approved exchange recorded in Sent history can trigger this error. ✅ How to Resolve the Error Once you have identified the source of the conflict, you have two options depending on your goal: - If the reverse backlink is no longer active or desired: Locate the original approved backlink record and remove or revoke the approval. Once the system no longer sees an active approved link in the opposite direction, you should be able to approve the new outlink without the error. - If you cannot locate the conflicting record yourself: The conflict may exist at the database level and require a manual review. In this case, do not attempt to re-submit the approval repeatedly, as this will not resolve the underlying record. ⚠️ Important Notes - This error is a deliberate system safeguard, not a bug. It prevents mutual linking arrangements that can negatively impact your SEO profile. - Approving links in both directions between the same two domains is flagged as a reciprocal link exchange, which search engines may discount or penalise. - If the domain appears clean in all your views but the error persists, the conflict record may need to be cleared by the Search Atlas support team. 💬 Still Seeing the Error? If you have followed all the steps above and the error still appears, or if you believe the conflicting record is incorrect, our team can manually audit the backlink database for your domain. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

⏳ Understanding Guest Post Order Fulfillment Delays

📋 Overview Guest post orders go through a multi-step fulfillment process involving publisher outreach, content creation, editorial review, and live placement. Because real publishers and editorial teams are involved at each stage, fulfillment timelines can vary. This article explains what to expect, why delays happen, and what you can do while you wait. ⏱️ What Is the Standard Fulfillment Timeline? Most guest post orders are fulfilled within 14–30 business days from the date of purchase. This window accounts for: - Publisher matching and outreach - Content brief creation and writing - Publisher editorial review and approval - Scheduling and live placement on the publisher's site Some publishers operate on longer editorial cycles, which can extend fulfillment beyond the standard window — especially for high-authority or niche-specific placements. 🔍 How to Check Your Order Status You can monitor the current status of each guest post placement directly inside Search Atlas: 1. Navigate to Publisher Exchange from the main menu. 2. Open the relevant order to view its details. 3. Review the status shown for each individual placement within the order. Note: Each placement in a multi-placement order may have its own status. If you see a general Pending Action label, this reflects the overall order state. Check the per-placement breakdown for a more accurate picture of where each link stands in the process. ⚠️ Common Reasons for Delays Understanding why delays occur can help set the right expectations. The most frequent causes include: - Publisher scheduling backlogs: High-demand publishers may have a queue of content waiting to be reviewed and posted. - Content revision cycles: If a publisher requests edits to the submitted content, additional time is needed before the post goes live. - Editorial hold periods: Some sites post content on a fixed schedule (weekly or bi-weekly), which may push your placement to the next available slot. - Niche-specific approval processes: Certain industries (finance, health, legal) have stricter editorial standards that require more review time. - Platform reconciliation windows: Occasional system reconciliation processes can affect how quickly new placements are reflected in your dashboard. These are resolved automatically and do not impact the actual publisher timeline. 📊 What Your Order Statuses Mean - Pending Action: The order has been received and is awaiting the next step in the fulfillment workflow. - In Progress: Content is being written, reviewed, or submitted to the publisher. - Awaiting Publisher Approval: The post has been submitted and is in the publisher's editorial queue. - Live: Your guest post is published and the link is active. If your dashboard shows a count discrepancy between guest posts ordered and those reflected in your Link Lab, allow up to 24 hours for the platform to sync and update accurately. ✅ What You Should Do If Your Order Is Overdue If it has been more than 30 business days since your purchase and your placement still shows no progress, follow these steps: 1. Log in to Search Atlas and go to Publisher Exchange. 2. Note the specific order ID and the placement(s) that appear stalled. 3. Check whether the per-placement status has updated recently. 4. If there is no movement and no status update, contact our support team for a manual follow-up with the publisher. 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. 💡 Tips to Avoid Fulfillment Surprises - Plan guest post orders 4–6 weeks ahead of any deadline or campaign launch date. - Review publisher timelines and notes in Publisher Exchange before placing your order — some listings include estimated turnaround information. - Monitor your order regularly using the per-placement status view so you can catch any issues early. - Avoid assuming an order is lost based solely on the overall order count shown on the dashboard, as this may not always reflect real-time Link Lab data.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔄 What Happens If Your Assigned Publisher Doesn't Respond (and How Refunds Work)

🔄 Why This Happens When you place an order in Link Laboratory, it's assigned to a publisher who has a set number of days to post your content. If that publisher doesn't respond or post within that window, the order isn't left stuck — Link Laboratory has an automated process to move it forward. 📧 The Unresponsive-Publisher Workflow - The assigned publisher receives a notification when your order lands in their queue, plus daily reminders as their response deadline approaches. - If the publisher still hasn't posted by the final day, the order is automatically marked as rejected due to the publisher exceeding their time limit — this accounts for the majority of publisher rejections, not just publishers actively declining. - Once that happens, you'll see an alternatives option in your order where you can choose a new publisher site to fulfill the order. ✅ Your Options When a Publisher Doesn't Respond When an order needs a new publisher, you generally have three options: - Pick an alternative site yourself from the list of suggested replacement publishers. - Let the system choose for you — it automatically selects the best-scoring available alternative; if that site's price is different from your original order, the difference is refunded to your HDC balance. - Request a full refund to your HDC balance instead of choosing a replacement. If you don't take any action, the order resolves on its own automatically after a few days — so an unresponsive publisher won't leave your order stuck indefinitely even if you miss the notification. 💳 About HDC Refunds HDC stands for Hyperdrive Credits — the credit balance used across Link Laboratory, Press Release distribution, and other Search Atlas services (1 HDC = $1). When an order is refunded, whether due to an unresponsive publisher, a rejected placement, or a quality issue like a broken backlink, the refund is typically issued as HDC back to your account rather than a reversal to your original payment method, and can take a few business days to reflect in your balance. ⚠️ A Safety Note on Publisher Contact All payments for Link Laboratory placements are handled through the platform. If a publisher ever contacts you directly demanding separate payment — especially for an order that was rejected, unfulfilled, or involved a publisher who's since been suspended — you don't need to pay them directly. Reach out to support through the chat widget with the details, including any messages from that publisher. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔗 Understanding Backlink Order Delays and Refunds

🕐 Why Is My Backlink Order Still Pending? After placing a backlink order, the publishing process involves coordination with third-party publishers. This means timelines can vary and, in some cases, orders may remain in a pending or in-progress state for several weeks. This is normal, but we understand it can be frustrating when you are waiting on results. Common reasons for delays include: - The publisher is reviewing your content before approving placement. - The selected publisher's editorial schedule is backlogged. - The placement site is temporarily unavailable or unresponsive. - Your order is going through a quality check before going live. 📊 How to Check Your Order's Publication Status Search Atlas gives you real-time visibility into each backlink order so you always know where things stand. To check your order status: 1. Navigate to More Features → Backlinks (Backlink Research) in your Search Atlas dashboard. 2. Locate the order you want to review. 3. Click on the order to open the Publication Status modal. 4. Review the per-channel publication status and any relevant notes shown for that placement. The status modal will clearly indicate whether your order is pending, published, unavailable, or rejected by the publisher. These statuses have distinct labels so you can quickly understand the situation for each placement. ⚠️ What Do "Unavailable" and "Rejected" Statuses Mean? Not all pending orders end in successful publication. Here is what each outcome means: - Publication Unavailable: The placement could not go live due to a site-side issue outside of your control. This is different from a publisher rejection. - Publisher Rejected: The publisher reviewed your order and declined to publish it. This can happen due to content guidelines, niche restrictions, or site policy changes. In both cases, you will see the appropriate status label inside your Publication Status modal so you are never left guessing. 🔄 What Are My Options If an Order Cannot Be Published? If your backlink order is marked as unavailable or rejected, you have two options available directly within the platform: - Choose for Me: Search Atlas will automatically select an alternative publisher that matches your original order criteria, so your campaign keeps moving forward without any manual effort on your part. - Refund HDC: If you prefer not to use an alternative, you can request a refund of your HDC (credits) used for that order. The refund amount is displayed in the Publication Status modal before you confirm. These actions are accessible through the Alternatives Drawer within your order details. Simply open the drawer and select the option that best fits your needs. 🔔 Will I Be Notified About My Order Status? Yes. Search Atlas has a centralized notification system for backlink orders. You will receive notifications when there are meaningful updates to your order, such as a successful publication, a status change to unavailable, or a publisher rejection. Keep an eye on your in-platform notifications to stay informed without needing to manually check each order. ⏩ Can I Expedite My Order? At this time, it is not possible to manually force or fast-track a publisher's editorial process. However, if your order has been pending for an unusually long period with no status update, our support team can investigate and escalate it with the publisher on your behalf. See the section below on how to reach us. 💡 Tips to Avoid Future Delays - Choose publishers with a strong track record and high availability when placing orders. - Ensure your content meets general editorial standards before submission to reduce the chance of rejection. - Monitor your Publication Status modal regularly so you can act quickly if an order needs an alternative or refund. - Use the Choose for Me option promptly when an alternative is suggested to keep your campaign on schedule. 🛠️ Still Need Help? If your order has been pending for more than the expected timeframe, you received an unexpected billing issue related to a backlink charge, or you need help navigating refund options, our team is here to 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

📰 Press Release Distribution Delays Explained

⏱️ Why Does Press Release Distribution Take Time? After you submit a press release through Left sidebar → Authority → PR Distribution, it enters a distribution pipeline that syndicates your content across a network of news outlets and publisher channels. This process is not instant — standard distribution typically takes 2–5 business days from the moment your press release is submitted and payment is confirmed. Several factors can extend this window beyond the standard timeframe: - High submission volume: Periods of elevated demand across all customers can slow queue processing. - Content review: Press releases are reviewed to ensure they meet publisher guidelines before going live. Content that requires revisions may take additional time. - Channel availability: Distribution occasionally experiences delays if a scheduled publisher channel is temporarily unavailable. Our team resolves these automatically. - Submission timing: Press releases submitted late on a Friday or before a public holiday will begin processing on the next business day. 📋 How to Check Your Press Release Status You can monitor the current status of any press release at any time directly inside the platform: 1. Go to Left sidebar → Authority → PR Distribution. 2. Locate your press release in the list. 3. Check the status label next to the entry — common statuses include Pending, Processing, and Published. 4. Click Published to filter and view only live press releases and confirm which ones have completed distribution. If a status has not changed for more than 7 business days, this is outside the expected range and warrants escalation. 🚀 Can I Expedite a Pending Press Release? Expedited processing is available in certain circumstances. If your press release has been in a Pending or Processing status for longer than expected and you have a time-sensitive publication deadline, our support team can manually prioritise your submission in the queue. To request expedited processing, please have the following information ready before contacting support: - The title of the press release(s) you need expedited. - The date each press release was originally submitted. - The reason for the urgency (e.g. tied to a product launch, event, or announcement date). Our team will review the request and confirm whether expedited processing can be applied to your specific submissions. 📌 What to Do If Two or More Press Releases Are Delayed If multiple press releases are pending at the same time and neither has gone live after a week, it is best to report all affected submissions together in a single support conversation. This allows our team to investigate the queue status for your account holistically and resolve any underlying issues affecting your releases simultaneously, rather than handling each one separately. When you reach out, list each affected press release by title and submission date so the team can locate them quickly. ✅ Tips to Avoid Future Delays - Submit early: Allow at least 5–7 business days ahead of any deadline to account for review and distribution time. - Follow content guidelines: Press releases that meet publisher standards move through review faster. Avoid promotional language, unsupported claims, or missing contact details in the body of the release. - Confirm payment: Verify your billing is up to date under Top-right corner (avatar) → Billing → Plans & Top-ups before submitting. A payment issue can pause distribution without an obvious on-screen error. - Submit one at a time when timing matters: If two releases are time-sensitive, stagger submissions so each one is confirmed as processing before you submit the next. 💬 Still Need Help? If your press release has been pending for more than 7 business days, or you need to request expedited processing, our team is ready to assist. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

📦 Why Your Link Building Order Is Delayed

📋 Overview After placing a link building order through Publisher Exchange, most orders are fulfilled within a reasonable timeframe. However, some orders may experience delays — often because the publisher selected for your order is temporarily unavailable. This article explains why delays happen, what Search Atlas does automatically, and how you can take action if needed. ⏳ Why Is My Order Taking So Long? There are two common reasons an order may be delayed: - Publisher unavailability: The publisher you selected may be temporarily unable to accept or fulfil your order. This can happen due to their own scheduling, capacity limits, or platform-side issues. - Publisher rejection: In some cases, a publisher may decline an order, which places it in a pending state until an alternative is selected or the situation is resolved. Search Atlas monitors all active orders and takes automatic action when an order has been stuck for too long. If an order remains unpublished for 7 or more days after creation, our system flags it for review and intervention. If an order has been stuck for 3 or more days without publisher activity, automated workflows are triggered to move the order forward. 🔍 How to Check Your Order Status 1. Click your avatar in the top-right corner of the platform. 2. Select App Ecosystem from the menu. 3. Open the Publisher Exchange tab. 4. Locate your order and review its current status. If your order shows a status related to publication unavailable or publisher rejected, this means the original publisher could not fulfil the order and an alternative may be needed. 🔄 What Happens Automatically Search Atlas has built-in automation to handle delayed orders so you don't have to chase every issue manually: - Orders stuck without publisher action for 3+ days trigger a Pending Action notification and automated follow-up. - Orders unpublished for 7+ days are escalated internally for review. - When a publisher is unavailable, the platform may present alternative publishers directly within the order view so you can keep your campaign on track. ✅ What You Can Do Right Now If your order has been waiting for longer than expected, here are a few steps you can take: 1. Go to Publisher Exchange (avatar → App Ecosystem → Publisher Exchange tab) and open the delayed order. 2. Check whether an alternatives drawer is available — this allows you to select a different publisher and continue your order without starting over. 3. If an alternative is available and suitable, select it to reactivate your order. 4. If no alternatives are shown or the order remains stuck, contact our support team for manual assistance. 💡 Tips to Avoid Future Delays - When placing new orders, consider publishers with a strong track record of timely fulfilment. - Monitor your orders regularly in the Publisher Exchange tab, especially in the first week after ordering. - If you rely on link building for time-sensitive campaigns, place orders with extra lead time to account for potential delays. 🆘 Still Need Help? If your order has been delayed and you're not seeing any updates or alternative options, our team can investigate and resolve it manually. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔥 WILDFIRE Backlinks Missing From Your Dashboard

🔍 Overview WILDFIRE is Search Atlas's link-building feature that facilitates backlink exchanges between projects. Some customers find that the WILDFIRE section does not appear in their dashboard even when they have an active subscription. This article explains why this happens and what you can do about it. ❓ Why Is WILDFIRE Not Visible? The most common reason WILDFIRE does not appear in your dashboard is that the feature is hidden for new accounts and accounts that have never previously engaged with WILDFIRE. This is by design — Search Atlas currently limits WILDFIRE visibility to accounts with prior engagement history to ensure the quality and relevance of the link-building network. Other reasons the section may not appear include: - Your account was created recently and has not yet been granted WILDFIRE access. - Your project has not been active long enough to qualify for the link exchange network. - There is a temporary display issue with your dashboard that a refresh or cache clear can resolve. 🛠️ Troubleshooting Steps Before contacting support, try the following steps to rule out common display issues: 1. Hard-refresh your browser. Press Ctrl + Shift + R (Windows/Linux) or Cmd + Shift + R (Mac) to reload the page and clear cached data. 2. Clear your browser cache and cookies, then log back in to your Search Atlas account. 3. Try a different browser or incognito/private window to check whether a browser extension or cached session is hiding the feature. 4. Verify your subscription. Navigate to your account settings and confirm your current plan includes WILDFIRE. Not all plans include link-building features. 5. Check all projects. WILDFIRE availability can vary by project. If you manage multiple projects, check whether the feature appears under a different project in your dashboard. ⚠️ Known Limitations There are a few known behaviours related to WILDFIRE that are important to understand: - New and never-engaged users do not see WILDFIRE in the UI. This is an intentional platform setting, not a bug. - In some cases, interlink suggestions may not be generated for a project if the project's domain does not yet have enough data or matching opportunities in the WILDFIRE network. - If you previously had WILDFIRE access and it has disappeared, this may be linked to a change in your subscription or account status. 📋 What to Include When You Contact Support If none of the troubleshooting steps above resolve the issue, our team can manually review your account and enable WILDFIRE access where eligible. To speed up the process, have the following information ready before opening a chat: - Your Search Atlas account email address. - The name of the project affected (for example, Koala Fencing). - The URL of the project's website. - A brief description of when the issue started and any troubleshooting steps you have already tried. - A screenshot of your dashboard showing the missing WILDFIRE section. 💬 Contact Support 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🛠️ Fix OTTO Press Release Draft Validation Error

🔍 What Is This Error? When ordering a press release through an OTTO project, you may see a validation error stating that no category is selected — even though a category appears to be chosen. This happens because the draft was saved before the Content Type field was fully completed. OTTO locks the required fields to that incomplete state, causing the error to persist on every subsequent order attempt. 📋 Why This Happens OTTO press release drafts require the Content Type field to be confirmed before the draft is saved or submitted. If you navigated away, refreshed the page, or clicked save while the field was still loading or unselected, the draft records an empty Content Type value internally — even if the field visually appears populated when you return to it. ✅ How to Fix the Error 1. In the left sidebar, click OTTO SEO, then open SEO Automation to access your OTTO dashboard (/seo-automation-v3). 2. Locate the affected OTTO project and open it. 3. Find the press release task showing the validation error and click into it to open the draft. 4. Delete the existing draft. Do not attempt to re-save or resubmit it — the incomplete state cannot be corrected by editing the saved draft. 5. Create a new press release draft from within the same OTTO project. 6. On the new draft form, fill in the Content Type field first, before entering any other information. Wait for the field to fully register your selection (the field label should no longer appear highlighted or empty). 7. Complete all remaining required fields: topic, target URL, word count, and any additional options. 8. Review every field one final time to confirm nothing is blank. 9. Click Submit or Order only after all fields are confirmed — do not save as a draft again until the Content Type is locked in. ⚠️ Important Things to Avoid - Do not refresh the page while filling out a new press release draft — this resets field selections. - Do not navigate away from the draft form before all required fields are complete. - Do not try to fix the original broken draft by re-selecting the category. The internal validation error is tied to the saved state and will not resolve without deleting and recreating the draft. 🧩 Still Seeing the Error After Recreating the Draft? If the error persists after following the steps above, check the following: - Confirm the Content Type dropdown shows a visible, non-placeholder selection (e.g., Press Release, not Select a type…). - Ensure you are working inside the correct OTTO project — submitting from a different project context can cause field mismatches. - Try clearing your browser cache or using a different browser to rule out a cached form state. 💬 Need More 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

📰 Fix a Stuck Press Release & Low OTTO Scores

🔍 Overview If your press release campaign has been sitting in Publishing status for longer than expected — or your OTTO Authority and Content scores remain low despite completing optimization tasks — this article walks you through the most common causes and fixes. ⏳ Why Is My Press Release Stuck in 'Publishing'? A press release can get stuck in Publishing status when one or more distribution channels encounter an error during the syndication process. This can happen due to a temporary issue with a third-party distribution partner, a network timeout, or an internal processing delay. Email notifications may also be delayed or suppressed when a channel fails partway through. Key things to know: - Most distributions complete within a few hours. Anything beyond 24 hours is worth investigating. - A single failed channel can cause the entire campaign to appear stuck. - You will not always receive an email notification when a channel fails — this is a known limitation currently being improved. 🛠️ How to Resolve a Stuck Press Release Because a stuck press release campaign involves a backend processing issue with distribution channels, this cannot be self-resolved through the platform interface. To get it resolved, please escalate to the support team. When you do, have the following information ready: - The exact name of the stuck press release campaign - The date and time you submitted the campaign - How long it has been showing Publishing status - Any error messages or notifications you may have received The support team will investigate the distribution channel error on the backend and work to complete or retry the campaign on your behalf. 📊 Why Are My Authority and Content Scores Still Low? Your OTTO scores — including Authority and Content — are calculated based on a combination of factors that update over time. Completing individual optimization tasks does not always produce an immediate score change. Here is why your scores may still appear low: - Processing delay: OTTO scores refresh periodically, not in real time. After completing tasks, allow 24–48 hours before expecting a visible score update. - Incomplete task clusters: Some score improvements only register after an entire group of related tasks is completed, not individual items within the group. - Press release distribution still pending: If your campaign is stuck in Publishing, the authority signals from that campaign will not yet be reflected in your scores. Resolving the stuck campaign first is recommended before reassessing your scores. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🛠️ Fix Press Release Payment Errors and Image Upload Issues

Overview A common issue arises when publishing press releases in Search Atlas: unexpected payment errors even when your account shows available credits, as well as problems uploading images within the press release editor. Both of these issues require backend investigation by our support team. This article explains what is happening and how to escalate efficiently so our team can resolve it for you. Why You're Seeing a Payment Error A payment error during press release publishing does not always mean your credits are insufficient. There may be an issue with the payment method associated with your account, or the way press release billing interacts with your credit balance. Because the exact cause varies by account, our support team will need to investigate directly. There are no self-serve steps that will reliably resolve this — the fix must be applied on the backend. Image Upload Problems in the Press Release Editor Some users also experience issues uploading images while building their press release. Image upload failures in the press release editor are also backend issues that our team must investigate directly. While there is no guaranteed self-serve fix, you can check the following before reaching out, as this information will help our team diagnose the issue faster: - Confirm your image is in a standard web format (JPG, PNG, GIF, or WebP) — non-standard or corrupted files may fail to upload - Keep file size as small as practical; very large files are more likely to encounter upload errors - Test whether the issue occurs with a different image file to determine if the problem is file-specific or affects all uploads - Note the exact error message displayed at the time of the upload attempt If the issue persists after checking the above, our support team will need to investigate your account configuration or a broader platform problem directly. How to Get Help If you encounter a payment error or an image upload issue while trying to publish a press release, please have the following ready when you reach out: - Your Search Atlas account name - The exact error message you received (copy it verbatim if possible) - The name or title of the press release you were trying to publish - The date and approximate time the error occurred - For image upload issues: the file format, file size, and whether the problem affects all images or specific ones Providing these details upfront will allow our team to identify the root cause and resolve your issue without unnecessary back-and-forth. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔗 Backlink Rejected or Refund Request Guide

🔍 Overview If you have purchased backlinks through Search Atlas and one or more links are being rejected or stuck in a pending state, this article explains the most common causes, what steps you can take, and how to request a refund if the issue cannot be resolved. ❓ Why Are My Backlinks Being Rejected? Backlink rejections can happen for several reasons. Understanding the cause helps you take the right next step: - Link quality review: Each backlink goes through a quality check. Links that do not meet domain authority, relevance, or content standards may be rejected. - Site-level mismatch: The target URL or anchor text submitted during purchase may not match what the publisher can deliver, triggering a rejection. - Publisher availability: The publisher listed for your backlink may no longer be able to fulfill the placement after your order was placed. 🛠️ Steps to Resolve Approval Issues 1. Check your order status: Log in to your Search Atlas account and locate your backlink order to review the current status of each link. 2. Review rejection details: If a reason is provided for a rejected link, address that specific issue — for example, updating your target URL or choosing a different anchor text — and resubmit where the option is available. 3. Contact support for assistance: If multiple links are being blocked or you are unsure why a rejection occurred, contact our support team. Have your order details ready so our team can investigate and determine the appropriate next step. 💰 How to Request a Refund If your backlinks have been rejected and cannot be resubmitted or replaced, you may be eligible for a full or partial refund. Before contacting support, gather the following information to speed up your request: - Your order ID or invoice number - The specific backlinks that were rejected (URL and anchor text) - A brief description of what you have already tried to resolve the issue Refund eligibility is assessed on a case-by-case basis by our support team, who will review your order details and determine the appropriate resolution. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

⚡ Fix Digital PR Inbox Syncing Delays and Missing Emails

Overview If your Digital PR outreach inbox is showing message counts but no emails are appearing, or you see an indication that your mailbox is still syncing with Search Atlas, this article explains why this happens and what to expect. What You Might Be Seeing - Your inbox shows no email content despite appearing active. - Message counts appear in the sidebar, but clicking the inbox reveals no emails. - A notice indicates that email syncing is in progress. - Sent or received emails from outreach campaigns are not visible. Why This Happens When you connect a mailbox to the Digital PR Campaigns inbox for the first time — or after reconnecting a previously unlinked mailbox — Search Atlas must sync your email history from your mail provider. Depending on the volume of emails in your account, this process can take some time. During this window, the inbox UI may display counts or labels before the actual content has loaded. What to Do 1. Wait and refresh. After connecting your mailbox, give it some time and then refresh your browser. Syncing delays are expected behavior and typically resolve on their own once the process completes. 2. Check that your mailbox is properly connected. Confirm that the email account you intend to use for outreach is connected to your Search Atlas account and is not showing a connection error. 3. Confirm your campaign has a linked email account. Verify that your outreach campaign has an associated email account configured, as campaigns without a properly linked mailbox may contribute to inbox display issues. When to Escalate If you have waited a reasonable amount of time and your inbox still shows no emails despite having an active mailbox connection, please reach out to our support team. To help us investigate quickly, have the following ready: - The email address of the connected mailbox experiencing the issue - The name of the affected outreach campaign - A description of what you see in the inbox (e.g., message counts with no content, any on-screen notice text) - Approximately when the issue started 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔗 Fix and Replace a Misplaced Publisher Backlink

🔍 Overview If your article was published on a site that does not match your niche or campaign goals, you can request a publisher replacement through the Link Lab feature inside Search Atlas. This article explains how to identify the issue and what to do next. 📋 When Should You Request a Replacement? You should request a publisher replacement if any of the following apply: - Your article was placed on a site that is irrelevant to your industry or target audience. - The publisher site does not meet the quality or niche criteria you specified at the time of order. - You have not received an update on your placement and want to escalate the request. 🛠️ How to Submit a Publisher Replacement Request Because publisher replacements and urgent link building requests require direct coordination with our team, there is no fully self-serve flow to complete a replacement on your own. To get this resolved, you will need to contact our support team directly (see below). When you do, have the following information ready so we can process your request as quickly as possible: - Campaign name and order ID — found inside your Link Lab campaign details. - Current publisher URL — the site where the article was incorrectly placed. - Preferred replacement publishers — any alternative sites you would like us to consider, along with your niche or targeting criteria. - Replacement article — a new or revised article ready to share with our team if a new publisher is identified. - Urgency or deadline — let us know if this is a time-sensitive request so our team can prioritize accordingly. ⏱️ What Happens After You Reach Out Once our team receives your replacement request, they will review the details and coordinate directly with you on next steps, including identifying a suitable replacement publisher and confirming placement. Our team will keep you updated throughout the process. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🛠️ Fixing Incomplete Press Release Distribution

If your press release shows distribution to only a small number of sites — for example, 15 outlets instead of your full network — there are a few common causes. Most can be identified and resolved directly in the platform. This guide walks you through how to check your distribution status, confirm the count, and take corrective action when needed. 🔍 Why Your Coverage Count May Look Low Before assuming something went wrong, review the most frequent reasons a distribution shows limited site coverage: - Distribution is still in progress. Press releases roll out in waves. Full coverage can take up to 72 hours to complete, so an early check may show only a partial count. - The release was scheduled, not sent immediately. Scheduled or upcoming releases do not begin distributing until their launch time passes. - A limited distribution option was selected. Depending on the package chosen at submission, your release may target a smaller network of outlets. - Some outlets declined or filtered the content. Individual networks can reject releases based on editorial rules, restricted industries, or content guidelines. - Stats were viewed mid-update. Publication reports refresh periodically, so numbers can temporarily appear incomplete or inconsistent. ✅ Check Your Distribution Status Use the Step 4 Distribution & Status drawer to review the real-time state of your release: 1. Open your press release from the main Press Releases table. 2. Navigate to Step 4, Distribution & Status. 3. Open the status drawer to see the full list of targeted outlets and each one's current state (pending, published, or declined). 4. Confirm the release has launched. Releases still marked as upcoming or scheduled are excluded from active distribution until their start time. 5. Compare the total number of targeted outlets against the number marked as published. If most outlets show a pending state, your distribution is still running — allow the full rollout window to finish before taking further action. 🛠️ How to Correct Incomplete Coverage If the distribution window has closed and coverage is still incomplete, follow these steps: 1. Confirm your selected distribution package. Review the submission summary to verify which network tier was chosen. If a smaller package was selected by mistake, you can resubmit the release with the expanded option. 2. Review declined outlets. The status drawer shows which outlets declined the release and why. Addressing the flagged issue, such as editing restricted content, allows you to resubmit. 3. Resubmit the release. After making corrections, resubmit from the press release editor. The new distribution begins within a few minutes and follows the standard rollout window. 4. Verify results in the stats report. Once redistribution completes, check the publication report to confirm the updated count. Each outlet is counted once per successful publication. 📊 Reading Publication Stats Correctly Publication counts reflect outlets that have successfully published your release. Keep these points in mind: - Counts update as outlets publish, not all at once — expect the number to grow during the rollout window. - Declined outlets are listed separately and do not count toward published totals. - If a release has multiple distribution runs, the report reflects the most recent completed run. If numbers still look wrong after the full window has passed, refresh the report page before escalating further. 💡 When to Contact Support Contact support if any of the following apply: - More than 72 hours have passed and the distribution count has not changed. - The status drawer shows an error or a stalled distribution. - Published outlets are missing from your stats report. - You resubmitted a release and it did not redistribute. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

📦 Why Your Link Order Is Delayed

📋 Overview When you place a link-building order through Publisher Exchange, Search Atlas matches your order to a publisher who will place your link on their site. In most cases, orders are fulfilled smoothly and on schedule. However, sometimes a publisher becomes unavailable after your order is placed, which can cause unexpected delays. This article explains why delays happen, what Search Atlas does automatically to resolve them, and what you can do in the meantime. 🔍 Why Orders Get Delayed Delays are almost always caused by one of the following situations: - Publisher unavailability: The publisher assigned to your order is temporarily unable to fulfil it — for example, due to editorial backlogs, site changes, or account issues on their end. - Publisher rejection: The publisher reviewed your order and declined to post the link. This is different from unavailability and is handled through a separate review flow. - Platform matching lag: In rare cases, an order may not be immediately linked to an active publisher after placement, causing it to sit in a pending state longer than expected. ⚙️ What Search Atlas Does Automatically You do not need to take action for most delayed orders. Search Atlas has automated processes in place to catch and resolve these situations: - Orders that remain in a pending state for 3 or more days without publisher activity are automatically flagged and routed through our pending-action resolution flow. - Orders that remain unpublished for 7 or more days after creation are escalated internally for manual review. - If a publisher is confirmed unavailable, Search Atlas will reassign your order to an alternative publisher so fulfilment can continue without you needing to reorder or lose your place in the queue. The reassignment process happens in the background. You will see the order status update in your dashboard once a new publisher has been confirmed. 📊 How to Check Your Order Status You can monitor the current status of all your link orders at any time: 1. Click your avatar in the top-right corner of the platform. 2. Select App Ecosystem from the menu. 3. Open the Publisher Exchange tab. 4. Review the status column next to each order. Statuses such as Pending or In Progress indicate the order is still being processed. If an order has been pending for more than 7 days and you have not received any update, it is a good time to reach out to our team directly (see below). 💡 What You Should Know - Delays do not mean your order has been cancelled. Unless you receive an explicit cancellation notice, your order remains active. - You will not be charged twice if an order is reassigned to a different publisher. - Typical fulfilment timelines can vary by publisher. Some orders may take a few days; others may take a few weeks depending on editorial schedules. - If you see a status labelled Publication Unavailable, this means the original publisher could not fulfil the order and Search Atlas is sourcing an alternative. No action is needed from you. 🛠️ What To Do If Your Order Is Still Stuck If your order has been pending for more than 7 days and you have not seen any status change or received communication, please contact our support team. 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. When you reach out, please have the following ready to help us resolve your case faster: - Your order ID or the URL of the target page you submitted - The date you placed the order - A screenshot of the current order status if available

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

📍 Why Local Citations Don't Show as GSC Links

🗺️ Overview After purchasing a local citation package, you may notice two things: some citations marked Completed don't appear as links in Google Search Console (GSC) or third-party tools, and others seem stuck in progress for months. Both situations are normal in many cases — but there are also scenarios that require escalation. This article explains what to expect and what to do. 🔗 Why Some Citations Never Produce a Link Not every directory creates a publicly indexed, clickable backlink. Several major citation networks store your business data in aggregated databases that power GPS devices, voice assistants, and map applications — rather than hosting a standalone webpage for your listing. Networks that typically do not produce a direct URL or GSC-visible link include: - GPS Network (Data Axle / Localeze / Acxiom): These data aggregators distribute your business information to hundreds of downstream partners. There is no individual listing page to link to. Completion means your data has been submitted to the aggregator feed — not that a webpage exists. - Foursquare: Foursquare's primary function is a location data platform. Business records may exist in their database without generating an indexed public URL. - Navigation and IoT platforms: Services that push data to in-car navigation systems, smart devices, or syndication networks behave the same way. A citation marked Completed on these networks is accurate — the data submission was successful. The absence of a link in GSC is expected, not a mistake. ⏳ Indexing Delays and GSC Visibility Timelines Even for directories that do publish a public listing page, there is no guarantee GSC will pick it up quickly. Several factors affect how long this takes: - Googlebot crawl frequency: Smaller or newer directories may only be crawled every few weeks or months. - Domain authority of the directory: High-authority directories like Yelp or Yellow Pages tend to be indexed faster than niche or regional directories. - GSC reporting lag: GSC typically reflects links discovered within the last 90 days, but the Links report is not exhaustive and can take additional time to update. - Third-party tool delays: Tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz crawl the web independently. A link may be live but not yet discovered by their crawlers — this can add weeks to months on top of GSC lag. As a general guideline, allow 30–90 days after a citation is marked Completed before expecting it to appear in GSC or backlink tools. For aggregator-based networks, do not expect a link to appear at all. ✅ How to Verify a Citation Is Live Before escalating, confirm whether the citation actually exists on the directory by searching for your business name and city directly on the directory's website or via Google. If the listing page is live but not yet in GSC, allow additional time before escalating. If the listing does not appear at all after 90 days, contact support with your project name, the specific citation network, and the date it was marked Completed. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

📍 Fix a Duplicate Citation Campaign

🔎 Why was my campaign rejected? A citation campaign can be rejected when the same business, location, and campaign submission already exist in the citation provider’s system. This duplicate-order safeguard prevents repeated submissions, conflicting business information, and unnecessary charges. In some cases, a second submission may be created before duplicate validation finishes. The order can then be rejected during processing rather than running normally. 📋 What does “duplicate order” mean? It means the system found an existing campaign that appears to cover the same business and location. The matching order may be active, completed, pending, or previously submitted. It does not necessarily mean you intentionally placed the order twice. Campaigns can also appear confusing when multiple orders use similar details. Always compare the business name, address, phone number, website, and campaign date before submitting another order. ✅ How to check your campaign 1. Open the relevant project from Local → GBP Projects. 2. Open the citation campaign or order details. 3. Review its status, submission date, business information, and any rejection message. 4. Check whether another campaign for the same location is pending or completed. Do not create another campaign until you confirm that the existing order cannot be processed. A new submission may be rejected for the same reason. 🔁 Can the campaign be rerun? Often, the correct resolution is to identify the original order and determine whether it can continue or be resubmitted safely. A rerun should use the correct business details and should not create a second active order for the same location. If the campaign was paid for but never ran, gather the order ID, business name, location, and rejection message. The team can review whether the original order is eligible for correction or rerun instead of treating the issue as a simple refund request. ➕ Does a plus sign cause the issue? A plus sign in a business name is not, by itself, proof that the campaign was rejected as a duplicate. Aggregators may normalise punctuation and symbols when matching records, so the character could affect how a listing is displayed or matched, but the rejection reason should be confirmed from the order details. Use the business name consistently with your real-world branding and GBP listing. Do not remove or add the plus sign only to bypass duplicate validation. Inconsistent names can create more matching and listing-quality problems. 🛠️ How to avoid duplicate rejections - Check for an existing campaign before placing a new order. - Confirm that the selected GBP listing is the intended business location. - Review prefilled business details before submitting. - Use one campaign for each business location unless a separate campaign is specifically required. - Save the confirmation and order ID for future reference. 💬 Need help reviewing the order? 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔗 Link Lab Replace-Publisher Option Not Appearing

🔍 Overview If you received an email asking you to select a replacement publisher for a Link Lab order, but the option to change publishers is not visible or functional inside the platform, you are not alone. This was a confirmed platform issue affecting existing orders. The engineering team has since resolved the underlying bug. This article explains what happened, what to expect, and how to get help if the issue persists for your order. ⚙️ What Caused This Issue A bug in the Link Lab system caused the replace-publisher option to be missing on certain existing orders even when customers were actively prompted by email to take action. In some cases, the order status was incorrectly pinned to a rejected state while still holding an open publisher assignment, which prevented the replacement flow from appearing correctly. An additional issue caused the alternative-publisher selection to fail entirely when a publisher re-engaged after a prior rejection. Both bugs have been fixed by the engineering team. ✅ What Was Done to Resolve Affected Orders For orders where this issue was confirmed, the Search Atlas Link Lab team manually reviewed each affected order and progressed them through the publisher-assignment process. Completed orders were marked as done, and orders still in progress were handled by the team directly without requiring further action from the customer. 🛠️ What To Do If You Are Seeing This Right Now If you received an email to select a new publisher but the replace-publisher option is still not available in your order, follow these steps: 1. Check your order status. Log in to the platform and navigate to your Link Lab orders to review the current status of the affected order. If the order already shows as completed, no further action is needed on your part. 2. Check your inbox and spam folder. A follow-up email may have been sent confirming the order was completed or providing updated instructions. 3. Wait briefly if the order is in progress. If the order status shows it is still being processed, the Link Lab team may already be handling it. Allow some time before escalating. 4. Contact support if the issue persists. If the replace-publisher option is still missing and your order has not progressed, reach out to the support team immediately using the steps below. 💡 What To Include When Contacting Support To help the team resolve your issue as quickly as possible, have the following information ready before you open a chat: - Your Link Lab order number(s) (e.g. the numeric ID shown in your order list or in the email you received) - The email subject or date of the message prompting you to select a new publisher - A brief description of what you see — or do not see — when you navigate to the order 📞 Get Support 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔍 Troubleshooting Marquee Publications List Discrepancies

This article explains why the number of publishers you see in the marquee publications list may not match the domain authority thresholds described in the feature overview — and how to check that you are viewing the correct set of listings. 🔍 Common Causes - Advertiser tab vs. Publisher tab: The publications area contains two separate tabs — one for advertisers and one for publishers. The high-DA marquee publishers (DA 90+) are listed under the publisher tab. If you are viewing the advertiser tab, you will see a different and typically smaller set of entries that does not reflect the full marquee inventory. - Active availability: Marquee publication slots are premium placements with limited availability. A publisher that qualifies by DA may temporarily appear unavailable or unlisted if all slots are currently filled or the publisher has paused intake. - Filters applied: Active filters — such as niche, language, or region — can reduce the visible list. A DA 90+ publisher may exist in the full inventory but be hidden by your current filter selections. - Inventory updates: The marquee list is updated periodically. A publisher described in documentation may have been added or reclassified after that content was written, causing a temporary mismatch between the description and live inventory. 🛠️ Step-by-Step 1. Open the publications section of the platform. 2. Locate the tab or toggle that switches between Advertiser and Publisher views, and select the Publisher tab. 3. Clear all active filters (niche, region, language, DA range) to view the full unfiltered list. 4. Apply a Domain Authority filter set to 90 and above to isolate marquee-tier publishers. 5. Review the results. If only one publisher appears, note its name and DA score for reference when contacting support. 6. If you suspect the inventory description is outdated, take a screenshot of the current list and the feature description for comparison. ✅ How to Confirm It Worked After switching to the Publisher tab and clearing all filters, the list should display the full available marquee inventory. When you then apply the DA 90+ filter, every result shown should meet that threshold. If the count still does not match what the feature description states, this confirms a documentation-to-inventory discrepancy rather than a navigation issue — and that information will help our team investigate. You have confirmed the correct view when: the Publisher tab is active, no extra filters are applied, and the DA filter is the only active constraint. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔗 Cancel LinkLab and Fix Payments

🔗 Stop future LinkLab placements If you do not want to proceed with any LinkLab placement, avoid placing new orders and review any existing orders before cancellation. 1. Open the Avatar Menu (👤) in the top-right corner. 2. Select App Ecosystem, then open the Publisher Exchange tab. 3. Select Go to Link Laboratory to review available placements and active work. 4. For placed orders, open the Avatar Menu (👤), select My Orders, then Order Builder. 5. Select View Details for an order and check its current status before taking further action. Do not select + Place Order if you no longer want a placement. Cancellation may not stop work that has already started, so review each order status carefully. 💳 Cancel recurring billing Stopping LinkLab placements and cancelling a recurring subscription are separate actions. To manage recurring billing: 1. Open the Avatar Menu (👤) in the top-right corner. 2. Select Billing, then open the Plans & Top-ups tab. 3. Select Manage Subscription. 4. Follow the cancellation instructions and confirm the change. After cancellation, check the subscription status and effective date. A cancellation usually prevents future recurring charges but may not reverse a charge that has already been processed. ⚠️ Resolve a failed recurring payment If you want the team to retry a payment, first confirm that the saved payment method is valid and can accept the charge. 1. Open the Avatar Menu (👤) and select Billing. 2. Open Plans & Top-ups. 3. Select Add Payment Method and add or update the payment method. 4. Review the subscription status and any payment notices shown in the billing area. Keep the subscription active if you want the charge retried. If you no longer want LinkLab or another recurring service, cancel the subscription instead of requesting another payment attempt. 📋 Check billing records Use the Invoices and Activity Log tabs under Billing to review charges, failed attempts, credits, and subscription changes. If your account shows conflicting information, rely on the latest status displayed in Billing and keep a record of the invoice or activity entry. 🛠️ Get help with cancellation or payment status Support can confirm whether a placement is already in progress, whether a cancellation was recorded, and whether a payment can be retried. Include the relevant order or invoice details when contacting the team. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔧 Fix Brand Vault Projects in Press Release

Overview When you open the Press Release section and try to select a project, Search Atlas pulls the available options from your Brand Vault and its connected Google Business Profile (GBP) locations. If your desired project does not appear in the dropdown — or the selector defaults to the wrong project — it almost always means the Brand Vault has not been fully configured or the GBP location has not yet been linked. This article explains the general relationship between Brand Vault setup and the Press Release GBP project selector, and tells you what to have ready when reaching out to support. How the GBP Project Selector Works The Press Release section does not draw from a general list of all your Search Atlas projects. Instead, it reads only from projects that have a Brand Vault entry with at least one linked GBP location. This means: - Creating a project in Search Atlas is not enough on its own. - You must also create a Brand Vault entry for that project. - The Brand Vault entry must have a GBP location associated with it. - Once the Brand Vault entry is properly configured, the project should become available in the Press Release selector. What to Check First Before escalating, verify the following in your account: - Confirm that a Brand Vault entry exists for the project you want to use in Press Release. - Confirm that a Google Business Profile location has been connected to that Brand Vault entry. - Try navigating away from the Press Release section and returning to it, or perform a hard browser refresh, to rule out a display issue. If you have checked all of the above and the project still does not appear, the issue will need to be investigated by our support team. When Escalating to Support Because Brand Vault configuration and GBP linking involve account-specific settings, our team may need to review your setup directly. To help us resolve this as quickly as possible, please have the following ready: - The exact name of the project or brand that is not appearing in the Press Release selector. - Whether a Brand Vault entry exists for that brand and whether a GBP location has been added to it. - Any error messages you see when attempting to link a GBP location or access the selector. - The approximate time you first noticed the issue. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

⏳ Understanding Pending Publisher Site Selection Status

📋 Overview After placing a link building or SEO Campaign order in Search Atlas, you may notice your order status reads Pending Publisher Site Selection. This is a normal part of the fulfillment process, but it can feel unclear — especially if some time has passed without an update. This article explains what that status means and what to do if you have questions about your order. 🔍 What Does 'Pending Publisher Site Selection' Mean? When you purchase an SEO Campaign that includes placement and writing, your order enters a matching phase. During this phase, the Search Atlas team works to identify and confirm a suitable publisher site for your content. Until a publisher is confirmed, your order will remain in Pending Publisher Site Selection status. No writing or publishing work begins until this step is complete. ⏱️ How Long Does This Phase Take? Publisher matching timelines can vary depending on your niche, domain requirements, and current publisher availability. If you feel your order has been in this status for longer than you expected, it is worth reaching out to our support team so they can review the details of your specific order and provide an accurate update. 🛠️ Steps to Take If You Have Concerns About Your Order Status 1. Log in to Search Atlas and navigate to your order dashboard to confirm the current status of your order. 2. Note your order number and purchase date — having these details ready will help our team look up your order quickly and provide a timely response. 3. Check for any platform notifications or emails that may have been sent regarding your order status or any required action on your part. 4. Contact our support team if you have not received an update or if your order appears to be stuck. Our team can investigate and provide a status update specific to your order. ❓ Why Might an Order Stay Pending? Publisher availability can fluctuate based on niche, placement requirements, and demand. In some cases, the matching process takes additional time to ensure the right fit for your campaign. Our team monitors orders and works to move them through fulfillment as efficiently as possible. If something requires manual attention, a support agent will be able to identify and address it once you reach out. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔗 Resolving Stalled Link Lab Orders

🔍 Why publisher selection can stall A Link Lab order may remain in publisher selection when the assigned publication becomes inactive, stops responding, or cannot accept the placement. The system may continue trying to resolve the order automatically, but this process can take longer than expected. This does not necessarily mean the issue is on your end. A stalled order can also result from a publisher-side change or a platform workflow issue. 📋 Check the order status 1. Open Authority from the left sidebar. 2. Open Campaigns and locate the relevant Link Lab campaign. 3. Open the order and review its current status, publisher details, and activity history. 4. Note the order ID, campaign name, order amount, creation date, and any messages shown. 🛠️ What to do next - Allow the order to remain active if the status shows that publisher selection or auto-resolution is still in progress. - Do not create a duplicate order while the original order is being reviewed. - If the assigned publication is inactive or unsuitable, look for an available replacement or publisher-change option on the order. - If no replacement option is available, record the order details and request a review through the platform chat. 💳 About billing and campaign funds A large order amount does not mean the campaign should be considered complete while publisher selection is unresolved. Keep the order open so its placement, replacement, cancellation, or refund status can be reviewed accurately. Do not submit a second payment for the same requirement unless instructed in the platform. ⏱️ When to request a review Request a review when the order has shown the same status for an unusually long time, the assigned publication is inactive, the publisher-selection controls are missing, or the order appears to be repeatedly attempting automatic resolution. Include the order ID, campaign name, amount, creation date, current status, assigned publication, and screenshots of the activity history. This information helps the team determine whether the publisher should be replaced, the order should be cancelled, or eligible funds should be reviewed. 💬 Contact the support team 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🛠️ Fix Press Release Address Display Errors

🔍 Overview When creating a press release in Search Atlas, some customers notice that address information does not display as expected on the final published version. The most common symptom is the city name appearing multiple times in the address block. This type of issue may require backend correction by the Search Atlas team. ⚠️ Common Address Display Issues - City name duplicated: The city appears more than once in the address field (e.g., "Austin, Austin, TX 78701"). - Incorrect field mapping: Address components such as city, state, or ZIP code are placed in the wrong fields. - Address not displaying correctly on the published version of the press release. These issues may occur when the press release form auto-fills your business information and one or more fields contain duplicated or misformatted data. 🛠️ What You Can Try 1. Open the press release editor and navigate to the press release you want to fix. 2. Review each address field individually — street address, city, state, and ZIP code — and check for duplicated or incorrect values. 3. Clear any duplicated values. If the city field contains the city name more than once (e.g., "Austin, Austin"), delete the entire contents of that field and retype the correct value. 4. Save and republish the press release, then confirm the address appears correctly on the published version. If the address still does not display correctly after editing, this may require a backend correction by the Search Atlas support team. 📋 What to Have Ready When Escalating If you need to contact support about this issue, please have the following information ready so the team can investigate and resolve it quickly: - The name or URL of the affected press release - The exact address that should appear (street, city, state, ZIP) - A description of what is currently displayed incorrectly (e.g., city name appears twice) - A screenshot of the incorrect address display, if possible 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

How to Fix an Incorrect Date in a Press Release

If you see an incorrect or invalid date in your Signal Genesys press release, it is part of the body content — not a standalone scheduling field. You can correct it directly in the editor at any time before the press release is submitted for distribution. 📋 How Dates Work in Signal Genesys Signal Genesys does not include a scheduled publishing feature. When you click Publish, distribution begins immediately — there is no option to set a future release date. The date visible in your press release is typically an AI-generated line embedded in the body text, most commonly formatted as a FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE header near the top of the document. Because this date is part of the body content, you have full control to edit or replace it while the press release remains in draft status. ✏️ Steps to Correct the Date 1. From your Search Atlas dashboard, navigate to Outreach > Press Release. 2. Locate your draft press release in the list and click it to open the editor. 3. Scroll to the top of the body content and find the date line — it is typically formatted as FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — [Date]. 4. Click on the date text and type the correct date in its place. 5. Review the full press release content for accuracy before proceeding. 6. Click Save to store your edits. 7. When you are ready to distribute, click Publish. Distribution begins immediately. ⚠️ Important Limitations - No scheduled publishing: Signal Genesys does not support future-date scheduling. Your press release goes live the moment you click Publish. - Distribution cannot be undone: Once a press release has been published, the distribution cannot be reversed, recalled, or re-dated. Verify all details — including the date — before submitting. - Editable fields before publishing: You can update the title, body content, summary, target URL, keywords, and AI writing instructions at any point while the draft is open. 💬 Need More 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔗 Troubleshooting High Domain Spam Score

If a client's domain shows a high spam score, the fix isn't just running one report — it's a repeatable audit-disavow-recheck cycle. This article walks through exactly how to find the toxic links, take action on them, and confirm the score actually drops afterward. 🛠️ Step-by-Step 1. Open your backlink analysis tool for the domain and pull the full backlink list, sorting by toxicity or spam score if that column is available. 2. Review each flagged link's source page — look for signs of link farms, irrelevant foreign-language sites, hidden text, or expired-domain redirects. These are the highest-impact links to remove. 3. Export or compile the list of toxic domains you've identified. Do not rely on a single toxicity number alone — manually spot-check the top 20-30 highest-spam links, since automated scores can misflag legitimate but low-authority sites. 4. Reach out to webmasters of removable links where possible, and build a disavow file for the remainder following your search engine's disavow tool format. 5. Submit the disavow file through the appropriate search console for the domain. 6. Set a recurring reminder (30-45 days out) to re-pull the backlink profile, since spam score recalculation is not instant. ✅ How to Confirm It Worked - Re-run the backlink audit after 30-45 days and compare the total count of flagged toxic domains against your original export — it should be measurably lower. - Check that the overall domain spam score metric has decreased compared to your first baseline reading, not just that individual links are gone. - Confirm no new toxic backlinks have appeared in the same period, which would indicate an active negative SEO attack requiring an updated disavow file. - If the score hasn't moved after two audit cycles, the remaining toxic links likely need direct removal requests rather than disavowal alone. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🛠️ OTTO Authority Building 403 Error

🔍 What the 403 error means A 403 Forbidden error means the Authority Building 30-Day Growth Plan page rejected the request. This can happen when OTTO uses an outdated page link, your session has expired, or the feature is not correctly enabled for the workspace. Workspace owners and administrators should normally be able to access the plan. 🧭 Open Authority Building from the current menu 1. Sign in to Search Atlas and confirm that you are using the correct workspace. 2. Open Authority from the left sidebar. 3. Open an available Authority section, such as PR Distribution, Cloud Stacks, Indexer, QUEST AI Visibility, Campaigns, or Inbox. 4. Return to OTTO and try opening the Authority Building 30-Day Growth Plan again. 🔄 Try these quick fixes - Refresh the page and sign in again. - Open Search Atlas in a private or incognito browser window. - Clear the browser cache and cookies for Search Atlas. - Disable browser extensions that block scripts or redirect links. - Try a current version of Chrome, Edge, or another supported browser. - Make sure your subscription and workspace are active. 👥 Check your workspace access Open the top-right Avatar Menu (👤) and select Team Members. Confirm that your account is listed as an active Admin or Member in the correct workspace. If you belong to multiple workspaces, switch to the workspace where OTTO and the plan were set up. 🧾 What to include when reporting the issue If the error continues, note the exact steps that produce it, the workspace name, your account role, the browser you used, and the approximate time of the attempt. A screenshot of the 403 page can also help the team identify an outdated link or workspace provisioning issue. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🛠️ Remove an Inaccurate Published Press Release

📌 Understand what can be removed Published press releases can be managed in Search Atlas, but removing a release from the platform does not necessarily remove copies already published on distributor or partner websites. Search Atlas does not currently provide a self-service option to retract a release from every external distribution site. A removal or correction request must be reviewed and handled by our team. 🔍 Gather the release details Before contacting support, collect the information below: - The Search Atlas project or account connected to the release - The release title and publication date - The reason the release is inaccurate or should be removed - The Search Atlas release link, if available - Every distributor or publication URL where the release appears - The exact text or details that need correction 📊 Check the release in Search Atlas 1. Open Authority in the left sidebar. 2. Select PR Distribution. 3. Locate the relevant release and select View report to review its status and distribution details. Do not create a duplicate release while the removal or correction request is being reviewed. 🔒 If the account is frozen A frozen account does not prevent you from requesting help. Include the frozen account status in your message and provide the release details and external URLs listed above. Our team can review the request and explain the available next steps. 💬 Request removal or correction If the release has already been distributed, ask our team to review removal or correction with the specific release and distribution URLs. External sites may have their own publishing and removal policies, so removal cannot be guaranteed from every location. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🛠️ Fix Press Release Link Popup Positioning

🔗 What causes the popup issue? When you add or edit a hyperlink in a press release, the link window may appear partially off-screen. This can happen when the editor is scrolled, the browser window is resized, or the browser zoom level is changed. 📍 Open the press release editor 1. Open Authority from the left sidebar. 2. Select PR Distribution. 3. Choose New Release or Resume to open an existing draft. 🛠️ Try these quick fixes 1. Scroll the editor back to the section containing the text you want to link. 2. Move the page slightly upward or downward so the editor toolbar is visible. 3. Reduce your browser zoom to 90% or 80%, then try opening the link tool again. 4. Maximise the browser window and make sure your device display is not using an unusually large scaling setting. 5. Close and reopen the press release editor, then retry the link tool. 6. If the popup still opens off-screen, refresh the page and reopen the draft from Resume. ✏️ Add the hyperlink 1. Highlight the words you want to link. 2. Select the link or URL tool in the editor toolbar. 3. Enter or paste the destination URL into the popup. 4. Apply or save the link, then confirm that the linked text displays correctly. ✅ Check your link before publishing - Confirm the URL starts with https:// when required. - Check that the link opens the intended page. - Review the surrounding text for formatting issues. - Save the draft before leaving the editor. 💬 Need more help? If the hyperlink popup remains unusable after these steps, note your browser, screen size, zoom level, and the actions that caused the issue. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

📣 Generate PRs for Non-OTTO Sites With Frozen Accounts

🔍 Overview Two common blockers can interrupt your Digital PR (press release) workflow in Search Atlas: a frozen OTTO account that prevents PR generation from completing, and a required email field that stops you from publishing when a client has no company email address. Because the exact steps to resolve these blockers depend on your specific account configuration, our support team will need to assist you directly. ❄️ Understanding Frozen Accounts An OTTO account becomes frozen when it has been paused or deactivated. When a frozen account is involved in a Digital PR workflow, the generation process may stall or fail, blocking the press release from being created. If you are experiencing this issue, please have the following ready before reaching out: - The name of the affected site or OTTO account - A description of where in the PR workflow the process stops (e.g., which step or action fails) - Any error message or on-screen text you see when the workflow stalls - The timestamp of when the issue occurred 📧 Required Email Field Blocking Publishing During the distribution step, Search Atlas may require an email address to send the press release on behalf of the client. If your client has no company email address, this field may prevent you from completing the publish action. If you encounter this blocker, please have the following ready before reaching out: - The name of the project or client site affected - Confirmation of whether the client has any associated domain or email address - A screenshot or description of the exact error or validation message shown 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔗 Cancel LinkLab and Resolve Payment Failures

🔗 Stop future LinkLab placements If you do not want to proceed with a LinkLab placement, do not place a new order. To review existing activity, open the top-right Avatar Menu (👤), select My Orders, then open Order Builder and choose View Details. Review each order’s status and details before taking action. If an order has already been placed or is in progress, cancellation availability may depend on its current status. ⚙️ Review your LinkLab access Navigate to Authority → Link Building Exchange, and select Go to Link Laboratory. Use this area to review LinkLab activity before creating any additional placement. 💳 Fix a recurring payment failure 1. Open the top-right Avatar Menu (👤). 2. Select Billing, then open the Plans & Top-ups tab. 3. Choose Add Payment Method and enter a valid payment method. 4. Review Manage Subscription to confirm the subscription or service you want to keep. After updating your payment method, check the billing status again. If a payment remains unsuccessful, avoid placing new LinkLab orders until the billing issue is resolved. 📄 Check billing records To review charges and account activity, open Billing and select Invoices or Activity Log. These records can help confirm whether a recurring charge was attempted, completed, or still requires action. 🛑 Request help with cancellation If you want to cancel an existing placement or need help confirming that no further recurring charges will be attempted, have the order details and billing information ready. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🛠️ Fix Press Release Link Popups

🔍 What causes the issue? When you add a hyperlink in the press release editor, the link window may open partially outside the browser window. This can make the fields and controls difficult or impossible to use. A separate survey or overlay may also cover the editor controls. ⚙️ Try these quick fixes 1. Close any overlay: Dismiss survey messages or pop-ups covering the press release editor. 2. Reset browser zoom: Set your browser zoom to 100% using the browser menu or Ctrl+0 on Windows or Command+0 on Mac. 3. Resize the window: Maximise your browser window, then reload the press release editor. 4. Scroll to the editor toolbar: If the toolbar is out of view, scroll within the editor until the link tool is visible before selecting it. 5. Try the link tool again: Select the text, choose the hyperlink option, and enter the destination URL. 📝 Add the hyperlink Highlight the words that should become clickable, select the link or URL tool, and enter the full web address, including https://. Confirm the link, then continue through the press release form and save your changes. 🔄 If the popup remains off-screen - Refresh the page and reopen the press release editor. - Try a private or incognito browser window. - Temporarily disable browser extensions that modify pages or display surveys. - Try a different supported browser or display resolution. These steps can restore the popup position and make the link controls accessible without changing your press release content. 💬 Need more 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

Backlink Export Errors and Billing Refund Requests

Overview Some users have reported issues when attempting to export backlink data, including errors, empty files, or corrupted downloads. This article explains what to do if you experience a backlink export failure and how to get help with a related billing refund request. Troubleshooting a Backlink Export Failure If you encounter a backlink export failure — such as an empty file, a corrupted download, or an error during export — please contact our support team via the chat icon in your account. When reaching out, include the following details so our team can assist you as quickly as possible: - The domain or URL you were attempting to export data for - A description of what happened (for example: empty file downloaded, error message displayed, or incorrect row count) - Any error message text you saw on screen - The date and approximate time the issue occurred Our team will investigate the issue and work to resolve it or escalate to engineering as needed. Requesting a Refund for Affected Invoices If a backlink export failure prevented you from using a feature you paid for, you may be eligible to request a billing refund or invoice credit. Please contact our support team via the chat icon in your account and include the relevant invoice details or billing period so our team can review your request. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please reach out to us using the chat icon in your account and we will be happy to help.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🚩 Why Your Press Release Was Flagged for Potentially Offensive Content

If you received an error message about potentially offensive content when submitting your press release, you may be wondering exactly which word or phrase triggered it. This article explains why the flag occurs and what steps are taken to resolve it. Why does this error appear? Certain words or phrases in a press release can automatically trigger our system's offensive content filter. This does not necessarily mean your content is inappropriate — sometimes neutral or industry-specific language can unintentionally match patterns the system monitors. Can I find out which specific part caused the flag? At this time, our system does not yet identify the exact word or phrase that triggered the error. Our team is actively working on improvements to provide that level of detail in the future. We apologize for any inconvenience this limitation may cause. What happens to my press release now? - Our team has reviewed your press release manually. - Your content has been confirmed as good to go. - Your press release will be published on your originally scheduled date — no action is needed on your part. You do not need to edit or resubmit your press release unless a member of our team specifically contacts you to request changes. If you have additional questions or concerns about your submission, please use the in-app live chat widget to chat with a human teammate who can assist you further.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

Fixing the Link Building Exchange SSO Link

This article explains what to do if the Link Building Exchange single sign-on (SSO) link inside Search Atlas does not work as expected. Because the specific cause of this issue is not fully documented, the steps below reflect the most common actions that resolve SSO access problems. If your issue is not resolved after following these steps, our support team can investigate further. What Is the SSO Link? The Link Building Exchange link inside Search Atlas uses single sign-on to authenticate you automatically into the linked tool. If the link fails, it is typically an access issue that our support team can resolve directly for your account. What to Do If the Link Does Not Work 1. Confirm you are actively signed in to Search Atlas before clicking the Link Building Exchange link. 2. Open the SSO link directly from within the Search Atlas platform rather than from a saved or external source. 3. Clear your browser cache and cookies, then sign back in to Search Atlas and try the link again. 4. Try opening the link in a different browser or in a private/incognito window to rule out a browser or session conflict. 5. If none of the above resolves the issue, contact support and have the following ready: your Search Atlas account email, the exact behavior or error message you see when clicking the link, the browser and device you are using, and the approximate time the issue occurred. 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🛠️ Fixing SMTP Email Connection Errors in Digital PR

📌 What This Error Means To send outreach emails from your own address, Digital PR connects to your email provider through SMTP, the standard system used to send email. If the connection fails, you will see an SMTP error, even if your email and password look correct. In most cases, the problem is not a typo. Your email provider is usually blocking the sign-in for security reasons, or one of the connection settings does not match what the provider expects. 🔍 Why It Happens Even With the Correct Password These are the most common causes: - You are using your regular password. Gmail, Yahoo, and many other providers no longer accept your normal password for third-party apps. They require a special app password. - Two-step verification is on, but no app password was created. The provider rejects the login because it cannot ask you for a verification code. - SMTP access is disabled. Some business and school email accounts have SMTP sign-in turned off by an administrator. - Wrong server, port, or security type. A mismatch in any of these will cause the connection to fail. - Incomplete username. Many providers require your full email address (for example, name@yourdomain.com), not just the part before the @. - Provider security block. Your provider may have flagged the sign-in attempt as suspicious and paused it. - Extra spaces or hidden characters. These often sneak in when copying and pasting a password. ✅ Step-by-Step Fix 1. Check your username. Enter your full email address exactly as it appears in your inbox. 2. Create an app password. In your email provider's security settings, turn on two-step verification if needed, then generate an app password for "Mail" or a custom app. Use this in place of your normal password. 3. Paste carefully. Copy the app password and paste it into the password field. Remove any spaces if your provider displays it in groups of characters. 4. Verify the SMTP settings. Confirm the server (host), port, and security type (SSL or TLS) match your provider. See the common settings below. 5. Confirm SMTP is enabled. If you use a work or school account, ask your email administrator whether SMTP sign-in is allowed for your mailbox. 6. Check for security alerts. Open your email inbox and look for a message such as "Sign-in attempt blocked." If you see one, approve the attempt, then try connecting again. 7. Save and test again. Reconnect your email in Digital PR and send a test message. 📧 Common Provider Settings These are typical settings. Providers can change them, so confirm with your provider's help pages if something does not work. - Gmail / Google Workspace: Server smtp.gmail.com, port 587 with TLS (or 465 with SSL). An app password is required when two-step verification is on. - Outlook / Microsoft 365: Server smtp.office365.com, port 587 with TLS. An administrator may need to enable SMTP sign-in for your mailbox. - Yahoo Mail: Server smtp.mail.yahoo.com, port 465 with SSL (or 587 with TLS). An app password is required. - Custom domain email: Use the SMTP details from your hosting or email provider. These are often found in the email account settings of your hosting dashboard. 🧹 Common Mistakes to Avoid - Using your regular login password instead of an app password. - Entering only the first part of your email address as the username. - Choosing SSL with a TLS port, or the other way around. - Trying many times in a row. Repeated failed attempts can cause your provider to temporarily lock the sign-in. - Using an old app password after you changed your main account password. Some providers cancel app passwords when this happens, so create a new one. 💡 Helpful Tips - Test your credentials in another email app first. If they fail there too, the issue is with your email account settings, not Digital PR. - If you wait 15 to 30 minutes after a provider security block, the block can clear on its own. - Use a dedicated email address for outreach if you plan to send many messages. This helps protect your main inbox reputation. - Do not share your password or app password with anyone, including in chat. You can safely describe the problem without it. 💬 Still Need Help? If you have tried the steps above and still see the error, we are happy to help. Before you reach out, it is useful to have these details ready: - Your email provider (for example, Gmail, Outlook, or a custom domain) - The exact wording of the error message - The server, port, and security type you entered (never your password) 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

📬 Handling Bounced Contacts in Digital PR Outreach

⚡ Quick Answer If some of your Digital PR emails bounced or got an automatic reply such as 'no longer with the organization,' this is normal and not a problem with your account. People change jobs often, and no contact database is 100% current at all times. - Should you ignore them? Don't send to those contacts again, but don't worry about the bounces themselves. - Do you need to tell Search Atlas? No, it isn't required. If you see a large number of bounces, we'd still like to hear about it (see the last section). - How do you refresh your list? Remove the bounced contacts, look for replacement contacts at the same site, and run a new Prospect Finder search for fresh results. 🔍 Why Do Contacts Bounce? Prospect Finder helps you find people and websites to pitch. Contact details can go out of date between the time they are collected and the time you send your email. Common reasons include: - Job changes: The person left the company or moved to a different role. - Closed mailboxes: The company deactivated the address after the person left. - Company changes: The website was sold, rebranded, or changed its email domain. - Strict mail servers: Some servers reject outreach emails from unknown senders. - Full or unavailable inboxes: The address is valid, but the mailbox can't accept messages right now. 📖 Understanding the Types of Replies Not every bounce means the same thing. Knowing the difference helps you decide what to do next. - Hard bounce: The address doesn't exist or is permanently unavailable. Remove it from your list and don't email it again. - Soft bounce: A temporary issue, such as a full inbox or a server problem. You can try again later, but remove the contact if it keeps failing. - Auto-reply, 'no longer with the organization': The person has left. The address is outdated, so remove it and look for the right replacement. - Out-of-office reply: The person is temporarily away. The contact is still valid, so you can follow up when they return. ✅ What to Do With Bounced Contacts 1. Don't resend. Repeated emails to invalid addresses can hurt your sender reputation and make future emails more likely to land in spam. 2. Make a list of the affected contacts. Note which addresses bounced and which websites they belong to. 3. Remove them from your active outreach list. This keeps them out of future campaigns. 4. Check the 'no longer with the organization' replies. Some of these name a replacement or a general address. If they do, you can reach out to that person instead. 5. Keep the websites. A bounced contact doesn't make the site a bad opportunity. Often only the person is outdated, so the site is still worth pitching. 🔄 How to Refresh Your Prospect List Once you've cleaned out bounced contacts, use these steps to rebuild your list with current information. 1. Run a new Prospect Finder search. Newer searches may return more recent contact details than a list you saved a while ago. 2. Find the right person on the site. Check the website's team, About, or Contact page, or the editor's professional profile, to see who currently handles the topic you're pitching. 3. Look for a different contact at the same site. A newsroom, editorial desk, or another team member can be a good alternative. 4. Compare against your bounce list. Make sure the contacts you add aren't ones you've already removed. 5. Send in smaller batches. Testing a small group first shows you early whether a list has many outdated contacts before you send the full campaign. 💡 Tips to Reduce Bounces in Future Campaigns - Use fresh lists. The older a saved list is, the more likely it is to contain outdated contacts. Try to run campaigns soon after you build the list. - Review contacts before sending. A quick check that the person still works at the site can save you many bounces. - Keep your bounce rate low. A small number of bounces is normal, but if a large share of a campaign bounces, pause and clean the list before sending more. - Personalize your pitches. Emails that are relevant to the recipient are less likely to be marked as spam. - Keep a suppression list. Save addresses that have bounced or asked not to be contacted so they never get added back by mistake. 📣 Should You Report Bounced Contacts to Search Atlas? You don't have to report individual bounces, because they are an expected part of outreach. However, it is helpful to contact us if: - A large share of a single campaign bounced. - Many bounces come from the same search or the same group of websites. - You notice contacts that seem consistently wrong or outdated across several searches. When you contact us, include the campaign or search you used, roughly how many emails bounced, and a few example websites. This helps our team review the issue faster. 🙋 Need More Help? 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔗 Why Your WILDFIRE Backlinks Haven't Arrived

If you have given backlinks through WILDFIRE and haven't seen the links you were expecting in return, you're not alone. This is one of the most common questions we get. This article explains how the 2:1 ratio works, why your links may not be visible yet, and what to do next. ⚖️ How the 2:1 Ratio Works WILDFIRE is a reciprocal backlink exchange. The ratio is 2:1, which means that for every 2 backlinks you give, you are eligible to receive 1 backlink in return. - If you gave 2 backlinks, you can expect 1 in return. - If you gave 10 backlinks, you can expect 5 in return. So your math is correct. If you have given 10 and are expecting 5, that matches the ratio. The ratio describes what you are eligible to receive. It does not mean every link appears at the same moment you place your own. ⏳ Why Your Backlinks May Not Be Visible Yet There are a few common reasons the links you earned may not show up right away: - Timing: Reciprocal links are usually placed after your outgoing links are completed and confirmed, not instantly. Some delay is normal. - Verification: The links you gave generally need to be live and detectable before they count toward your total. - Partner site placement: Your incoming links are placed on other sites, so they depend on those placements being completed. - Indexing delays: Even after a link is live, it can take time for search engines and backlink tools to discover and report it. - Removed or changed links: If one of the links you gave was removed, edited, or is not working, it may not count toward your ratio. ✅ What to Check First 1. Open your WILDFIRE dashboard and confirm how many outgoing links are listed as given or completed. 2. Check that each outgoing link is live. Open the page and make sure your partner's link is visible and working. 3. Divide the confirmed number by 2. This is the number of incoming links you should expect (for example, 10 confirmed links means 5 incoming). 4. Review the list of incoming links in your dashboard. Some may be pending rather than missing. 5. Check the dates. If your links were given recently, allow additional time for placement and discovery. 🔍 How to Verify a Received Backlink If your dashboard shows an incoming link as complete but you can't see it in a backlink tool, try the following: - Open the linking page directly and look for your link on the page. - Confirm the link points to the correct URL on your site. - Wait a few days and check again, since tools often report new links with a delay. 💡 Tips to Avoid Confusion - Keep a simple record of how many links you have given and the dates you gave them. - Count only links that are confirmed live when calculating what you should receive. - Remember the ratio is 2 given to 1 received, so the number you receive will always be about half of the number you give. - Avoid editing or removing links you have given, since this can affect your total. 💬 When to Contact Support Reach out if all of the following are true: - Your outgoing links are confirmed live. - A reasonable amount of time has passed since you gave them. - Your incoming total is still lower than the 2:1 ratio suggests. To help us resolve it faster, have this information ready: - Your project or website domain - The number of backlinks you have given - The number of backlinks you have received - The approximate dates your links were placed - Any specific links you believe are missing 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🛠️ Link Lab Refunds, PR Indexation, and OTTO Scores

📌 Overview Customers sometimes ask three related questions at once: what happens when Link Lab placements are rejected, why a press release shows Live while fewer links are indexed, and why the OTTO score can go up while other site health numbers get worse. This article explains each situation and what to do next. - Rejected Link Lab placements and refund requests - Live press releases versus indexed links - OTTO score versus Flawless Pages and Site Issues - OTTO Grader versus Site Explorer scores 💳 Rejected Link Lab Placements and Refunds A Link Lab order can include several placements. Sometimes a publisher rejects a placement, for example because of content fit or the publisher's own guidelines. When that happens, the placement is not delivered, and the value of that placement may be eligible for a resolution. Resolution options can include a replacement placement, a refund, or credits. The right option depends on your order and the status of each placement, so a team member needs to review it. Credits such as HDC credits can be requested as your preferred option, but they must be confirmed by our team. To request a resolution, have this information ready: 1. Your Link Laboratory order number. 2. The list of placements marked as rejected. 3. Your preferred outcome (for example, value returned as HDC credits). Please do not place a duplicate order to replace rejected placements until you have confirmed the outcome. This helps avoid being charged twice for the same value. 📰 Why a Live Press Release Shows Fewer Indexed Links Seeing Live on a press release does not mean every link in it is indexed. These are two separate stages: - Live: the press release has been published and is visible on the distribution site or network. - Indexed: a search engine such as Google has discovered the page, processed it, and added it to its search index. Search Atlas can publish your release, but search engines decide if and when to index each page. For example, a release that is Live with 31 links may show only 16 indexed, and another with 20 links may show 13. That gap is common, and it usually narrows over time. Common reasons for a gap: - Timing: indexing can take days or several weeks, especially for new pages. - Duplicate or syndicated content: search engines may skip pages that look very similar to others. - Low-priority pages: pages with little authority or few visits may be crawled less often. - Link counts: the total includes every link in the release and its syndicated copies, while the indexed count only includes pages that search engines have processed. What you can do: 1. Wait at least two to four weeks after publication before judging results. 2. Check the indexed count again in the platform to see whether it has increased. 3. Avoid republishing the same release, as this can create more duplicate content. 4. If the count has not changed after several weeks, contact our team with the release names and dates. 📈 Why Your OTTO Score Went Up While Other Numbers Got Worse It can look contradictory when your OTTO score rises (for example from 62 to 88) while Flawless Pages drops and Site Issues rises. These numbers measure different things, so they can move in different directions. - OTTO score: reflects overall optimization progress, such as fixes that OTTO has found and deployed on your site. - Flawless Pages: counts pages with no detected issues at all. A single new issue removes a page from this count. - Site Issues: counts the problems found across the site. This number can grow when a new scan covers more pages or checks more things. Common reasons the numbers diverge: - A new crawl found more pages than the previous one, which also surfaces more issues. - New content or site changes introduced fresh issues. - Fixes were applied to high-impact items, which raises the score, while smaller issues remain open. - The scores were refreshed at different times, so you are comparing data from different scans. A rising OTTO score alongside more issues is not necessarily a sign that something broke. It often means the tool now has a fuller picture of your site. ⚖️ OTTO Grader vs. Site Explorer: Which Score Is Correct? Both can be correct, because they are not designed to produce identical numbers. They may use different crawl timing, page coverage, and scoring methods. - OTTO Grader: best for tracking optimization progress over time and seeing how your changes affect your overall score. - Site Explorer: best for detailed audit-level review of pages, issues, and site data. Tips for comparing them: 1. Compare each tool only against its own earlier results, not against the other tool. 2. Check the date of the last scan or refresh in each tool. 3. Use the OTTO score to judge progress, and use the issue lists to decide what to fix next. 4. Re-check after a new scan has completed, as numbers often settle after a refresh. ✅ Quick Checklist - Rejected placements: gather your order number and preferred outcome, then contact our team. - Indexation gap: wait a few weeks and avoid republishing the same release. - Score differences: compare scans from the same date and use each tool for its own purpose. 💬 Need More Help? 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔍 Publisher Domain Showing DA 0 and Inactive

📌 Overview When you add a website to your publisher dashboard, Search Atlas checks its Domain Authority (DA) to decide whether the domain can be marked active. Sometimes a newly added domain shows a DA of 0 and an inactive status, even though another SEO tool reports a much higher score, such as 41. This article explains why that happens and what you can do about it. ❓ What You May See - A domain you recently added appears in your publisher dashboard with the status Inactive. - The DA column shows 0. - Another SEO tool, browser extension, or metrics checker shows a higher DA for the same website. 🧠 Why This Happens Domain Authority is not an official Google metric. It is a score calculated by third-party providers, and each tool uses its own data and update schedule. A DA of 0 on a newly added domain usually has one of the following causes: - The metric has not refreshed yet. When a domain is added, its authority data may not be pulled in right away. The dashboard can show 0 until the first successful update. - Different data sources. Two tools can report different DA values for the same site because they update at different times and use different link databases. - Domain format differences. The root domain, the www version, and a subdomain can return different results. For example, a tool may check example.co.uk while another checks www.example.co.uk. - Country-specific domain endings. Domains ending in .co.uk or other regional extensions are sometimes not matched correctly on the first lookup. - Temporary lookup failure. If the metric provider did not return data when the domain was added, the value may default to 0 until the next successful check. 🛠️ What to Check First Before reaching out, run through these quick checks. They often resolve the issue or give our team what they need to fix it faster. 1. Confirm the domain was entered correctly. Open your publisher dashboard and check the spelling, the extension (for example, .co.uk instead of .com), and that no extra characters or paths were added. 2. Use the root domain. Enter the domain without extra pages or folders, such as example.co.uk rather than example.co.uk/blog/post. 3. Check that the website is live. Open the site in your browser and make sure it loads normally and is not redirecting to another domain or showing an error. 4. Give it some time. If you added the domain recently, wait and then refresh your dashboard. Metrics can take time to update after a domain is first added. 5. Compare like for like. Check the DA for the exact same version of the domain in your other tool, and note which tool you used and the date of the check. ✅ How to Get the DA Rechecked If the domain still shows DA 0 and inactive after you have completed the checks above, our team can review the listing and request a recheck. To speed things up, prepare the following information: - The exact domain as it appears in your dashboard (for example, celebrityfigures.co.uk). - The DA value you see in your other SEO tool. - The name of that tool and the date you checked. - A screenshot of your publisher dashboard showing the DA and status, if possible. With these details, the team can verify the domain, trigger a metric refresh where needed, and confirm whether the domain qualifies to be set as active. ⚠️ Things to Keep in Mind - Search Atlas may use a different DA source than the tool you are comparing against, so the numbers will not always match exactly. - A domain can only be marked active if it meets the publisher requirements at the time of review. A recheck does not guarantee activation, but it ensures the decision is based on current data. - Avoid removing and re-adding the same domain repeatedly. This does not speed up the update and can make the listing harder to track. 💡 Quick Troubleshooting Summary - DA 0 right after adding a domain: wait for the metric to refresh, then check again. - DA differs from another tool: this is normal, since each tool uses its own data and schedule. - Still inactive after waiting: verify the domain spelling, make sure the site loads, and request a review with your evidence. 💬 Need More Help? 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔗 Removing an OTTO Wildfire Community Backlink

🔍 What Is the otto-community-backlink Link? If you see a link labeled or tagged otto-community-backlink on your website, it was added by OTTO as part of the Wildfire community backlink feature. Wildfire connects sites in the Search Atlas community so they can reference each other with relevant links. The goal is to help the sites involved build link authority. The link is not malware, and it does not mean your site was hacked. It appears because OTTO is active on your site and the community backlink feature was applied to it. ❓ Why Is It on My Site? Common reasons include: - OTTO is installed or deployed on your website, and Wildfire community linking is enabled for your project. - The link was added automatically after your project was enrolled in Wildfire. A partner site approved a link request, or the request was auto-approved after 3 days with no answer, and OTTO then inserted the link into that partner's page. - Your project may have been enrolled in Wildfire by default when it was created, or someone on your team turned Wildfire on in the project settings, and you may not have realized that included the community link exchange. If you did not expect this link, you are not required to keep it. You can opt out. 🚫 How to Opt Out of Wildfire Community Backlinks Follow these steps to stop OTTO from placing community backlinks on your site: 1. Log in to your Search Atlas account and open the OTTO SEO project for the affected website. 2. Look in the project settings for any option related to Wildfire or community backlinks. 3. Turn the option off, or choose to opt out, and save your changes. 4. You do not need to re-deploy or refresh OTTO. After you confirm, removal starts right away and your pages update automatically. The option is in each project's Settings under "WILDFIRE link exchange", and it applies to that project only. If you cannot find the option, or you want help opting out several projects, contact our support team. 🧹 How to Confirm the Link Is Gone After you opt out, it can take a little time for the change to show on your live pages. To check: 1. Clear your website cache. This includes any caching plugin, your hosting cache, and any CDN such as Cloudflare. 2. Open the affected page in a private or incognito browser window. 3. View the page source (or use your browser's inspect tool) and search for otto-community-backlink. The link is injected into the page footer and may be hidden from view. 4. If it is still there after the cache is cleared, wait a short while and check again. ⚠️ Should I Delete the Link Manually? We recommend opting out first rather than deleting the link by hand. OTTO may add the link back the next time it syncs with your site if you only remove it manually. Once you have opted out, the link should not return. If a leftover copy remains in your page content, you can safely remove it from your CMS. 💡 Tips to Avoid Surprises - Review OTTO settings after initial setup so you know which features are on. - Share this setting with anyone on your team who manages OTTO, so everyone knows your preference. - Check your site after major OTTO deployments to confirm only the changes you want are live. 💬 Still Need Help? If the link is still showing, or you cannot find the opt-out setting, our team can remove it and opt your account out of Wildfire community backlinks. Please have these details ready: - Your website domain - The URL of the page where you see the link - A short note that you want to opt out of Wildfire community backlinks 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

📦 Why You Haven't Received Orders After Adding Websites as a Publisher

📌 Overview After adding your websites to Search Atlas as a publisher, you may expect orders to arrive right away. In practice, orders are placed by buyers who choose sites from the marketplace. They are not manually assigned to publishers, and the number of sites you add does not guarantee an order. This article explains how orders reach publishers and what you can do to improve your chances. 🔍 How Publisher Orders Work - Buyers browse the available sites and select the ones that fit their campaign goals, budget, and niche. - An order is created only when a buyer chooses your website and places a request. - Orders cannot be assigned or reserved for a publisher on request, so the support team is unable to hand out orders to new accounts. - It is normal for a newly added site to wait some time before its first order. ⏳ Common Reasons You Have Not Received Orders Yet - Site not yet approved or active: Newly added websites may need to be reviewed or verified before they are visible to buyers. - Incomplete site details: Missing category, language, country, or other information makes it harder for buyers to find your site. - Pricing: Prices that are high compared to your site's metrics and niche can reduce buyer interest. - Site metrics and quality: Buyers often filter by authority, traffic, and content quality, so sites with lower metrics may appear in fewer results. - Niche demand: Some topics and categories receive more requests than others. - Restrictive content policies: Limits on topics or link types may narrow the number of buyers who can use your site. ✅ Steps to Improve Your Chances of Getting Orders 1. Open your publisher dashboard and check the status of each website you added. 2. Confirm that every site is approved, active, and available for orders. 3. Complete all site details, including category, language, country, and any content guidelines. 4. Review your pricing and compare it to the quality and traffic of each site. 5. Make sure your content guidelines and turnaround expectations are clear and reasonable. 6. Check that your site is accessible, loads properly, and has fresh, high-quality content. 7. Check your account notifications regularly so you can respond quickly when an order arrives. ⚡ Tips for Handling Your First Orders - Respond to new orders promptly, since fast response times help build a good reputation. - Follow the buyer's requirements and your own published guidelines closely. - Deliver on time and at the expected quality so buyers return and recommend your sites. - Keep your site information up to date as your metrics and content change. 🚫 What Support Can and Cannot Do - Can do: Help you check why a site is not showing as active, review your site setup, and answer questions about how the publisher process works. - Cannot do: Assign or guarantee specific orders, since orders depend on buyer demand and selection. 💬 Need Further Help? 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🛠️ How to Fix a Wrong Press Release Category

📌 Overview It is easy to pick the wrong category when submitting a press release. For example, you may have meant to choose Lifestyle but selected Apps and Software by accident. This article explains what to do if that happens and how to avoid it in the future. 🎯 Why the Category Matters The category tells distribution channels and readers what your press release is about. A mismatched category can affect: - Which sections of a news site or network your release appears in - How relevant the release looks to the audience you want to reach - How clearly the release fits the topic of your content If the category is wrong, it is worth correcting it as early as possible. ⚡ What to Do Right Away Whether a category can be changed depends on where your press release is in the submission process. Follow these steps: 1. Open your press release in the platform and check its current status. 2. If the release is still a draft or has not been finalized, open it and look for the category field. Select the correct category and save your changes. 3. If the release has already been submitted, do not submit a duplicate. A second submission can create confusion and may use up an additional release. 4. Note the title of your press release, the category you selected, and the category you actually wanted. 5. Contact our team using the chat widget so they can review the release and tell you what options are available. 💬 What to Tell Our Team Including the right details in your first message helps us resolve the issue faster. Please share: - The title of the press release - The category you selected by mistake - The category you want instead - The date you submitted the release Example message: I submitted a press release and selected Apps and Software by mistake. I meant to choose Lifestyle. Can the category be updated? ✅ How to Avoid This in the Future - Review the category before you click submit. Take a few seconds to double-check the dropdown selection. - Choose the category that best matches your main audience, not just the product or service you mention. - If you are unsure which category fits best, think about where a reader would expect to find the story. - Use the preview or review step, if available, to confirm all details before final submission. ❓ Common Questions - Can I submit the release again with the right category? We recommend that you do not do this until you have checked with our team. A duplicate may cause extra charges or duplicate content. - Will the wrong category hurt my results? It may affect where your release is shown, which is why we recommend reporting the mistake quickly. - Is there a deadline for reporting the mistake? The sooner you report it, the more options are usually available, so please reach out as soon as you notice it. 🙋 Need More Help? 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026

🔗 Troubleshooting Publication Media Published Article Links

📌 What This Article Covers When an article from Publication Media goes live, you receive a link to the published page. Sometimes customers send us that link without a question, or aren't sure what to check next. This guide explains what to look for on a published article, how to fix common concerns yourself, and what details help us resolve your request quickly. ❓ Why Customers Contact Support About Published Links Most requests about a published article link fall into one of these groups: - The link doesn't open or shows an error page. - The article looks different than expected, such as a changed title, edited text, or missing images. - Your link is missing or incorrect inside the article, including the wrong destination page or anchor text. - The article isn't showing in search results yet. - You want to confirm the article is live and counted as delivered. - You want a change to the article after it was published. If you shared only a URL, our team has to guess which of these applies. Telling us what you noticed gets you an answer faster. ✅ Step-by-Step: Check Your Published Article 1. Open the link in a new browser window. Use a private or incognito window to make sure you're seeing the page as any visitor would. 2. Confirm the page loads. If you see an error, wait a few minutes and try again. Then try another browser or device. 3. Check the headline and content. Make sure the article matches what you expected and reads as a normal news-style page. 4. Find your link. Scroll through the article and look for your brand name, anchor text, or website link. Hover over it to confirm the destination. 5. Check the link destination. Click the link and make sure it opens the right page on your website. 6. Review the Publication Media section of your account. Look at the status of the order or placement to confirm it is marked as published. 🛠️ Fixing Common Issues The page doesn't load. Temporary downtime on the publisher's site can cause this. Try again after a short wait. If the page still doesn't open after a few hours, let us know. Your link is missing or goes to the wrong page. Compare the article with the details you submitted. Then tell us the exact link you expected and what you found instead. The text has changed. Publishers sometimes make small editorial edits for style or formatting. If the changes affect your link, your message, or the accuracy of your information, report it and describe what is different. The article isn't appearing in search results. A new page can take time to be discovered and indexed by search engines. This timing varies and is controlled by the search engines, not by Search Atlas or the publisher. Checking again after a few days is usually the best first step. You want to request an edit. Be specific. Tell us what should change, such as the anchor text, the link URL, or a factual detail, and include the article link. 📝 What to Include When You Ask for Help A short, clear message helps us act right away. Please include: - The published article URL you are asking about. - Your question or goal, in one or two sentences. For example: "My link is missing from this article" or "Please confirm this article is live." - The project or website the placement belongs to. - What you expected compared with what you see. - A screenshot, if something looks wrong on the page. Sharing the link alone is a good start, but adding your question means we can skip the back-and-forth. 💡 Tips to Avoid Issues - Double-check your website URL and preferred anchor text before submitting a Publication Media request. - Review the article soon after you are notified it is live, so any concerns can be addressed early. - Save the published links in a spreadsheet or your reporting tool to track results over time. - Be patient with search visibility. New articles often need time before they show up in search. 🙋 Frequently Asked Questions How do I know my article is live? Open the published link in your browser. If the article loads and your link is present, it is live. You can also check the status in the Publication Media section of your account. Can I ask for changes after publication? You can request them. Whether a change is possible depends on the publisher, so tell us exactly what you need and include the URL. Does the article need to be indexed right away? No. Indexing happens on the search engine's schedule and can take some time. What if I'm not sure what's wrong? That's fine. Send the article link and describe what caught your attention, even if you're not sure it's a problem. 💬 Need More Help? 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.

Last updated on Oct 26, 2026