Features & How-To

🖼️ OTTO Alt Text Contradictory States and Credit Usage

🔄 Reset OTTO SEO for a New Website Build

🔄 Reset OTTO SEO After a Website Rebuild

✅ How to Bulk Select All Page Titles

This article covers the bulk select all option for page titles. 1. Open the page title tasks. 2. Use the bulk selection option to select all page title tasks at once. 3. Review the selected tasks and apply your intended action. 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.

✅ How to Bulk Select Page Title Tasks

This article explains how to select multiple page title tasks in bulk so you don't have to click each task one by one, and how to confirm your selection was applied correctly. 📍 Where to Find It Page title tasks live under Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → Site Audit. 🛠️ Step-by-Step 1. Go to Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → Site Audit. 2. Locate the list of page title tasks awaiting review or approval. 3. At the top of the task list, click the header checkbox (or "select all" control) to select all visible tasks on the page at once, rather than clicking each row individually. 4. Note that selections are capped at 100 tasks per batch. If you have more than 100 tasks, apply your action to the first batch, then repeat the select-all step for the next page of tasks. 5. With tasks selected, apply your intended bulk action (such as approve, reject, or publish) from the action menu that appears once items are checked. ✅ How to Confirm It Worked - After clicking select all, check that a counter or label appears near the task list showing the number of selected tasks (e.g., "98 selected"), confirming the selection registered. - Once you apply a bulk action, refresh the Site Audit page and verify the affected tasks no longer appear in the pending list, or that their status has updated accordingly. - If the counter does not update or tasks remain unchanged after refreshing, try selecting fewer tasks at once, staying under the 100-task limit. 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.

🔍 Verify OTTO Title-Tag Changes

🔍 What OTTO change history includes OTTO does not store a detailed, customer-visible history of every title-tag fix. As a result, there may be no historical log available to confirm when a specific title tag was changed or what its previous value was. Do not assume that a missing history means OTTO made no change. It means the platform cannot provide a stored fix record for that comparison. 🧩 Confirm the project association Before reviewing a site, confirm that it is an OTTO project associated with your Search Atlas account. A domain may exist in another account, workspace, or project without being available to you. 1. Open the project currently selected in Search Atlas. 2. Check that the project domain matches the site you want to review. 3. Confirm that OTTO is enabled for that project. 4. If the project or domain is missing, do not use another project’s data to verify the change. For example, if neroac.com is not an OTTO project associated with your account, Search Atlas cannot confirm OTTO changes for that site from your account. 📄 Check the current title tag Open the associated OTTO project and review the page’s current title tag using the available page or SEO details shown in that project. Compare the current value with a trusted source, such as a previous crawl, your CMS, or a saved page snapshot. Search Atlas may show the current state without providing a historical record of the change. Avoid claiming that OTTO changed a title unless independent evidence supports that conclusion. ✅ How to explain a discrepancy - Current title differs: A change may have occurred, but OTTO’s unavailable fix history cannot identify when or confirm that OTTO made it. - Current title matches: There is no visible title-tag difference in the current data. - Project is unavailable: The site cannot be verified from the current account until the correct associated project is accessible. - External tools disagree: Check crawl dates, caching, redirects, and whether each tool inspected the same URL version. 🚫 What not to claim Do not say that OTTO stores detailed title-tag change history, provide an invented dashboard location for historical fixes, or confirm a change when the site is not associated with the customer’s OTTO project. 💬 Get help verifying access 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.

🤖 OTTO SEO Bulk Suggestion Generation — Supported Categories

🔍 Overview OTTO SEO includes a bulk suggestion generation feature that lets you generate AI-powered recommendations for multiple pages at once. However, this feature is only available for certain task categories — not all on-page tasks. This article explains which categories are supported, why others are excluded, and what you can do instead. ✅ Categories That Support Bulk Suggestion Generation Bulk suggestion generation works for task categories that follow a structured, template-based format. OTTO SEO can reliably produce consistent, page-specific output for these types because the required inputs are predictable and well-defined. Supported categories include: - Meta Descriptions — generated from page content and target keywords - Title Tags — generated using page topic, brand name, and keyword data - Basic Schema — structured data markup generated from recognised page patterns These categories share a common characteristic: each suggestion follows a defined structure, has a clear character or format constraint, and can be produced accurately at scale without requiring manual context from you. ❌ Categories That Do Not Support Bulk Generation Many on-page task categories are excluded from bulk generation because they require context, judgment, or content decisions that cannot be reliably automated across a large number of pages in a single action. Examples of unsupported categories include: - Header tags (H1, H2, H3) — depend on the specific structure and intent of each page's content - Image alt text — requires understanding of image context, which varies widely - Content body improvements — involve editorial decisions unique to each page - Internal linking suggestions — depend on your site architecture and existing link graph - Canonical tags — require manual review of duplicate content relationships Attempting to bulk-generate suggestions for these categories would produce unreliable or generic output that could harm rather than improve your pages. To maintain quality, OTTO SEO restricts bulk generation to categories where AI output is consistently accurate and actionable. 📍 How to Use Bulk Suggestion Generation 1. Go to Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → Overview. 2. Select a connected site to open its task dashboard. 3. Locate a supported task category such as Meta Descriptions, Title Tags, or Basic Schema. 4. Select the pages you want to generate suggestions for using the checkboxes. 5. Click Generate Suggestions (or the equivalent bulk action button for that category). 6. Review the generated suggestions before deploying them to your site. Always review bulk-generated suggestions before approving them. Even for supported categories, AI output should be checked for accuracy, tone, and relevance to your brand. 🛠️ What to Do for Unsupported Categories For task categories that do not support bulk generation, you have two options: - Generate suggestions individually — open each task within OTTO SEO and use the single-page suggestion feature to get an AI recommendation tailored to that specific page. - Use Content Genius for deeper content work — navigate to Left sidebar → Content → Content Genius for more advanced AI-assisted writing, including reworking existing content or creating new articles optimised for specific keywords. 💡 Summary Bulk suggestion generation in OTTO SEO is intentionally limited to structured categories like Meta Descriptions, Title Tags, and Basic Schema because these are the only task types where AI can produce reliable, page-specific output at scale. Other categories require a page-by-page review process to ensure quality and accuracy. 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.

📊 Export OTTO SEO Fixes

🔍 Find OTTO SEO tasks Open the Search Atlas platform and select OTTO SEO from the left sidebar. You can also go directly to AI SEO → OTTO SEO. Select All Sites, then open the site and audit or agent session containing the suggested fixes. 📥 Check for an export option Open the relevant task, audit, or agent session and check the available actions for Export or Download. If this option is available for that screen, select it and choose a spreadsheet format such as CSV. ⚠️ When export is unavailable OTTO SEO does not currently provide a universal spreadsheet export for every suggested fix, task, agent session, or date range. If you cannot find an Export or Download action, the fixes must be reviewed and managed inside OTTO SEO. 📝 Use a spreadsheet workaround To create a tracking sheet when native export is unavailable: 1. Open the relevant OTTO SEO audit or session. 2. Copy each suggested fix and its page URL. 3. Paste the information into a spreadsheet. 4. Add columns for priority, owner, status, and completion date. 5. Use OTTO SEO to review the fix and confirm its current status. 🛠️ Review related OTTO SEO areas Use Overview for a summary, All Audits for audit results, and Crawl Monitoring for crawl-related information. The Installation Guide and Knowledge Base provide additional OTTO SEO guidance. 💬 Get help finding a task 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.

🛠️ Reset and Delete Duplicate DKN Nodes

📚 What is a DKN? A Domain Knowledge Network (DKN) organizes your site’s topics, pages, and related knowledge for SEO workflows. Duplicate or overlapping nodes can make the network harder to manage and may affect topic mapping. 🔍 Why duplicate nodes may appear Duplicates can occur when similar pages or topics are interpreted as separate entities during generation, rebuilding, or synchronization. In some cases, a failed or interrupted process may leave existing nodes in place while creating new ones. This does not always indicate a problem with your website. It may reflect how the system currently determines whether a page or topic already exists. 🧹 Request a DKN reset or cleanup There is no general bulk-delete or full-reset action that customers should use without assistance. A reset can remove the current network, so it must be reviewed before it is performed. 1. Open OTTO SEO from the left sidebar. 2. Open Knowledge Base and select the affected project or site. 3. Record the duplicate node names, related URLs, and any recent generation, rebuild, or synchronization activity. 4. Open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and request either a full DKN reset or duplicate-node cleanup. State whether you want to preserve the existing network, remove only selected duplicates, or start with a completely empty DKN. This helps the team choose the safest option. ⚠️ Before requesting a full reset - A full reset removes the project’s current DKN data and cannot be treated as a simple undo. - Confirm the correct project and domain before approving the reset. - Pause planned rebuilds or synchronization until the request is reviewed. - Keep a list of important nodes or URLs that should be retained after cleanup. 🔄 After cleanup or rebuilding After the DKN is reset or cleaned, allow the next generation to finish before starting another rebuild or synchronization. Review the resulting nodes for overlapping topics and confirm that important pages are represented once. If nodes disappear after a rebuild or a “Sync with Brand Vault” action shows an error, do not repeatedly retry the action. Record what happened and request a review so the network can be checked before another operation. 💬 Get help with duplicate nodes Include the project name, domain, affected node names, related URLs, approximate time of the issue, and the action that preceded it. This information helps the team determine whether targeted cleanup or a complete reset is appropriate. 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.

🔄 OTTO's Automatic Weekly Recrawl and Reprocess Cycle

🤖 Does OTTO Recrawl My Site Automatically? Yes — OTTO automatically recrawls and reprocesses every connected project once per week. You do not need to take any action to trigger this. The weekly review runs in the background without any manual intervention required. 🕐 When Does the Weekly Recrawl Happen? OTTO runs its automatic weekly recrawl and reprocess cycle every seven days from the date your project was last processed. The crawl does not run at a fixed clock time visible to users — it is queued and executed by OTTO's internal scheduler, typically within a standard business processing window. Because exact timing can vary slightly based on server load, you may notice the updated results appear at different times of day from week to week. To check when your project was last processed, go to OTTO SEO → Site Audit → Overview (Website Overview) and look at the Last Crawled timestamp, or OTTO SEO → Site Audit → All Audits (Site Audit) where each site card shows the Last crawl timestamp. ⚡ How to Manually Trigger a Recrawl or Reprocess If you cannot wait for the automatic weekly cycle — for example, after publishing a batch of fixes or launching new content — you can manually trigger a recrawl or reprocess at any time: 1. Open the OTTO section from your Search Atlas dashboard. 2. Select the project you want to recrawl. 3. Click the Recrawl or Reprocess button located in the project toolbar at the top of the page. 4. Confirm the action when prompted. OTTO will queue the request immediately. Depending on your site size, the crawl may take a few minutes to several hours to complete. You will see the Last Crawled timestamp update once the cycle finishes. ✅ What Happens After the Recrawl Completes? Once OTTO finishes the recrawl and reprocess cycle — whether automatic or manual — the following occurs: - Issue detection refreshes: OTTO re-evaluates your site against all active SEO rules and updates any previously detected issues. - Resolved issues are marked closed: If OTTO confirms that a fix has been successfully implemented, the corresponding issue status updates automatically. - New issues are surfaced: Any problems introduced since the last crawl are flagged and added to your active issue list. - Scores and recommendations update: Your overall site health score and prioritised recommendations reflect the latest crawl data. You do not need to refresh the dashboard manually — OTTO updates your project view once processing is complete. 📋 Quick Reference Summary - Automatic recrawl: Yes, every 7 days from the last processed date. - Fixed schedule: No fixed clock time; runs on a rolling 7-day cycle. - Manual trigger: Available at any time via the Recrawl / Reprocess button in OTTO. - After recrawl: Issues are re-detected, resolved items closed, and scores updated. 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.

📋 Export OTTO Heading Recommendations for Client Approval

🔍 Overview OTTO generates heading optimization recommendations — including H1 length, missing H1 tags, and other heading structure improvements — as part of its on-page SEO analysis. You can export these recommendations as a summary report to share with clients or stakeholders for review and approval before deployment. 🧭 How to Access the OTTO Export 1. Log in to Search Atlas and click OTTO SEO in the left sidebar, then open SEO Automation (or navigate to /seo-automation-v3). 2. Select the project you want to export recommendations for. 3. Once inside OTTO, navigate to Site Audit → Overview (Website Overview) and locate the Export to Docs button. This is typically found near the top of the page, alongside other action controls. 4. Click Export to Docs to open the export options. 📄 Choosing the Right Export Type OTTO offers two export options from the Export to Docs menu: - OTTO Summary — exports a high-level overview of all recommendations OTTO has identified across all SEO categories, including headings. Use this when your client needs a broad snapshot of all suggested optimizations. - Work Summary — exports a detailed breakdown of completed and pending tasks. Use this when your client needs to see which recommendations have already been deployed and which are still pending approval. For sharing H1 length recommendations and other heading optimizations ahead of deployment, the OTTO Summary export is the recommended choice, as it lists all outstanding recommendations your client needs to review. ✅ What the Export Includes The exported file will contain heading-related recommendations such as: - H1 length recommendations (too short, too long, or missing) - Missing or duplicate H1 tags - H2 and subheading structure suggestions - Other on-page heading optimizations flagged by OTTO The export is formatted to be client-readable, making it straightforward to share directly without additional formatting work. 💡 Tips for Sharing with Clients - Use the OTTO Summary export early in the workflow so clients can approve heading changes before you deploy them inside OTTO. - If your client has already approved some changes and you need to show progress, use the Work Summary export instead to distinguish deployed vs. pending items. - Always download a fresh export immediately before sharing, so the data reflects the most current state of your project. ⚠️ Common Navigation Mistake to Avoid The export option is not located under a Project Dashboard or Deployment Summary section. If you cannot find an export button in those areas, you are in the wrong place. Always return to OTTO SEO in the left sidebar, open your project, navigate to Site Audit → Overview (Website Overview), and use the Export to Docs button directly from that page. 🆘 Need Help? If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

⚡ Bulk Generation for On-Page SEO Suggestions Explained

Overview The On-Page Audit tool allows OTTO to automatically generate AI-powered suggestions for your on-page SEO tasks. However, not every task category supports the bulk generation feature. This article explains what bulk generation is and clarifies the current scope of this feature. What Is Bulk Generation? Bulk generation lets you trigger AI suggestions for multiple pages or tasks at once, rather than handling them one by one. This saves time when you are working across a large site with many flagged issues. Instead of requesting a suggestion for each item individually, supported categories allow you to generate recommendations across multiple items in a single action. Which Task Categories Support Bulk Generation? Based on the current scope of the feature, bulk generation is supported for select on-page task categories — for example, categories such as Meta Titles, Meta Descriptions, and Image Alt Text are among the types of tasks where AI-assisted bulk generation is available. For other task categories, bulk generation is not currently available. If you are unsure whether the specific category you are working with supports bulk generation, or if you are not seeing the bulk action option where you expect it, please reach out to our support team for confirmation specific to your account and platform version. Why Do Some Categories Not Have Bulk Generation? Bulk generation is not available for all task categories at this time. If a category you need does not currently support it, this may be a limitation of the feature's present scope. You can let our team know which category you need — customer feedback helps inform future development. What to Have Ready When Escalating If you are experiencing an issue with bulk generation — for example, a category that is not behaving as expected — please have the following information ready when you contact support: - The name of the specific task category where you are experiencing the issue. - A description of what you expected to happen versus what actually occurred. - The project or site name associated with the On-Page Audit. - Any error messages or unexpected behaviour you observed, along with the approximate time it occurred. 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.

🔍 Understanding the OTTO SEO Pending Optimizations Counter

🧭 Overview The Pending Optimizations counter in OTTO SEO is one of the most frequently misunderstood metrics on the platform. If you notice that tasks you have already deployed — such as title tag updates — still appear in the counter, or that the number does not match what you expect, this article explains why and what (if anything) you need to do. 📊 What Does the Pending Optimizations Counter Actually Measure? The counter displays the total number of SEO tasks that OTTO has identified across your site and considers unresolved at the time the snapshot was last taken. Specifically, it reflects: - Undeployed tasks — optimizations OTTO has recommended but that have not yet been applied to your site. - Recently deployed tasks that are still in the cache — tasks you have deployed, but whose status has not yet refreshed in OTTO's internal snapshot. This is the most common reason deployed tasks continue to appear in the counter. - Tasks pending validation — tasks OTTO has applied but is still confirming are live on your site via crawl data. In short, the counter is a point-in-time snapshot, not a real-time live feed. A short delay between deployment and counter update is expected and normal. ⚙️ Why Do Deployed Title Tag Tasks Still Appear? After you deploy a task — for example, a title tag change — OTTO does not immediately remove it from the Pending Optimizations counter. The platform uses an internal snapshot to verify that a deployed change is live on your site. Until that snapshot refreshes, the task may remain flagged as pending in the counter, even though the optimization has been successfully applied. Once the system confirms the change is live, the task is automatically moved out of the pending count. This is a known platform behaviour. You do not need to redeploy tasks that are already deployed — doing so will not speed up the counter update and may cause unintended duplicate changes. 🌐 Should I Redeploy Tasks for a Specific URL (e.g. /en/faq)? If you are unsure whether a task for a specific page — such as /en/faq — requires redeployment, check the task's current status within the OTTO SEO interface before taking any action. If the task already shows as deployed or applied, no further action is needed and the counter will update once the platform's internal snapshot refreshes. Only redeploy a task if it clearly has not been applied and the recommendation is still relevant to your current page content. If the counter continues to show unexpected numbers after allowing sufficient time for the snapshot to refresh, or if you are unsure how to interpret a specific task's status, please reach out to our support team with your project name, the affected URL, and a description of what the counter is currently showing. 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.

🛠️ Topical Terms Not Autopopulating in OTTO Content Assistant V2

🔍 Overview Some users have reported that topical terms do not autopopulate in the OTTO Content Assistant V2 sidebar, and are also unable to manually add or change keywords. This was a confirmed platform-level bug that has since been investigated, fixed, and deployed to production. ⚙️ What Was Happening The issue affected the Content Assistant V2 sidebar, where topical terms are expected to populate automatically to guide AI content generation. Affected users experienced one or more of the following: - Topical terms not appearing in the Content Assistant V2 sidebar - Inability to manually add new keywords - Inability to edit or update existing terms This was not a configuration error on the user's side. The root cause was a platform bug related to how topical terms were being populated and filtered during AI generation in Content Assistant V2. ✅ Current Status This bug has been fully resolved. The engineering team completed an investigation, scoping, development, code review, and QA process before deploying the fix to production. The issue is now marked as done and the fix is live for all users. 🚀 What You Should Do Now If you were previously affected by this issue, follow these steps to confirm everything is working correctly: 1. Open the Content Assistant V2 sidebar for the relevant page or project. 2. Check whether topical terms are now autopopulating as expected. 3. If needed, attempt to manually add or edit a keyword to confirm full functionality is restored. 🛠️ If the Problem Persists The fix has been deployed to production, so most users should no longer experience this issue. However, if topical terms are still not appearing or you are still unable to edit keywords, consider the following before contacting support: - Hard refresh your browser (Ctrl + Shift + R on Windows, Cmd + Shift + R on Mac) to clear any cached version of the page. - Try a different browser or incognito window to rule out browser-specific issues. - Check that you are using Content Assistant V2 and not an older version of the content workflow. If the issue remains after trying the steps above, it is important to document what you are seeing. A screen recording or screenshots showing the missing topical terms will help the support team investigate quickly. 💬 Still Need Help? If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

🐦 Disable Twitter Card Suggestions in OTTO

🔍 Why OTTO Suggests Twitter Cards OTTO analyzes your site's metadata and identifies missing or incomplete social tags, including Twitter Card tags. If your pages lack these tags, OTTO automatically adds Twitter Card implementation to your task list as an SEO improvement opportunity. These tags control how your content appears when shared on Twitter (now X). However, if your business does not have a Twitter account, these suggestions are not relevant to you — and dismissing them will not negatively affect your SEO on other channels. This article explains how to permanently remove Twitter Card tasks so they no longer appear in your OTTO task list. 📋 What You Will Need - An active Search Atlas account with OTTO enabled - Access to the OTTO SEO V3 section of the platform 🗺️ Getting to OTTO 1. Log in to your Search Atlas account. 2. In the left sidebar, click OTTO SEO, then open SEO Automation. 3. Select the website you are managing from your list of connected properties. 4. Click the OTTO tab to open your task list. 🚫 How to Reject and Disable Twitter Card Suggestions Follow these steps to remove existing Twitter Card tasks and prevent new ones from appearing: 1. In your OTTO task list, use the search bar or scroll to locate any tasks labelled Twitter Card or Twitter Meta Tags, including tasks referencing twitter:card, twitter:site, or similar meta tags. 2. Click the task to expand it and view its details. 3. Click the Reject button on the task. This tells OTTO you do not want this suggestion applied. Alternatively, you can select one or more tasks using the checkbox next to each one and use the Dismiss or Ignore option that appears when tasks are selected, then confirm your choice. 4. When prompted to provide a reason, select or enter Not applicable — no Twitter account, or similar. This helps OTTO learn your preferences. 5. Repeat this step for every Twitter Card task currently in your list. Once all existing Twitter Card tasks are rejected, OTTO will treat this category as dismissed for your site and will not continue to resurface them during future analysis cycles. Dismissed tasks will also no longer count against your OTTO progress score. ✅ Confirming Twitter Cards Are Excluded After rejecting the tasks, verify they have been removed: - Refresh your OTTO task list and confirm no Twitter Card tasks remain in your active queue. - Run a new OTTO scan by clicking Scan in OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation) if available. Twitter Card suggestions should no longer appear in the results. - If any Twitter Card tasks reappear after a re-analysis, reject them again immediately. OTTO reinforces your preferences over successive rejections. 💡 Should You Ever Implement Twitter Card Tags? OTTO may still suggest Open Graph (OG) tags for Facebook, LinkedIn, and general social sharing. These are separate from Twitter Cards and are broadly recommended for SEO and link previews, even without a Twitter account. You can choose to accept or reject these tasks independently based on your needs. If your business decides to join Twitter or X in the future, you can revisit the Twitter Card recommendation at any time. Twitter Card tags are beneficial for brands that actively share content on the platform because they improve how page previews look in tweets. For now, if social sharing on Twitter is not part of your strategy, dismissing these tasks is completely fine. ⚠️ What Rejecting Does Not Do Rejecting a task in OTTO does not remove any existing Twitter Card tags that may already be present on your site from a previous implementation. If you want to remove those tags from your live pages, you will need to do so manually in your CMS or theme settings. Rejecting only prevents OTTO from adding new tags or prompting you about them in the future. ❓ Frequently Asked Questions - Will dismissing this task hurt my SEO score? No. Dismissed tasks are excluded from your overall OTTO score, so your progress will reflect only the tasks that are relevant to your site. - Can I restore a dismissed task later? Yes. Dismissed tasks can typically be reviewed in your OTTO settings or dismissed-tasks log. If you need help locating them, contact support via the chat widget. - Does OTTO suggest other social meta tags too? Yes. OTTO may also suggest Open Graph tags for Facebook and LinkedIn previews. Those are separate from Twitter Card tags and can be handled independently. 🆘 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.

🔍 Understanding OTTO Audit False-Positive Flags

🧭 Overview When reviewing your OTTO audit results, you may notice flags for Multiple Meta Descriptions or Too Many External Links — even when your page source clearly shows only one meta description and no manually added external links. These are known false-positive scenarios caused by how OTTO's crawler reads your page at the time of the audit. This article explains why they occur and what to expect. 🤔 Why Does This Happen? OTTO's audit engine crawls your live page and parses all rendered HTML, including content injected by third-party scripts, tag managers, or plugins. This means that even if you have only one meta description in your source code, another one may be temporarily inserted by: - Google Tag Manager (GTM) or other tag management systems firing meta tags dynamically - SEO plugins (e.g. Yoast, Rank Math) that output duplicate tags during certain page states - A/B testing tools or personalisation scripts that inject additional head elements - Caching layers serving a stale or partial version of your page at crawl time Similarly, Too Many External Links flags can be triggered by dynamically loaded widgets, social embeds, ad scripts, or footer/header includes that add outbound links to the rendered DOM — none of which you added manually to your page content. 🔎 How to Investigate the Flag 1. Go to Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → Site Audit → Page Explorer and search for the flagged URL. 2. Open the page details and review the meta tags and links sections to see exactly what OTTO detected at crawl time. 3. Compare this against your raw HTML source (right-click the live page → View Page Source) to identify any discrepancies. 4. Check for active GTM tags, SEO plugins, or third-party scripts that may be injecting extra meta tags or links into the rendered page. 5. If you identify a script or plugin as the cause, disable or reconfigure it, then trigger a fresh crawl (see next section). 🔄 Will These Flags Clear After the Next Crawl? Yes — in most cases, once the underlying cause is resolved, the flags will clear automatically after OTTO re-crawls the affected page. To trigger a fresh crawl and re-evaluate the flags: 1. Navigate to Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → All Sites and select your project card. 2. Open the Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → Site Audit → Crawl Monitoring section for your site. 3. Initiate a new crawl for the affected URL or run a full site re-crawl. 4. Once the crawl completes, return to Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → Overview or Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation) → Select your project → Tasks to confirm the flags have been resolved. If the root cause (e.g. a misconfigured plugin or tag) has not been removed, the flags will reappear after each crawl. Make sure to address the source of the duplicate tags or injected links before re-crawling. ✅ Quick Checklist to Resolve False Positives - Audit active GTM container tags for any that write to the section - Check your CMS SEO plugin settings for duplicate meta description outputs - Review third-party widgets and social embeds that may add external links to the rendered DOM - Clear your site's cache before triggering a new OTTO crawl - Use your browser's Inspect Element (not View Source) to check the fully rendered DOM for duplicate tags - After fixes are applied, re-crawl via Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → Site Audit → Crawl Monitoring and verify results in Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation) → Select your project → Tasks 💬 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. Additional Notes Flags clear automatically on the next scheduled weekly analysis. Triggering a manual recrawl does NOT refresh Site Audit flags — it updates other data points but does not re-run the full audit analysis. Only the weekly analysis cycle clears these flags.

📊 Understanding and Improving Your OTTO Optimization Score

🔍 What Is the OTTO Optimization Score? The OTTO Optimization Score is a 0–100 rating that reflects how well your site's SEO health aligns with best practices detected during each crawl. A higher score means fewer issues and stronger overall optimization. Scores are recalculated every time OTTO runs a fresh audit, so it is normal to see the number shift — up or down — between sessions. 📉 Why Did My Score Decrease? A drop in your score does not always mean your site got worse. Several factors can cause a decrease even when you have been actively working on your SEO: - Crawl freshness: Each new audit scans your live site in real time. Pages added, modified, or broken since the last crawl are included in the updated score calculation. - Algorithm updates: OTTO's scoring model is updated regularly to reflect current SEO best practices. A rule that previously had low weight may now carry more impact. - New issues detected: As your site grows, new content can introduce new issues — missing meta tags, thin content, broken internal links — that were not present in the previous audit. - Regression on previously fixed items: CMS updates, plugin changes, or template edits can reintroduce issues that were already resolved. A drop from 68 to 63, for example, typically signals that five or more medium-impact issues were detected in the latest crawl that were not flagged before, or that existing issues increased in severity. 🗂️ The Five Impact Categories Explained OTTO groups every detected issue into one of five impact categories. Understanding each one helps you prioritise your fixes effectively. 1. Critical Issues: These carry the highest score penalty. Examples include pages returning 4xx/5xx errors, missing canonical tags on duplicate content, and blocked resources in your robots.txt that prevent indexing. Each unresolved critical issue can subtract multiple points from your score. 2. On-Page SEO: Covers title tags, meta descriptions, heading structure (H1–H6), and keyword usage. For instance, a page missing a unique H1 or containing a duplicate title tag across multiple URLs will be flagged here. 3. Content Quality: Flags thin pages (low word count), duplicate content blocks, and pages with poor keyword relevance. A blog post under 300 words with no target keyword in the body is a typical example. 4. Technical SEO: Includes site speed signals, structured data errors, mobile usability issues, and broken internal links. A page with invalid schema markup or a Core Web Vitals failure falls into this category. 5. Link Health: Covers broken outbound links, orphaned pages with no internal links pointing to them, and internal link equity distribution. A page buried more than four clicks from the homepage with no backlinks is a common example. 🛠️ Step-by-Step Fix Procedures Follow these steps inside Search Atlas to address each category and recover your score. Step 1 — Open your OTTO audit. In the left sidebar, click OTTO SEO, then open SEO Automation. Your current Optimization Score and all flagged issues are displayed on the main dashboard. Step 2 — Sort issues by impact. Use the issue filter to sort by Critical first. Resolving one critical issue recovers more points than resolving several low-impact ones. Step 3 — Fix Critical Issues. Click any critical issue to expand its detail panel. OTTO displays the affected URLs, the specific problem, and a recommended fix. Apply the fix directly in your CMS or hosting environment, then click Mark as Resolved inside OTTO to queue that URL for re-evaluation. Step 4 — Fix On-Page SEO issues. Select the On-Page SEO category. Use the inline suggestions to rewrite title tags and meta descriptions directly in your CMS. For bulk issues (e.g., 20+ pages missing meta descriptions), export the list using the Export button and update in bulk, then re-import or apply changes through your CMS. Step 5 — Improve Content Quality. Navigate to Left sidebar → Keywords → Keyword Magic to identify relevant keywords with sufficient search volume. Use these keywords to enrich thin pages flagged by OTTO. Aim for at least 600 words of original, topically relevant content per flagged page. Step 6 — Resolve Technical SEO issues. Review structured data errors and fix invalid schema in your CMS or theme settings. For Core Web Vitals issues, work with your developer to optimise image sizes, reduce render-blocking scripts, and enable caching. After deploying fixes, return to OTTO SEO → Site Audit and mark those items resolved. Step 7 — Fix Link Health issues. Broken outbound links should be updated or removed. For orphaned pages, add contextual internal links from related, higher-authority pages on your site. Use Left sidebar → Keywords → Rank Tracker to identify your best-performing pages as strong internal linking candidates. Step 8 — Trigger a new audit. Once you have resolved a meaningful batch of issues, click Recrawl Site inside OTTO SEO → Site Audit. OTTO will crawl your site and recalculate your score based on the current state. ⏱️ How Long Does Score Recovery Take? Recovery timelines depend on the number and type of issues resolved: - Immediate (within the next audit): Fixing critical errors like 404 pages, missing canonical tags, or broken redirects typically reflects in the very next re-audit, which can be triggered manually at any time. - 1–3 days: On-page fixes such as updated title tags and meta descriptions are picked up quickly after you trigger a fresh crawl. - 1–2 weeks: Content quality improvements take slightly longer as OTTO evaluates topical depth and keyword relevance over a more thorough crawl cycle. - 2–4 weeks: Technical SEO improvements, especially Core Web Vitals changes, may require multiple crawls and real-world performance validation before they are fully reflected in your score. As a general benchmark, resolving all critical and high-impact issues in one session typically restores 5–15 points within the first two re-audits. Consistent weekly maintenance keeps your score trending upward over time. 💡 Best Practices to Maintain a High Score - Schedule a weekly re-audit inside OTTO SEO → Site Audit to catch regressions early. - After any major site update (theme change, CMS migration, new content batch), trigger a manual re-audit immediately. - Use Left sidebar → Keywords → Keyword Gap to discover content opportunities that improve both rankings and content quality scores simultaneously. - Prioritise Critical and On-Page issues before tackling Link Health — the point recovery is faster and the SEO impact is greater. 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.

🌐 Scoping OTTO SEO on Multilingual Sites

🔍 Overview OTTO SEO is a site-wide automation tool. It is not possible to deploy OTTO exclusively to a single subdirectory, such as /pl/, /de/, or any other language path on a multilingual site. This is a platform-level constraint, not a configuration gap — no combination of settings will change this behaviour. This article explains why this limitation exists, clears up outdated guidance that may reference unavailable interface elements, and outlines the correct approach to safely test OTTO on one language version of your site. ⚠️ About Outdated Guidance Previous versions of Search Atlas documentation and AI responses referenced interface options such as URL Exclusions, Crawl Settings, and Site Settings as ways to limit OTTO's scope. These UI elements are no longer present in the current platform interface. Any guidance pointing to those controls is outdated and should be disregarded. The steps in this article reflect the verified Search Atlas interface as of August 2026. 🚫 Why OTTO Cannot Be Scoped to a Subdirectory When you activate OTTO on a domain, it operates across the entire connected domain by design. This ensures that technical SEO fixes, schema deployments, and content recommendations are applied consistently and do not create conflicts between different sections of the same site. Restricting OTTO to a subdirectory path such as /pl/ is not supported because: - OTTO links to a root domain or subdomain, not a URL path. - Partial activation can produce conflicting signals across language versions. - Crawl and automation logic is tied to the domain-level project, not individual URL patterns. ✅ Correct Approach: Isolate Testing Using a Separate OTTO Project The only supported method to isolate OTTO activity to a single language version is to use that language version as a dedicated subdomain and connect it as its own OTTO project. If your site already uses subdomains per language (for example, pl.example.com), you can connect that subdomain directly. If your site uses subdirectories (for example, example.com/pl/), you will need to evaluate whether a subdomain structure is feasible before OTTO can be scoped to that language version. 1. Go to Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation) (URL: /seo-automation-v3). 2. Click Create in the top toolbar to start a new OTTO project. 3. When prompted for the domain, enter the subdomain for the language you want to test — for example, pl.example.com. 4. Complete the project setup. This new project will operate entirely independently from any OTTO project connected to your root domain or other language subdomains. 5. Activate OTTO on this project only. Your root domain and other language versions remain unaffected. This approach gives you a clean, isolated environment to evaluate OTTO's impact on one language version before rolling out to additional domains or subdomains. 🌍 If Your Site Uses Subdirectories, Not Subdomains If your multilingual site is structured with subdirectories (example.com/pl/, example.com/de/) rather than subdomains, OTTO cannot be isolated to any one of those paths. In this situation, your options are: - Test on a staging environment: Set up a staging subdomain that mirrors your target language version and connect OTTO to that staging subdomain for evaluation. - Full-site activation: Activate OTTO on the root domain understanding that it will operate across all language subdirectories. Review OTTO's recommended actions carefully before approving any bulk changes. - Migrate to a subdomain structure: If long-term per-language control is a priority, consider restructuring the multilingual architecture to use subdomains. This is a broader technical decision that falls outside the scope of OTTO configuration. 📋 Current OTTO SEO Navigation Reference Use the following confirmed navigation paths when working with OTTO projects in the current interface: - OTTO SEO dashboard: Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation) | URL: /seo-automation-v3 - Create a new OTTO project: OTTO SEO dashboard → click Create - View active projects: OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation) → Active 4 filter - Freeze or manage sites: OTTO SEO dashboard → select a site → click Freeze sites If you do not see the OTTO SEO option in your left sidebar, your account plan may not include OTTO access. Contact support via the method below to confirm your plan entitlements. 💬 Need Help? If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

📈 Improve Your OTTO SEO Optimization Score

🔍 What Is the OTTO Optimization Score? The OTTO Optimization Score is a percentage that reflects how well your website has implemented OTTO's AI-driven SEO recommendations. A higher score means more recommendations have been applied, giving your site a stronger foundation for ranking in search results. The score updates automatically as OTTO detects changes on your site or generates new tasks. 📉 Why Did My Score Decrease? A drop in your Optimization Score — for example, from 68 to 63 — does not always mean something went wrong. Here are the most common reasons your score may decrease: - New recommendations added: OTTO continuously audits your site. When it identifies new SEO issues or opportunities, those are added to your task list. More open tasks mean a lower percentage of completed work, which reduces the score. - Previously applied changes were reversed: If a page was edited, a plugin updated a meta tag, or a CMS change overwrote OTTO's optimizations, those tasks may revert to an incomplete state. - Site content changes: Publishing new pages or posts introduces fresh content that OTTO needs to evaluate, adding new tasks to the queue. - Technical issues detected: OTTO may flag newly discovered technical problems such as broken links, missing schema, or slow-loading pages. A score decrease is a signal to act, not a cause for alarm. It simply means OTTO has found more ways to improve your site. 🛠️ How to Increase Your OTTO Score Follow these steps to review and complete your open recommendations inside Search Atlas. 1. Open OTTO SEO: In the left sidebar, click OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation). This takes you to the OTTO dashboard where all your active sites and scores are displayed. 2. Select your site: Click on the site whose score you want to improve. You will see a breakdown of pending tasks grouped by category — for example, On-Page, Technical, and Content. 3. Sort by impact: Prioritise tasks marked as High Impact first. Completing these moves the needle on your score the most and delivers the greatest SEO benefit. 4. Apply recommendations: Click Deploy or Apply next to each task. OTTO can push many changes directly to your site when the Search Atlas WordPress plugin is installed and connected. For tasks that require manual edits, follow the on-screen instructions. 5. Review content suggestions: Navigate to OTTO SEO → Site Audit → Page Explorer to find page-level recommendations. Update title tags, meta descriptions, headings, and body content as suggested. 6. Check technical tasks: Address any flagged technical issues such as missing canonical tags, broken internal links, or absent structured data. These often account for a significant portion of the score. 7. Re-scan your site: After applying changes, click Re-Analyze or wait for OTTO's next automatic crawl. Your score will update once the changes are confirmed. 💡 Tips to Maintain a High Score - Connect the Search Atlas WordPress plugin so OTTO can deploy on-page changes automatically without manual edits. - Check your OTTO dashboard weekly to catch new recommendations before they accumulate and lower your score. - Avoid overwriting OTTO changes in your CMS manually, as this can revert completed tasks back to open status. - Focus on completing all tasks in one category before moving to the next — this creates a clean, measurable lift in your score. - Use Site Metrics (left sidebar → Site Metrics) to track keyword rankings alongside your score, so you can correlate optimizations with ranking improvements over time. 📊 Understanding What a Good Score Looks Like There is no universal benchmark, but as a general guide: - Below 50%: Significant opportunities remain. Focus on high-impact tasks immediately. - 50–75%: Solid progress. Continue working through remaining recommendations systematically. - 76–90%: Strong optimization. Maintain the score by reviewing new tasks regularly. - 91–100%: Excellent. Your site is closely aligned with OTTO's best-practice recommendations. Monitor for new tasks as your content grows. Remember that OTTO's recommendations evolve with your site, so even a perfect score today may drop slightly tomorrow as new content or issues are detected. This is normal and expected behavior. 🆘 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.

📈 OTTO Bulk Optimization Recovery Timeline Explained

🔍 Why Metrics Temporarily Decline After OTTO Changes When OTTO applies bulk optimizations — such as updating page titles, meta descriptions, schema markup, or on-page content — Google must recrawl and reindex every affected page before it can reflect the improvements in search rankings. During this reindexing window, it is completely normal to see a temporary dip in keyword positions, impressions, and organic traffic. This happens because Google re-evaluates modified pages before restoring or improving their rankings. The larger the number of pages changed, the more pronounced this temporary fluctuation can appear. Common OTTO changes that trigger reindexing include: - Title tag and meta description updates — directly affect how Google reads and ranks your pages - Schema markup additions or changes — require Google to reprocess structured data signals - On-page content optimizations — alter the relevance signals Google uses to match queries - Header tag restructuring — changes the content hierarchy Google uses during crawling 📅 Expected Recovery Timelines Recovery from bulk OTTO optimizations typically follows a gradual pattern. In the initial days after changes are applied, metrics may fluctuate as Google begins recrawling affected pages. Over the following weeks, rankings generally begin to stabilize and return toward their pre-change levels or better. Full recovery and measurable improvement can take several weeks to a couple of months, depending on the size and nature of the changes. Because Google's crawl and reindex schedule varies by site and change type, there is no single fixed timeline that applies to every project. Treat any initial metric drop as a normal part of the process rather than a sign that something has gone wrong. ⚙️ Factors That Affect Recovery Speed Not every site recovers at the same pace. Several factors influence how quickly Google reindexes your pages and restores rankings: - Crawl frequency: Sites that receive more frequent bot visits tend to be recrawled and reindexed faster than newer or lower-authority sites. - Number of pages changed: Optimizing a large number of pages at once takes longer for Google to fully process compared to changes made to a small set of URLs. - Schema complexity: More advanced structured data changes may require additional processing time before Google reflects them in search results. - Site health: Technical issues such as slow page speed, crawl errors, or poor internal linking can slow down Google's ability to reprocess updated pages. ✅ What You Should Do During the Recovery Window While waiting for rankings to stabilize, focus on monitoring rather than making additional large-scale changes. Frequent re-optimization during this window can reset the reindexing cycle and delay recovery. Use Search Atlas to track keyword positions and impressions over time so you can identify when recovery is progressing as expected. If you are concerned that a drop is larger or longer-lasting than expected, gather the following information before reaching out for support: your project name, the approximate date OTTO changes were applied, the number of pages affected, and any specific URLs showing unusual behavior. 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.

🛡️ Exclude Pages and Roll Back OTTO Changes

🔍 Overview OTTO SEO automates on-page optimisations across your site, but there are times when you need to protect specific pages from being edited. This article explains how to exclude pages from OTTO's scope, roll back changes already applied, and ensure those pages remain untouched going forward. 🗺️ How OTTO Page Control Works OTTO applies SEO changes at the page level. Each page in your project can be either active (OTTO can edit it) or excluded (OTTO will skip it entirely). When you exclude a page, you also have the option to revert any changes OTTO has already made to that page, restoring it to its original state. ⚙️ Step 1 — Open OTTO SEO 1. Log in to Search Atlas. 2. In the left sidebar, click OTTO SEO, then open SEO Automation inside it. This opens the OTTO SEO dashboard at /seo-automation-v3. 3. Make sure you are viewing the correct project. Use the project selector at the top of the page if you need to switch. 🚫 Step 2 — Locate the Page You Want to Exclude 1. Inside the OTTO SEO dashboard, navigate to Site Audit → Page Explorer (or Page Pruning), depending on your view. 2. Use the search bar or scroll through the page list to find the specific URL you want to exclude. 3. Click on the page row to expand its details and available actions. ↩️ Step 3 — Roll Back Existing Changes If OTTO has already applied changes to the page, roll them back before excluding it to ensure your content is fully restored. 1. With the page expanded, look for the Revert or Undo Changes option. 2. Click it. OTTO will restore the page to the state it was in before any automated edits were applied. 3. Wait for the confirmation message before moving to the next step. Reverting may take a few moments depending on the number of changes. 🛑 Step 4 — Exclude the Page from Future OTTO Activity 1. Once the rollback is confirmed, find the Exclude Page toggle or button on the same page row. 2. Enable the exclusion. The page status will update to show it is now excluded. 3. OTTO will no longer apply any new changes to this page, even during future automation runs. Tip: You can exclude multiple pages at once by selecting the checkboxes next to each URL and using the bulk action menu at the top of the page list. ✅ Step 5 — Confirm the Exclusion Is Active 1. Refresh the OTTO SEO dashboard. 2. Locate the excluded page in the list. It should display an Excluded status badge. 3. Review the page on your site to confirm the content reflects the rolled-back version. 💡 Things to Keep in Mind - Exclusions persist across sessions. Once a page is excluded, it stays excluded until you manually re-enable it. - Rollback only affects OTTO changes. Any edits you made manually outside of OTTO are not affected. - Re-including a page. To allow OTTO to edit an excluded page again, return to the OTTO SEO dashboard, find the page, and disable the exclusion toggle. - Newly added pages. Pages added to your site after exclusion is set are not automatically excluded. Review new pages regularly if you have specific content you want to protect. 🆘 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.

📤 Export OTTO Tasks and Work Summary Data

🗂️ About Exporting OTTO Tasks and Work Summary Data The OTTO dashboard includes the ability to export records of SEO tasks and work completed — whether actioned by OTTO automatically or implemented by your team. This is useful for client reporting, internal audits, and tracking progress over time. Exportable data may include: - Completed tasks — tasks that have been actioned within a given period - OTTO suggestions — recommendations generated by OTTO along with their status - Work summary data — a high-level breakdown of activity across your site 🧭 How to Access the OTTO Dashboard 1. Log in to your Search Atlas account. 2. Navigate to OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation) from the left sidebar. 3. Your OTTO dashboard will load, displaying tasks and activity for the selected project. 4. If you manage multiple sites, switch to the correct project before attempting to export. 📥 Exporting Tasks and Work Summary Data Export options are available directly from the OTTO dashboard. To export your data: 1. Open the OTTO dashboard and navigate to the section containing the tasks or work summary you want to export. 2. Apply any available filters to narrow the results to the date range or task states you need. 3. Look for an export or download option within that section to save the data to your device. If you are unable to locate the export option, or if the export feature does not appear to be available for your account or project, please reach out to our support team for guidance. When you do, have the following ready: - The name of the project you are trying to export data for - The type of data you want to export (tasks, suggestions, or work summary) - Any error message or unexpected behavior you encountered, including the approximate date and time it occurred 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.

📋 OTTO Project Prerequisites for Content Authority and UX Data

🔍 Why Is There No Data for Content Authority and UX? Content Authority and UX metrics in OTTO do not populate automatically when you first create a project. These sections require you to complete specific prerequisite steps before any data appears. The most common reason for empty Content Authority and UX panels is that the required OTTO project setup has not yet been fully completed. This article explains what you need to confirm and what information to have ready so that your Content Authority and UX data can begin to populate correctly. ✅ Prerequisites Checklist Before Data Populates Before Content Authority and UX metrics become available, confirm that all of the following conditions are met: - An OTTO project has been created — The project must be fully set up and connected to your target domain. - Your website is connected — Your domain must be verified and actively linked to the OTTO project. - Required OTTO project setup steps have been completed — OTTO projects require certain setup actions to be finished before data sections become active. Review your project for any incomplete or pending setup tasks. - OTTO content has been created and deployed — At least one piece of OTTO-generated content must be live on your site. Content Authority and UX data cannot generate without live deployed content to analyse. 🛠️ What to Do If Data Is Still Missing 1. Open your OTTO project. Navigate to your existing OTTO project in the platform, or create a new one if you have not done so already. 2. Connect and verify your domain. Ensure your website is fully connected inside the project settings. OTTO must have access to your live site to gather the signals needed for Content Authority and UX scoring. 3. Review and complete all pending setup tasks. Inside your OTTO project, check for any setup steps that are incomplete. Work through each one as directed. Content Authority and UX data will not populate until the required project prerequisites are addressed. 4. Create and deploy OTTO content. Once setup steps are complete, proceed to create content using OTTO's recommendations and deploy it to your live site. 5. Allow time for data processing. Once content is deployed, OTTO will begin analysing your pages. Depending on your site size and crawl speed, it may take some time for the Content Authority and UX panels to fully populate. 6. If data still does not appear, escalate to support. Have the following ready when you reach out: your project name, the domain connected to the project, a description of which setup steps you have completed, and any error messages or empty-panel screenshots you can share. 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.

⚡ OTTO SEO Features & Metrics Beyond Standard Audits

Overview OTTO SEO is Search Atlas's AI-powered SEO automation layer. While the standard Site Auditor scans your site and surfaces issues, OTTO goes further — it monitors crawl progress in real time and gives you a suite of tools to act on findings automatically. This article explains what OTTO SEO offers beyond a standard scan and how to get the most out of it. Finding OTTO SEO and Crawl Monitoring OTTO SEO is accessible from the left sidebar in Search Atlas via OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation). Once you are inside the OTTO SEO workspace, you can monitor the status of an active or completed crawl directly from the main dashboard view. The crawl monitoring area typically displays information such as: - Crawl progress — an indicator showing how far along the current crawl is. - Pages crawled — a count of URLs processed so far. - Crawl state — whether OTTO is idle, actively crawling, or has completed its last run. - Last crawl timestamp — when the most recent crawl finished. If you are having trouble locating the crawl status information or it does not appear as expected, our support team can help you confirm the correct navigation path for your account. OTTO SEO vs. Standard Site Auditor: Key Differences Both OTTO SEO and the standard Site Auditor identify on-page and technical SEO issues across your site. The main difference is what happens after issues are found. The standard Site Auditor surfaces problems and recommendations for you to act on manually. OTTO SEO is designed to go further by providing automation capabilities that allow you to act on those findings directly within the platform, rather than having to implement changes outside of Search Atlas. If you want to understand exactly which automation features are available on your current plan or how a specific capability works, the support team can walk you through what is accessible in your account. Getting the Most from OTTO SEO To make the best use of OTTO SEO for crawl monitoring and feature comparison: 1. Log in to Search Atlas and navigate to OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation) from the left sidebar. 2. Run or trigger a crawl for your connected project. 3. Review the crawl status area to track progress and see when results are ready. 4. Once the crawl completes, explore the available tools and recommendations within OTTO SEO to see what actions can be taken on identified issues. 5. If you are unsure whether a specific feature (such as automated fixes or advanced link-building tools) is included in your plan, check your account settings or contact support for clarification. 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.

🐦 Understanding OTTO Twitter Cards and Manual Entry

What Are Twitter Cards in OTTO? The Twitter Cards section in OTTO lets you control how your pages appear when shared on Twitter (now X). When someone posts a link to your site on Twitter, Twitter reads special meta tags from your page to decide what title, description, and image to display in the preview card. OTTO surfaces these fields so you can set or update them directly from one place without having to edit your site's code or theme files manually. To locate this section, navigate to the OTTO area of your Search Atlas account and look for the Twitter Cards fields within your site's settings. Why Are There No AI Suggestions Here? Unlike other OTTO sections — such as meta titles, meta descriptions, or heading tags — the Twitter Cards section does not generate AI-powered suggestions. This is intentional, not a bug or missing feature. Twitter Card tags are used for social sharing previews, and OTTO's AI automation does not extend to these fields. You are expected to fill them in manually based on your own brand and content preferences. How to Fill In Twitter Cards Manually Because there are no AI suggestions for this section, you will need to enter your Twitter Card values by hand. Open your site's settings within OTTO and locate the Twitter Cards area, then fill in the available fields using your own content. If you are unsure which values to use, a good starting point is to reuse or lightly adapt the meta title, meta description, and featured image you have already set for the page, since Twitter Card fields are designed to mirror that kind of content. If you are having trouble finding the Twitter Cards section or the fields are not behaving as expected, please reach out to our support team with your site name and a description of what you are seeing so we can assist you directly. 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.

📊 Improve UX Signals and OTTO's Role

🔍 What Are UX Signals? UX signals are measurable indicators of how real users experience your website. Search engines use these signals to evaluate page quality and determine rankings. Key UX signals include: - Core Web Vitals — page speed, visual stability, and interactivity (LCP, CLS, INP) - Bounce rate and dwell time — how long visitors stay and whether they return to search results - Mobile usability — how well your pages perform on smartphones and tablets - Page experience signals — HTTPS security, absence of intrusive interstitials, and safe browsing Strong UX signals tell search engines that your site delivers real value to visitors, which supports higher rankings and sustained organic traffic. ⚙️ What OTTO Currently Does With UX Signals OTTO evaluates your site across multiple pillars — including a UX Signal pillar — as part of its overall SEO health assessment. At this time, OTTO's UX Signal pillar provides a high-level score to help you understand where your site stands relative to page experience best practices. Important: The UX Signal pillar is actively being improved. Our engineering team is rebuilding it to replace placeholder metrics with genuine page experience signals such as Core Web Vitals data and real user interaction indicators. This means the scores and recommendations in this pillar will become significantly more detailed and actionable in an upcoming release. OTTO does not directly modify your site's server configuration, image compression, JavaScript execution, or other technical factors that affect Core Web Vitals. Improvements to those areas require action on your end or by your development team. 🛠️ How to Improve Your UX Signals Today While OTTO's UX pillar continues to evolve, you can take the following steps to improve your site's page experience right now: 1. Run a Core Web Vitals audit — Use Google Search Console (under the "Experience" section) or Google PageSpeed Insights to identify which pages fail LCP, CLS, or INP thresholds. 2. Optimize images — Compress images, use modern formats like WebP, and add explicit width and height attributes to reduce layout shift (CLS). 3. Reduce render-blocking resources — Defer non-critical JavaScript and CSS to improve Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). 4. Improve server response time — Use a reliable hosting provider and enable caching or a content delivery network (CDN). 5. Ensure mobile-friendliness — Test pages with Google's Mobile-Friendly Test tool and fix any viewport or tap-target issues. 6. Secure your site with HTTPS — All pages should be served over HTTPS. Mixed-content warnings negatively affect page experience scores. 7. Remove intrusive interstitials — Avoid pop-ups that cover the main content immediately on page load, especially on mobile. 8. Improve internal linking and content relevance — Keeping visitors engaged longer signals quality to search engines. Use OTTO's Content and Topical Authority recommendations alongside UX improvements. 💡 How OTTO's Other Pillars Support UX Indirectly Even while the UX Signal pillar is being rebuilt, other OTTO pillars contribute to a better user experience: - Content Quality — Well-structured, relevant content keeps users on your pages longer, reducing bounce rate. - Topical Architecture — Clear site structure and internal linking help visitors find related content easily, improving dwell time. - Authority Score — A strong, trustworthy domain profile reinforces credibility signals that align with user trust. - Technical SEO — Fixing crawlability and indexation issues ensures users land on properly functioning pages. Addressing OTTO's recommendations across all pillars creates a cumulative improvement in how both users and search engines perceive your site. 🚀 What's Coming Next for OTTO UX Signals The Search Atlas engineering team has several improvements in progress: - Replacing the current UX Signal score with real page experience data, including Core Web Vitals measurements - Expanding the pillar architecture so UX signals are tracked with greater granularity alongside content and authority metrics - Introducing clearer, task-level recommendations tied directly to page experience failures These updates will give you a much clearer picture of which specific pages need attention and why. Watch for release notes in the platform for announcements. 💬 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.

📊 Why Your OTTO Healthy Page Count Dropped

🔍 Overview After OTTO completes a new site crawl, you may notice your healthy page count drops. You may also find that changes you previously approved and implemented now require re-approval. This article explains what is happening and what steps to take. ⚠️ Known Issue: Healthy Page Count Drops After a Re-Crawl Our team is aware of an issue where OTTO's healthy page count can drop unexpectedly after a re-crawl runs, and previously approved changes may revert to requiring re-approval. This is a known bug — our engineering team is actively investigating the root cause. We do not yet have a confirmed cause or estimated fix date, and we appreciate your patience while we work on a resolution. 🛠️ What to Do When Your Count Drops Since this is a known bug under active investigation, there are no guaranteed self-serve steps to restore the count at this time. However, the following information will help our engineering team diagnose and address your specific case. Please have these details ready when you reach out: - Project name and URL of the affected site - Approximate date and time when you first noticed the healthy page count drop - Whether a re-crawl ran around the time the count changed - Details of any fixes that reverted to requiring re-approval (page URLs and the specific fixes involved) - Screenshots showing the healthy page count before and after the drop, if available 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.

🔗 Connecting Multiple Websites to OTTO PPC

🔍 Overview OTTO PPC connects your websites to Google Ads so campaigns can be created and managed automatically. However, the number of Google Ads accounts you can connect depends on your Search Atlas subscription tier. If you see errors like "Failed to connect otto_v2" or "No service ID was returned", your current plan may not support connecting additional websites. ⚠️ Understanding the Error Messages When you try to connect a website to OTTO PPC and see one of the messages below, it is almost always related to your account's Google Ads connection limit: - "Failed to connect otto_v2" — OTTO PPC could not establish a connection for this site. - "No service ID was returned" — The system could not generate a service link for the new account, typically because your plan's limit has been reached. These errors do not mean there is a technical fault with your Google Ads account. They indicate that the platform was unable to add another connected account under your current subscription. 📋 How Account Tier Limits Work Search Atlas gates Google Ads account connections based on your subscription plan: - Standard plans — Allow one connected Google Ads account. Adding a second website that requires a separate Google Ads account will trigger a connection error. - Google Ads add-on — Unlocks the ability to connect multiple Google Ads accounts across different websites. - Grandfathered accounts — Legacy accounts that were created before the add-on was introduced may also be limited to a single Google Ads account connection, even if your plan previously allowed more. If you are trying to connect a second or third website — for example, adding Paslow Junk Removal after another site is already connected — you will hit this limit unless you have the Google Ads add-on active on your account. ✅ How to Resolve the Connection Error 1. Log in to Search Atlas and navigate to OTTO SEO using the left sidebar (or go to /seo-automation-v3). 2. Check which website is currently connected to OTTO PPC. Only one Google Ads account can be active on standard plans. 3. If you only need one site connected at a time, disconnect the existing Google Ads account first, then reconnect using the new site's account. 4. If you need multiple sites connected simultaneously, you will need to add the Google Ads add-on to your subscription (see below). 🚀 Upgrading to Connect Multiple Accounts To connect Google Ads accounts for more than one website at the same time, the Google Ads add-on must be enabled on your Search Atlas plan. This add-on removes the single-account restriction and allows OTTO PPC to manage campaigns across multiple properties simultaneously. To explore upgrade options, 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 who can review your plan and activate the add-on. 💡 Tips to Avoid Future Errors - Before connecting a new website, confirm how many Google Ads accounts your plan supports. - Each website typically requires its own Google Ads account — connecting two sites to the same Google Ads account is supported, but connecting two separate Google Ads accounts requires the add-on. - After connecting a new account, allow a few minutes for the platform to confirm the connection status before attempting to create campaigns. 🛠️ Still Seeing the Error? If you have the Google Ads add-on active and are still seeing "Failed to connect otto_v2" or "No service ID was returned", the issue may require manual review by our 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.

🔄 Why OTTO Optimizations Persist After Plugin Changes

🤔 What Is Happening? You edited or deleted content in WordPress, deactivated the Search Atlas plugin, yet your live webpage still shows the old content OTTO deployed — for example, a "24/7" phrase or other optimized text you no longer want. This is expected behaviour, not a bug. Understanding why it happens will help you fix it quickly. ⚙️ How OTTO Deployments Work OTTO SEO applies optimizations directly to your live page at the server or rendering layer, independently of what is stored inside your WordPress editor. This means: - OTTO-deployed content is not stored inside your WordPress posts or pages — it lives in the Search Atlas platform and is injected on top of your existing page content. - Editing or deleting text in the WordPress block editor or classic editor does not remove an OTTO optimization that has already been deployed. - Deactivating or uninstalling the Search Atlas WordPress plugin removes the plugin's local connection but does not automatically roll back active OTTO deployments on your site. Think of OTTO optimizations as a separate layer sitting above your WordPress content. To remove them, you must manage them inside the Search Atlas dashboard — not inside WordPress. 🛠️ How to Remove a Persisting OTTO Optimization 1. Log in to your Search Atlas account. 2. In the left sidebar, click OTTO SEO → SEO Automation (URL: /seo-automation-v3). 3. Select the website or property where the outdated content is appearing. 4. Locate the specific optimization that contains the content you want to remove — for example, the deployment that inserted the "24/7" text. 5. Click the optimization to open its details. 6. Use the Undeploy or Revert option to roll back that specific change. The optimization will be removed from your live page. 7. Reload your live webpage to confirm the outdated content is gone. If you want to remove all active OTTO optimizations for a property, look for the option to undeploy all changes within the same OTTO SEO section before disconnecting the site. 🔌 Deactivating the Plugin Safely If your goal is to fully disconnect Search Atlas from your WordPress site, follow this order to avoid leaving orphaned content on your pages: 1. First, go to OTTO SEO → SEO Automation in the Search Atlas dashboard and undeploy all active optimizations for that property. 2. Confirm your live pages look correct and no OTTO-managed content remains. 3. Then deactivate and uninstall the Search Atlas plugin from your WordPress admin panel. Following this sequence ensures your site is clean before the plugin is removed. ❓ Why Can't I Just Edit It in WordPress? Because OTTO writes to your live page independently, any text you type into the WordPress editor for that section will be overwritten or ignored as long as an OTTO deployment for that element is still active. Always undeploy first in Search Atlas, then make your WordPress edits if needed. 🚀 Quick Reference - Content still showing after WordPress edit? → Undeploy the optimization in OTTO SEO → SEO Automation dashboard. - Content still showing after plugin deactivation? → Reactivate the plugin temporarily, undeploy all optimizations in OTTO SEO → SEO Automation, then deactivate again. - Not sure which optimization is responsible? → Review the deployment list in OTTO SEO → SEO Automation and match it to the URL where the content appears. 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.

🤖 OTTO SEO Slots, Clients, and Plan Limits

🔍 What Is an OTTO Project Slot? An OTTO project slot is one active OTTO SEO instance connected to a single website. Each slot allows OTTO to audit, optimize, and automate SEO tasks for that specific domain. The number of slots available to you depends on your current subscription plan. 📊 How Many OTTO Slots Does Each Plan Include? The number of OTTO slots varies by plan. On the Starter plan ($99/month), you receive 1 OTTO slot, meaning you can have OTTO actively running on one website at a time. Higher-tier plans include additional slots to support larger client rosters. Check your current plan details inside the platform to confirm your slot allocation. 👥 Can I Use My OTTO Slot Across Multiple Client Accounts? Each OTTO slot is tied to one active project at a time. On the Starter plan, you cannot run OTTO simultaneously on multiple client websites — only one site can be active under that single slot. If you manage several clients and need OTTO running on more than one domain at the same time, you will need to upgrade to a plan that includes additional slots. 🔄 Can I Switch an OTTO Project Between Clients? Yes, you can reassign or swap which website is connected to your OTTO slot. Here is how to do it: 1. Go to OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation) in the left sidebar (or navigate to /seo-automation-v3). 2. Locate your active OTTO project and deactivate it to free up the slot. 3. Create a new OTTO project and connect it to the new client's website. 4. OTTO will begin onboarding and auditing the new domain. Important: When you switch a slot to a new client, the previous client's OTTO session is paused. Any optimizations already deployed to the previous site remain in place, but OTTO will no longer actively monitor or automate that domain until the slot is reassigned back to it. 💡 Best Practices for Agencies Managing Multiple Clients - Audit your client roster first. Identify which clients need active, ongoing OTTO automation versus those in a maintenance phase. - Prioritize high-activity clients. Assign your available slots to clients with active campaigns or new site launches. - Upgrade for concurrent coverage. If multiple clients need simultaneous OTTO automation, upgrading your plan is the most efficient solution — switching slots frequently can slow down optimization momentum for each client. - Track projects in Reports. Use Reports (left sidebar → Reports, or /report-builder/projects-list) to monitor SEO progress across all client sites, even those not currently assigned an active OTTO slot. ⚙️ How to Upgrade Your Plan for More OTTO Slots 1. Click your avatar in the top-right corner of the platform. 2. Select Billing, then open the Plans & Top-ups tab (Billing). 3. Compare available plans and select one that matches the number of client sites you need to cover simultaneously. 4. Confirm your upgrade — your additional OTTO slots will be available immediately. 🛠️ Summary: Key Things to Remember - The Starter plan ($99/month) includes 1 OTTO slot — one active site at a time. - You can switch which client site uses your slot, but not run multiple sites simultaneously on a single slot. - Previously deployed OTTO optimizations remain on a site even after the slot is reassigned elsewhere. - Upgrading your plan is the best way to support multiple clients concurrently. 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.

🔍 OTTO Subdirectory Scoping and Trial Cancellation Guide

🗺️ Can OTTO Be Scoped to a Subdirectory? OTTO SEO is designed to operate at the root domain level. This means when you connect a site to OTTO, it analyses and deploys optimisations across the entire domain — it cannot be restricted to a single subdirectory such as /pl/ on a multilingual site. If your site uses subdirectories to separate languages or regions (for example, example.com/pl/ for Polish content), OTTO will still process the full domain. There is currently no option to limit OTTO's scope to one specific path segment. 💡 Workarounds for Multilingual or Subdirectory Sites If you only want to optimise a specific language version of your site, consider the following approaches: - Review OTTO's suggestions selectively: After OTTO generates recommendations, you can choose to deploy only those changes that apply to your target subdirectory's pages. Not every suggestion needs to be approved. - Use a subdomain instead: If your site architecture is flexible, hosting your regional content on a subdomain (e.g., pl.example.com) allows you to create a separate OTTO project scoped exclusively to that subdomain. - Reach out before committing: If you are evaluating OTTO for a multilingual site, we recommend speaking with our team before your trial ends to find the best setup for your use case. ❌ How to Cancel Your OTTO Trial If OTTO does not meet your current needs, you can cancel your trial at any time before it converts to a paid subscription. Follow these steps: 1. Log in to your Search Atlas account. 2. In the left sidebar, click OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation) (URL: /seo-automation-v3). 3. Locate the trial subscription you want to cancel and open its settings or billing details. 4. Select the cancellation option and follow the on-screen prompts to confirm. 5. You should receive an on-screen confirmation message that your trial has been cancelled. Important: After cancelling, refresh the page to verify the cancellation is reflected in your account status. In rare cases, the cancellation may appear active before a page refresh completes the update. If the trial still shows as active after refreshing, this is a known display issue — contact our team immediately via the chat widget to confirm your account status. 💳 Will I Be Charged After Cancelling My Trial? No charges will occur if you cancel your trial before the trial period ends. Here is what you need to know: - Cancelling your trial stops any future billing for the OTTO subscription. - You will not be charged for the trial period itself — trial access is free. - If you have any active OTTO top-up add-ons, these should also be reviewed and cancelled separately, as add-ons are billed independently from the base subscription. - Once cancelled, your OTTO projects will move to an inactive or frozen state and will no longer consume credits. We recommend taking a screenshot of your cancellation confirmation screen for your own records. If you do not receive a confirmation on-screen or via email, treat this as a signal to verify with our support team before your trial period expires. ⚠️ Known Issues to Be Aware Of Our team has resolved several issues related to OTTO trial and subscription management. Here are things to watch for: - Cancellation confirmation not persisting: On rare occasions, the cancellation screen may show a success message, but the subscription appears active again after a page refresh. This has been addressed, but if you experience it, contact support right away. - OTTO weekly emails after cancellation: Some users previously continued receiving OTTO-related emails after cancelling. If this happens to you, it is safe to ignore those emails — your cancellation is still valid. Notify our team so we can remove you from those sends. - Trial start confirmation emails: If you did not receive a trial confirmation email when you signed up, this does not affect your trial status. Your account dashboard is the authoritative source for your subscription state. 🙋 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.

🌐 OTTO Project Scoping for Multilingual Subdirectories

🗺️ Overview If your website serves multiple languages through subdirectories — for example, /pl/ for Polish, /fr/ for French, or /en/ for English — you may want to deploy OTTO to just one language version at a time. This article explains how OTTO handles multilingual sites, what to expect, and the recommended approach for isolating OTTO to a specific subdirectory. ⚙️ How OTTO Scopes a Project When you create an OTTO project, it is tied to the root domain you enter during setup. OTTO crawls and applies optimisations across the entire domain by default — it does not automatically restrict itself to a single subdirectory such as /pl/. Because of this, deploying OTTO to a multilingual site without any configuration adjustments means OTTO will discover and potentially act on pages across all language versions of your site, not just one. 🚫 Known Limitation: Subdirectory-Only Scoping At this time, OTTO does not support a built-in subdirectory scope selector that restricts crawling and automation exclusively to a path like /pl/. A dedicated subdirectory scope UI is planned for a future release. Until that feature is available, the approaches below are the recommended ways to isolate OTTO to a single language version. ✅ Recommended Approaches Choose the method that best fits your technical setup and testing goals: 1. Create a separate OTTO project for the target subdirectory domain: If your multilingual setup uses a subdomain structure (e.g., pl.example.com), create a dedicated OTTO project using that subdomain as the root domain. This gives you clean, isolated coverage for that language. 2. Use URL filtering during onboarding: When setting up your OTTO project, enter the full subdirectory URL as the starting point (e.g., https://www.example.com/pl/). This signals to the crawler where to begin, which can limit the initial scope of discovered pages — though full root-level isolation is not guaranteed. 3. Apply OTTO recommendations selectively: After OTTO generates suggestions, review them page by page and apply changes only to pages that belong to your target language subdirectory. Avoid bulk-deploying suggestions if you have not yet verified the language scope of each page. 4. Monitor language attribution carefully: A known issue exists where AI suggestions may be generated in the wrong language on multilingual sites — for example, English-language suggestions appearing on French or Polish pages. Always review suggestion language before deploying, especially on mixed-language domains. 🛠️ Setting Up Your OTTO Project Follow these steps to create a new OTTO project: 1. In the left sidebar, click OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation). 2. Click Create to start a new project. 3. Enter the domain or subdirectory URL you want OTTO to focus on. 4. Complete the setup wizard, paying close attention to any crawl settings that allow you to narrow the starting URL path. 5. Once the project is active, review the discovered pages and confirm they match the language version you intend to optimise. 💡 Best Practices for Multilingual Sites - Audit before deploying: Always run a full page review after OTTO crawls your site to confirm which language pages were discovered. - Check suggestion language: Read each AI-generated suggestion to verify it matches the target language of the page before applying it. - One project per language: Where your site architecture allows, consider maintaining one OTTO project per language region. This makes performance tracking cleaner and reduces the risk of cross-language errors. - Use hreflang correctly: Ensure your site's hreflang tags are properly implemented. Well-structured hreflang helps OTTO and other tools correctly identify language and regional intent for each page. 🔮 What's Coming The Search Atlas team is actively working on expanded subdirectory scope controls for OTTO, which will allow you to restrict crawling and automation to a specific path such as /pl/ or /fr/ directly within the project settings. This feature is on the product roadmap and will be announced in release notes when available. 💬 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.

⚡ Manage Multiple Sites, UX Signals, and Authority with OTTO

Overview Search Atlas is built with agencies and multi-site managers in mind. Under a single account, you can manage multiple client websites, monitor UX and Authority signals, and let OTTO SEO handle repetitive optimization tasks automatically. This article walks you through each capability so you can get the most out of the platform with minimal manual effort. Managing Multiple Client Websites Under One Account You do not need separate accounts for each client. Search Atlas supports multi-site management directly from your dashboard, allowing you to add and switch between client domains without logging out and back in. To add and manage client domains: 1. Log in to your Search Atlas account and go to your main dashboard. 2. Add each client website as a separate project within your account. 3. Switch between client projects directly from the dashboard — no separate logins are required. Search Atlas also offers white-label options that allow you to present the platform under your own agency branding. To learn more about enabling white-label features for your account, contact the Search Atlas support team via the chat widget. What Are UX Signals? UX (User Experience) signals are data points that reflect how real users interact with a website. Search engines use these signals as quality indicators when ranking pages. Key UX signals include: - Page load speed — how quickly your pages become usable for visitors. - Mobile usability — whether the site renders and functions correctly on mobile devices. - Engagement metrics — indicators such as bounce rate and time on page that suggest content relevance. - Core Web Vitals — Google's standardized metrics covering loading, interactivity, and visual stability. How to Improve UX Signals Improving UX signals does not require rebuilding your site. Focus on high-impact, targeted fixes: - Compress images and enable lazy loading to reduce initial page load time. - Use a content delivery network (CDN) to serve assets faster to users in different regions. - Fix mobile layout issues — tap targets, font sizes, and viewport settings are common culprits. - Minimize render-blocking resources such as undeferred JavaScript and CSS that delay page display. - Improve internal linking to help users and search engines navigate your content more effectively. How to Improve Authority Authority reflects how trustworthy and credible your domain appears to search engines. Improving it is a long-term effort centered on earning high-quality backlinks and building topical relevance. Steps to improve your Authority score: - Build backlinks from relevant, authoritative sites — use Search Atlas's backlink research tools to identify link opportunities in your niche. - Create linkable assets such as original research, guides, or tools that naturally attract links. - Remove or disavow toxic backlinks that may be dragging down your domain's credibility. - Develop topical depth by publishing clusters of content that thoroughly cover your core subject areas. - Monitor your Authority score over time inside Search Atlas to track progress as new links are acquired. Automating SEO Tasks with OTTO OTTO SEO is Search Atlas's automation layer that handles repetitive on-site optimization tasks so you can focus on strategy. Once activated for a project, OTTO continuously scans for issues and applies or queues fixes based on your settings. Common tasks OTTO can help automate include: - Generating and deploying meta titles and descriptions at scale. - Identifying and flagging technical SEO issues such as broken links, missing tags, and duplicate content. - Applying schema markup to eligible pages. - Surfacing recommendations for content and UX improvements across your tracked sites. To get started with OTTO on a project: 1. Open the project you want to automate inside Search Atlas. 2. Activate OTTO for that project and review the initial audit results. 3. Work through OTTO's prioritized recommendations or configure automatic deployment where available. 4. Repeat across each client project — OTTO settings are managed per project under your single account. If you are unsure which OTTO features are available on your current plan, contact the support team for clarification before making changes. 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.

🛠️ Control OTTO Title and H1 Tag Behaviour

🔍 Overview OTTO can automatically optimise page titles, H1 tags, and meta fields on your WordPress site. While this saves time, some workflows require that client-approved blog titles and headings remain untouched. This article explains how to prevent unwanted overwrites and how to troubleshoot duplicate H1 or HTML rendering issues without deactivating OTTO entirely. ⚙️ How OTTO Controls Titles and H1 Tags When OTTO is connected to a WordPress site, it can deploy changes to on-page elements including SEO titles (meta titles) and H1 tags. Because the exact behaviour depends on your site's configuration, SEO plugin, and page builder setup, the specific controls available to you may vary. Contact our support team to confirm exactly which elements OTTO is managing on your site before making changes. 🚫 How to Prevent OTTO from Overwriting Approved Titles If a client has approved specific blog titles or H1 text and you want to protect them while keeping OTTO active for other optimisations, the right approach depends on your site's specific OTTO configuration. Because the available controls vary by account setup, we recommend reaching out to our support team so they can identify the correct settings for your site and guide you through protecting specific fields — such as the SEO title or H1 — without disabling OTTO globally. When you contact support, please have the following ready: - The name of the project or site in Search Atlas - The specific pages or post types whose titles or H1s you want to protect - The SEO plugin installed on the WordPress site (e.g. Yoast, Rank Math, AIOSEO) - Whether you are using a page builder such as Elementor - A description of any changes OTTO has already made that need to be reviewed 🔁 Fixing Duplicate H1 Tags A duplicate H1 occurs when both the theme or page builder and OTTO independently render an H1 element on the same page. This can cause frontend display issues and may flag as an SEO error. To begin troubleshooting a duplicate H1, check the following in WordPress: 1. Open the affected page in your WordPress editor or page builder and inspect the page structure to confirm how many H1 elements exist. 2. If you are using a page builder, check whether the post title widget is set to output an H1 tag — if so, look for any additional H1 that may have been injected in the content area and remove it. 3. After saving, use a browser inspector or an SEO crawler to verify that only one H1 is rendered on the page. If the duplicate H1 persists after checking your page structure, contact our support team with the project name, the URL of the affected page, and a description of the issue so they can investigate the OTTO configuration on your account. 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.

🤖 AI Generation Capabilities and Limitations in OTTO

Overview OTTO's AI generation feature helps you automatically create optimized content for key SEO fields on your site. However, AI generation does not apply to every field in OTTO. This article outlines a confirmed limitation so you know exactly what to expect. Fields That Do Not Support AI Generation The following field is not supported for AI generation in OTTO: - Twitter Cards — OTTO does not generate AI content for Twitter Card fields (such as titles, descriptions, or images). If you navigate to the Twitter Card section withinOTTO and find that AI generation is unavailable, this is expected behavior — not a bug, a quota issue, or a configuration error. Why Are Twitter Cards Excluded? OTTO's AI generation is purpose-built for SEO performance. Twitter Cards control how your content appears when shared on social platforms, which requires a different editorial approach. As a result, Twitter Card fields are managed manually within OTTO rather than through AI generation. How to Manage Twitter Card Fields in OTTO Even though AI generation is not available for Twitter Cards, you can still edit these fields manually within OTTO. Navigate to the relevant page or post in OTTO and locate the Twitter Card fields, then enter your preferred values and save your changes. 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.

🔍 Why OTTO Meta Tags Aren't Showing in Google

🧭 Overview You've deployed updated meta tags through OTTO SEO, confirmed the changes are live on the page, and Google has even re-crawled the page — but the new meta tags still aren't showing in actual search results. This is a common and frustrating experience. The good news is that it's almost always a timing or caching issue, not a problem with your deployment. ⚙️ How Google Updates Search Snippets There is an important distinction between crawling and indexing. When Google crawls your page, it reads and stores the raw content. When it indexes your page, it processes that content and decides what to display in search results. These are two separate steps and can happen hours or even days apart. - Crawl confirmed: Google visited and read your page. - Index updated: Google has processed the crawl data and refreshed what appears in search results. - SERP snippet refreshed: The visible title and description in search results have been updated — this step can lag behind the others. A confirmed crawl does not guarantee that the search snippet will update immediately. Google's systems prioritise and schedule index updates independently of crawl events. ⏱️ Expected Timelines Meta tag changes typically take between a few days and several weeks to fully reflect in search results, depending on your site's crawl frequency, domain authority, and how competitive the keyword landscape is. Even after a successful re-crawl, snippets can take additional time to refresh in the search engine results pages (SERPs). - High-authority, frequently crawled sites: may see updates sooner - Newer or lower-traffic sites: may wait longer for changes to appear - Highly competitive queries: Google may override your meta description with its own generated snippet regardless of your tags ✅ How to Verify Your Deployment Is Working Correctly Before assuming something is broken, confirm that the meta tag changes are correctly live on the page: 1. View the source of your page in a browser and search for the meta title and description tags to confirm the updated values are present in the HTML. 2. Run the page through Google Search Console's URL Inspection tool and use the live URL test. If the meta tags appear correctly there, the deployment is working — Google simply hasn't refreshed the SERP snippet yet. 3. Optionally verify with a browser extension such as SEOquake or a meta tag checker tool to confirm the tags are live in the page's HTML. If all of the above confirm the correct tags are present, the deployment is successful. The delay is entirely on Google's side. 🛠️ Steps to Speed Up Google's Snippet Refresh While you cannot force Google to update its snippets on demand, the following steps may help prompt a faster refresh: - Use Google Search Console's URL Inspection tool to request indexing for the affected page. - Ensure your sitemap is up to date and submitted in Google Search Console. - Build or refresh internal links pointing to the updated page to signal its importance. - Monitor Google Search Console over the following days and weeks for index status changes. If your meta tags are confirmed live in the page HTML but the SERP snippet has not updated after several weeks, this is worth escalating so our team can review the deployment on your project. When reaching out, please have the following ready: the affected page URL, a screenshot or copy of the current HTML meta tags, and the date OTTO deployed the changes. 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.

🔄 Roll Back FAQs and Configure Page Types

🗺️ Overview OTTO SEO can automatically deploy FAQ schema to your pages to improve search visibility. However, you may want to remove FAQ schema from specific pages — such as your homepage — or adjust how a page is classified. This article explains the self-serve steps available to you and what to have ready if you need further help. ↩️ Rolling Back FAQs from a Page If you need to remove FAQ schema that was deployed to a page, follow these steps inside OTTO SEO: 1. Open your OTTO SEO project and navigate to the page you want to update. 2. Locate the FAQ schema task associated with that page in your task list. 3. Change the task status to roll back or disable the deployed FAQ schema for that URL. 4. Save your changes and confirm the schema has been removed by rechecking the page. If you do not see a rollback or disable option for the relevant task, this may require support assistance. In that case, please have the following ready: - The name of your OTTO SEO project - The exact URL(s) of the page(s) you want to roll back FAQ schema from - Confirmation of which schema type was deployed (e.g. FAQ schema) - Any error messages or unexpected behaviour you have observed, including timestamps if available 📋 Changing the Page Type of a Page OTTO uses the page type to determine which optimisations are appropriate for each URL. To update the page type for a page, follow these steps inside OTTO SEO: 1. Open your OTTO SEO project and find the URL you want to reconfigure. 2. Locate the page type setting for that URL. 3. Select the correct page type from the available options (for example, changing a page from a blog post type to a homepage type). 4. Save your changes and review the updated task list to confirm the correct optimisations are now shown for that page. If the page type option is not available or does not save correctly, please have the following ready when contacting support: - The name of your OTTO SEO project - The exact URL of the page you want to reconfigure - The current page type shown for that URL - The page type you believe is correct and why (e.g. the page is a homepage, not a blog post) 💡 Tips and Best Practices - Review your task list after any configuration change to confirm the correct optimisations are active for each page. - Check each URL individually if you need to roll back schema or update page types across multiple pages. 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.

⚡ Switching OTTO Sites on the Starter Plan

Overview On the Search Atlas Starter plan, you can connect one OTTO site at a time. If you want to activate OTTO on a different website, you can swap it — but it's important to understand how the switch works before proceeding, particularly around data retention and the 14-day rule. What You Need to Know Before Switching - One active OTTO site at a time: The Starter plan includes one OTTO site slot. Switching means deactivating your current site and activating a new one in its place. - Data retention: When you deactivate a site and switch to a new one, the previously connected site's OTTO data (including configurations and optimizations applied to that domain) is not carried over to the new site. Your original site's data remains stored in your account and is not permanently deleted — if you switch back to that domain in the future, the previously gathered data will still be associated with it. - The 14-day rule: Once you activate an OTTO site, a 14-day restriction period applies before you can switch to a different site again. This means after performing a site switch, you must wait 14 days before swapping your active OTTO site once more. This restriction exists at the plan level and applies to all Starter accounts. - The new site starts fresh: When you connect a different domain, OTTO will begin its setup and data-gathering process from scratch for that domain. No optimizations from your previous site are transferred. How to Switch Your Active OTTO Site 1. Log in to your Search Atlas account and navigate to the OTTO section. 2. Locate your currently active OTTO site and select the option to deactivate it. 3. Once the site is deactivated, you will be able to connect a new domain to your OTTO slot. 4. Enter the new domain and complete the OTTO onboarding setup for that site. Before switching, confirm that you are outside the 14-day restriction window from your last site change. If you attempt to switch within 14 days of your previous activation, the platform will not allow the change until the restriction period has passed. Common Questions - Will I lose my original site's data when I switch? Your original site's stored OTTO data is retained in your account — it is not deleted. However, the new site starts fresh and does not inherit any configurations from the previous domain. If you later switch back to your original domain, your prior data will still be available. - Does the 14-day rule apply to switching sites? Yes. After activating an OTTO site, you must wait 14 days before switching to a different site. This restriction applies at the Starter plan level for all accounts. - Can I switch back to my original site later? Yes, you can switch back — subject to the 14-day restriction. When you do, the OTTO data previously associated with that domain will still be there. 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.

⚡ OTTO PPC Automatic Negative Keywords Explained

What Are Automatic Negative Keywords? OTTO PPC includes an automatic negative keyword feature that analyzes your Google Ads search term data to help protect your ad spend. When poor-performing queries are identified, they are surfaced for your review as part of the negative keyword workflow before any changes are applied to your live campaigns. How to Locate and Review Your Negative Keyword Queue Follow these steps to find, review, and act on flagged negative keywords in OTTO PPC: 1. Open your OTTO PPC project. From the Search Atlas dashboard, navigate to the OTTO PPC section and select the project you want to work with. 2. Go to the Negative Keywords tab. Inside the project, locate the Negative Keywords section. This is where OTTO PPC surfaces all search terms it has flagged for review. 3. Review each flagged term. For each term in the queue, you will see the search query, the campaign or ad group it is associated with, and the performance data that triggered the flag (such as spend without conversions or low relevance). 4. Approve or dismiss each term. If a flagged query is irrelevant or non-converting and you want to block it, select the option to apply it as a negative keyword. If the query is actually relevant to your business, dismiss or skip it so it is not added as a negative. 5. Confirm and push changes. Once you have made your selections, confirm your choices. Approved negative keywords are then pushed to your Google Ads account and will begin filtering out matching search queries going forward. 6. Repeat regularly. New flagged terms will appear in the queue as OTTO PPC continues to monitor your search term data. Reviewing the queue on a regular basis helps keep your budget focused on the queries most likely to convert. How the Negative Keyword Workflow Operates At a high level, OTTO PPC monitors your Google Ads search term data, flags queries that appear to be poor performers or irrelevant, and presents those queries for your review. Approved negative keywords are pushed to your Google Ads account to begin filtering out matching search queries going forward. No changes are applied to your live campaigns until you have reviewed and approved them. Why a Phrase Might Appear in Your Queue A search term typically surfaces in the negative keyword workflow because it generated ad spend without producing a conversion, its content is unrelated to your product or service, or it falls below the performance thresholds OTTO PPC uses to evaluate query quality. Reviewing flagged keywords regularly helps ensure your budget is focused on the queries most likely to convert. What to Have Ready When You Reach Out To help our team assist you as quickly as possible, please have the following information on hand: - The name of the OTTO PPC project or campaign you are working with - The specific negative keyword phrase or phrases in question - The current status shown for those keywords in your account - A description of the behavior you are seeing and what outcome you expected 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.

🗂️ OTTO Category Dropdown: Supported Post Types Explained

🔍 Overview OTTO's category dropdown for auto-sync currently supports three WordPress post types out of the box: Blog, Procedures, and Locations. If your WordPress site uses custom post types — such as articles, resources, events, or any other non-standard type — these will not appear in the dropdown by default. This is a platform limitation, not a configuration error on your end. 📋 Supported Post Types in OTTO Auto-Sync The following post types are natively recognised by OTTO's category dropdown: - Blog — Standard WordPress blog posts - Procedures — Typically used by medical or service-based sites - Locations — Used for multi-location business pages Any WordPress post type outside this list — including custom post types registered by themes, plugins, or custom code — is not currently supported natively in the dropdown. ❓ Why Custom Post Types Don't Appear OTTO's auto-sync category selector maps to a predefined set of post type identifiers. When WordPress registers a custom post type (for example, articles), OTTO does not automatically detect or list it because the dropdown is not dynamically populated from your WordPress post type registry. This means refreshing categories, clearing cache, or reconnecting your CMS integration will not resolve the missing post type — those steps only apply to standard supported types. ⚙️ How to Work Around Custom Post Type Limitations If your content lives in a custom post type, you have two practical options to bring it into OTTO's auto-sync workflow: 1. Remap your content to a supported post type. In WordPress, you can reassign existing custom post type content to the standard post type (which maps to Blog in OTTO). This may require a plugin such as Post Type Switcher or a small code change. Once content is under a supported post type, it will be available in OTTO's dropdown immediately. 2. Request custom post type mapping. Search Atlas can enable custom post type support for your account on a case-by-case basis. To request this, 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. Provide the exact slug of your custom post type (for example, articles) and a member of our team will confirm whether mapping is available for your plan. 🛠️ Steps to Verify Your Current CMS Post Type Slug Before reaching out, confirm the exact slug OTTO would need to map. Follow these steps in WordPress: 1. Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard. 2. Navigate to Settings → Permalinks and save (this flushes rewrite rules and confirms post type slugs are active). 3. Go to any post in your custom post type and check the URL structure — the segment after your domain root is typically the post type slug (for example, yoursite.com/articles/post-name indicates the slug is articles). 4. Alternatively, if you have access to your theme's functions.php or a custom plugin file, search for register_post_type — the first argument is the slug. Note this slug exactly as it is case-sensitive. 🔗 Where to Find OTTO Auto-Sync Settings To access the category dropdown and auto-sync options in OTTO: 1. In the left sidebar, click OTTO SEO. 2. Click All Sites (SEO Automation). 3. Open your individual project. 4. Navigate to the Auto-Sync or Category settings panel within the OTTO dashboard. 5. The dropdown will display only the three supported post types listed above. If your custom post type has been successfully mapped by the Search Atlas team, it will appear in this list after the mapping is applied to your account. ✅ Quick Reference - Blog, Procedures, Locations — supported natively, no action needed. - Custom post types (e.g. articles) — not supported by default; use remapping or request account-level mapping. - Refreshing categories or clearing cache — will not add custom post types to the dropdown. - CMS reconnection — will not add custom post types to the dropdown. 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.

🔍 Why OTTO Title Tags Exceed 60 Characters

🧠 Understanding the 60-Character Guideline The 60-character limit for title tags is a widely cited SEO best practice, not a hard technical rule. Search engines such as Google use pixel width — not character count — to decide where to truncate a title in search results. The 60-character figure is an approximation based on average character widths, which means a title of 62–65 characters using narrow letters (i, l, t, f) may display fully, while a 58-character title using wide letters (W, M) may still get cut off. Because pixel width varies by character, OTTO AI is designed to optimize for readability and keyword completeness within a practical range rather than cutting titles at an arbitrary character count. ⚙️ How OTTO Generates Title Tags OTTO uses contextual signals — your target keyword, brand name, page content, and competitive data — to craft title tags that balance click-through potential with keyword relevance. This approach can produce titles in the 60–88 character range depending on the page and keyword combination. A dedicated AI Grader is built into OTTO to score title tags across multiple quality dimensions, including length. Titles that score poorly are flagged for review. Additionally, a unified post-generation guardrail layer is actively in development to enforce field-level quality constraints — including length limits — across all AI-generated fields automatically. ✅ How to Review and Shorten a Generated Title Tag If you receive a title tag that is longer than you prefer, you can edit it directly inside the platform. Follow these steps: 1. Go to Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation) to open your OTTO dashboard. 2. Locate the page whose title tag you want to adjust and open its recommendations. 3. Find the generated title tag and click the edit icon next to it. 4. Shorten the title to your preferred length — aim for under 60 characters while keeping the primary keyword near the front. 5. Save your changes. OTTO will apply the updated title tag to the page. 💡 Tips for Writing Effective Short Title Tags - Lead with the primary keyword. Place the most important term in the first 30–40 characters so it displays even if truncation occurs. - Skip filler words. Remove articles (a, an, the) and conjunctions where the meaning stays clear. - Use a separator before the brand name. Format as Primary Keyword – Brand Name so the brand can be dropped without losing the main message. - Use a pixel-width checker. Tools such as Portent's SERP Preview Tool or Google Search Console's rich results preview show how your title renders at actual pixel width rather than character count. - Test variations. OTTO's AI Grader scores generated titles — use it to compare edited versions before publishing. 🛠️ What Search Atlas Is Doing to Improve This Our engineering team has already shipped an AI Grader for title tags that evaluates length alongside other quality signals. Work is underway on a post-generation guardrail layer that will automatically enforce character and quality thresholds for every AI-generated field in OTTO, reducing the need for manual edits. These improvements will roll out progressively — no action is needed on your end to receive them. ❓ Still Seeing Unexpected Title Lengths? If OTTO is consistently generating titles well above 70 characters for a specific site or page type, this may indicate a configuration issue worth investigating. 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.

📤 Bulk Export OTTO On-Page SEO Data

📋 Overview OTTO SEO includes a built-in Export Fixes feature that lets you bulk export all on-page SEO data in one click. The export is delivered as a Google Sheets file, giving you a clean, structured spreadsheet you can use to migrate data into Rank Math, share with your team, or keep as a backup. You do not need to copy and paste individual fields manually. 📦 What Gets Exported The Export Fixes feature covers every major on-page SEO field that OTTO manages, including: - Meta titles — optimised page titles for every URL - Meta descriptions — unique descriptions for every URL - Headings — H1 and other heading-level recommendations - Canonical tags — canonical URL values per page - Open Graph tags — OG title, OG description, and OG image data - Twitter/X Card tags — Twitter title and description fields - Alt text fixes — recommended alt attributes for images - Link fixes — internal link recommendations and anchor text Each row in the exported sheet corresponds to a single URL, so it is straightforward to match and import fields into Rank Math or any other SEO plugin. 🗺️ Where to Find the Export Fixes Button 1. In the left sidebar, click OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation) to open the OTTO SEO dashboard. 2. Make sure you are viewing the correct site. If you manage multiple sites, use the site selector at the top of the page to switch to the right domain. 3. Look for the Export Fixes button. It appears near the top-right area of the OTTO SEO dashboard, alongside other action controls. 4. Click Export Fixes. OTTO will compile all on-page fix data for your site. 5. A Google Sheets file will be generated and a link will be sent to your account email address. Open the link to access your full export. Tip: If you do not see the email within a few minutes, check your spam or promotions folder. The subject line will reference your site domain and the OTTO export. 📥 How to Use the Export with Rank Math Once you have the Google Sheets file, follow these steps to transfer the data into Rank Math: 1. Open the exported Google Sheet and review the column headers to identify the fields you need — for example, Meta Title and Meta Description. 2. In Rank Math, navigate to Rank Math → Status and Tools → Import and Export. 3. Use Rank Math's CSV import option or copy the values directly into the relevant fields for each post or page. Because the OTTO export is organised by URL, matching records is straightforward. 4. For large sites, consider using a spreadsheet formula to reformat the data into Rank Math's expected import column structure before uploading. Note: Search Atlas does not control the Rank Math import interface. If you encounter issues on the Rank Math side, refer to Rank Math's official documentation for CSV import guidance. ⚠️ Common Questions - Does the export include every page on my site? Yes. OTTO exports fixes for all URLs it has analysed within your connected site. Pages that have not yet been crawled may not appear. - Can I re-export after making changes? Yes. You can click Export Fixes at any time to generate a fresh export reflecting your latest OTTO recommendations and applied fixes. - Is the export a live Google Sheet or a snapshot? The export is a snapshot of your data at the moment of export. It does not update automatically if OTTO generates new recommendations later. - What if OTTO has not finished analysing my site? Wait for the OTTO scan to complete before exporting to ensure you receive the full dataset. You can monitor scan progress from the OTTO SEO dashboard. 💬 Need Help? If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

🤖 OTTO Tracking Pages Despite Noindex Tags

🔍 Why OTTO Tracks Pages Even With Noindex Tags Noindex tags and robots.txt directives tell search engines not to index or crawl a page — they do not automatically remove those URLs from OTTO's internal tracking list. When OTTO first crawls your site, it discovers and logs every reachable URL, including paginated URLs such as /page/2, /page/3, and query-string variants like ?paged=2. Those URLs remain in OTTO's database until they are explicitly excluded or removed, regardless of any noindex or robots.txt changes made after the initial crawl. The key distinction: noindex controls what Google indexes. OTTO's tracked page count reflects every URL that has been discovered and queued for monitoring — these are two separate systems that do not automatically sync. ⚙️ How Crawl Limits and Robots.txt Interact With OTTO Lowering the crawl limit in your project settings affects how many new pages OTTO discovers on future crawls — it does not retroactively remove URLs already added to your tracked list. Likewise, adding a robots.txt block prevents OTTO from re-crawling those paths on future runs, but does not instantly delete them from your current page count. This is why you may see a high tracked page count (for example, 922 pages) even after applying all three changes — noindex tags, robots.txt blocks, and a lower crawl limit. The count only decreases once already-tracked URLs are actively excluded from OTTO's page list. 📋 How to Exclude Paginated URLs From OTTO Follow these steps to remove paginated and noindexed URLs from OTTO's tracking and bring your page count down to your target. 1. Go to Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → All Sites and click on your project card to open the project. 2. Navigate to Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → Site Audit → Page Explorer. This screen lists every URL currently tracked by OTTO for your project. 3. Use the search bar or URL filter to isolate paginated URLs — for example, filter by patterns containing /page/, ?paged=, or whichever pagination format your site uses. 4. Select all paginated URLs you want to remove. Use the bulk-select checkbox at the top of the list to select all filtered results at once. 5. Click Exclude or Remove from tracking to dequeue those URLs. OTTO will stop monitoring them, and they will no longer count toward your tracked page total. 6. Confirm the action when prompted. Your tracked page count will update to reflect the removed URLs. 🔄 Preventing Paginated URLs From Being Re-Added After removing the unwanted URLs, take these additional steps to stop them from reappearing in the next crawl cycle. - Keep your robots.txt block in place — this signals OTTO not to re-crawl those URL patterns in future runs. - Verify noindex tags are server-side rendered — go to Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → Site Audit → Crawl Monitoring to review which pages OTTO detected as noindexed. Tags rendered only via client-side JavaScript may not be read correctly during crawl; ensure they appear in the raw HTML response. - Add a crawl exclusion rule — inside your project (accessible via Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → All Sites → [your project card]), look for URL exclusion or crawl rule settings and add a pattern to permanently block paginated paths, for example /page/* or ?paged=*. This prevents newly discovered paginated URLs from being added to your list in the future. - Confirm your crawl limit is still set correctly — your lowered crawl limit reinforces the exclusion rules by capping how many pages OTTO queues per crawl cycle. ✅ Verifying Your Updated Page Count After completing the steps above, go to Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → Overview to view your refreshed tracked page total. Allow up to one full crawl cycle for the count to update completely. If the count is still higher than expected, return to Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → Site Audit → Page Explorer and check for any remaining paginated or noindexed URLs that were not captured in your initial filter — for example, URLs with different pagination patterns or query strings. 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.

⏱️ OTTO Optimization: Understanding Metric Recovery After Bulk Changes

🔍 Overview After applying bulk optimizations through OTTO SEO, it is completely normal to observe a temporary decrease in keyword positions, impressions, and organic traffic. This does not mean something went wrong. Search engines need time to recrawl, reindex, and reassess your pages following significant on-page changes. Understanding this process will help you set realistic expectations and avoid making unnecessary rollback decisions that could disrupt long-term gains. 📉 Why Metrics Drop After Bulk OTTO Changes When OTTO applies bulk changes — such as updating title tags, meta descriptions, heading structures, internal links, or content optimizations across many pages at once — search engines treat these as new signals that require fresh evaluation. Several factors contribute to the temporary dip you may be seeing: - Recrawl delay: Googlebot and other crawlers do not revisit all changed pages instantly. Depending on your site's crawl budget and authority, it can take days to weeks for all updated pages to be recrawled. - Reindexing lag: Once a page is crawled, it must be processed and reindexed before updated rankings are reflected in search results or tracking tools. - Ranking volatility: Search engines temporarily fluctuate rankings while they assess whether the new signals improve or maintain relevance for target queries. - Data reporting delay: Tools like Google Search Console often reflect data with a 2–3 day lag, meaning drops you see today may actually represent activity from several days ago. ⏳ Typical Recovery Timeline Recovery timelines vary depending on the scale of changes, your site's crawl frequency, and your domain authority. The following is a general guide: 1. Days 1–7: Initial volatility is most pronounced. Keyword positions may fluctuate significantly and impressions may dip as search engines begin recrawling changed pages. This is expected and does not indicate a problem. 2. Days 7–21: The majority of changed pages will have been recrawled and reindexed for most sites with regular crawl schedules. You should begin to see stabilization during this window. 3. Days 21–45: Full recovery and improvement are typically visible within this range. Pages that received high-quality optimizations often surpass their pre-change performance by the end of this period. 4. Beyond 45 days: If significant recovery has not occurred, this may indicate a more specific issue worth investigating, such as crawl budget constraints, indexing errors, or conflicting directives on certain pages. Note: Sites with lower domain authority or infrequent crawl schedules may experience longer timelines, while high-authority sites with frequent crawl cycles often recover more quickly. 📊 How to Monitor Recovery in Search Atlas You can actively track your site's recovery progress using the Site Explorer section of Search Atlas. Here is how to navigate to the most relevant data: - Keyword position trends: Go to Left sidebar → Keywords → Rank Tracker. Use the search and filter tools to isolate the keywords most affected by your OTTO changes and monitor their position trajectory over time. - Organic traffic and impressions: Go to Left sidebar → Site Metrics → Overview (Site Explorer) and review the Organic Research data. This gives you a high-level view of traffic and impression trends across the site. - Page-level performance: Go to Left sidebar → Site Metrics → Pages to identify which specific pages are recovering, which are stable, and which may need additional attention. - AI Visibility score: Go to Left sidebar → Authority → QUEST AI Visibility (check current sidebar labeling) to monitor how your site's presence in AI-generated search results is trending alongside traditional metrics. It is recommended to check these metrics on a weekly basis rather than daily during the recovery window to avoid reacting to normal short-term fluctuations. ✅ Best Practices to Support Faster Recovery While the recovery process is largely driven by search engine behavior, there are steps you can take to support it: - Submit updated URLs to Google Search Console: Manually requesting indexing for your most important changed pages can accelerate the recrawl process for those URLs. - Avoid making additional bulk changes during recovery: Stacking multiple rounds of bulk changes can reset the evaluation window and extend the time it takes for rankings to stabilize. - Review your OTTO deployment in SEO Automation: Go to Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation) to confirm all changes were deployed correctly and that no pages are showing errors or incomplete optimizations. - Do not roll back changes prematurely: Rolling back optimizations during the volatility window is one of the most common reasons sites fail to recover. Give the changes adequate time unless a confirmed technical error is identified. - Ensure your sitemap is up to date: An accurate XML sitemap helps search engines discover and prioritize recrawling of your recently updated pages. 🚩 When to Be Concerned Most metric drops following OTTO bulk changes are temporary and self-resolving. However, you should investigate further if you observe any of the following: - Rankings have not shown any recovery trend after 45 or more days - Specific pages have been completely dropped from the index (not just lower-ranked) - Google Search Console is reporting a sharp increase in crawl errors or coverage issues coinciding with the changes - Traffic has continued to decline steadily week over week beyond the 21-day mark with no stabilization In these cases, it is worth conducting a deeper technical audit using Left sidebar → Site Metrics → Pages and reviewing individual page statuses to identify any indexing or crawlability issues introduced during the optimization process. 💬 Need Help? If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

🔄 Sync Custom Post Types in OTTO Categories

🧭 Overview By default, OTTO's category dropdown shows a standard set of WordPress content types — typically Blog, Procedures, and Locations. If your WordPress site uses custom post types (such as Articles, Projects, or Services), they may not appear automatically. This article explains why this happens and how to get your custom post types recognised by OTTO. 🔍 Why Custom Post Types Don't Appear OTTO syncs with WordPress through the Search Atlas plugin. For a custom post type to appear in the OTTO category dropdown, it must meet two conditions: - It must be set to publicly queryable in WordPress. - It must be exposed via the WordPress REST API. Many custom post types are registered without these settings enabled, which prevents OTTO from detecting them during a sync. 🛠️ How to Enable Your Custom Post Type Follow the steps below to make your custom post type visible to OTTO. You will need access to your WordPress theme's functions.php file or the plugin that registers the custom post type. 1. Locate the registration code for your custom post type. This is usually found in your theme's functions.php file or in a dedicated custom plugin. 2. Find the register_post_type() call for the post type you want to sync (for example, articles). 3. Ensure the following arguments are set to true inside the arguments array: - public — makes the post type visible on the front end. - show_in_rest — exposes the post type to the WordPress REST API. - publicly_queryable — allows WordPress to serve queries for this post type. 4. Save your changes and update the file on your server. 5. Re-sync your WordPress site with Search Atlas. Navigate to OTTO SEO in the left sidebar, open All Sites (SEO Automation), select your individual project, and trigger a fresh sync. 6. Open the OTTO category dropdown — your custom post type should now appear as a selectable option for auto-sync. 💡 Example: Registering an "Articles" Post Type Correctly If you are registering a custom post type called articles, your register_post_type() call should include the following arguments at a minimum: - public → true - show_in_rest → true - publicly_queryable → true If you are using a plugin such as Custom Post Type UI (CPT UI) or Pods to create post types, you can update these settings directly in the plugin's interface without editing code. Look for options labelled Public, Show in REST API, and Publicly Queryable within the post type settings screen. ✅ Confirming the Sync Worked After completing the steps above, verify the setup was successful: 1. Go to OTTO SEO in the left sidebar of Search Atlas, then open All Sites (SEO Automation) and select your individual project. 2. Open your OTTO project and navigate to the category dropdown in the auto-sync settings. 3. Confirm your custom post type (e.g. Articles) now appears in the list. 4. Select it and save your auto-sync preferences. ⚠️ Common Issues - Post type still not showing after sync — Double-check that show_in_rest is explicitly set to true. Omitting this argument defaults to false in most WordPress setups. - Using a page builder or third-party plugin — Some plugins register post types late in the WordPress load order. Ensure there are no conflicts by deactivating other plugins temporarily to test. - Caching issues — Clear any server-side or plugin-based cache after making changes, then re-trigger the sync in Search Atlas. 💬 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.

📍 Rank Higher for Local Keywords with OTTO

🗺️ What This Article Covers This guide explains how to use OTTO inside Search Atlas to improve your local keyword rankings — including high-intent searches like "Mercedes Repair Near Me". You will learn where to find the Semantic Optimization feature and how to apply it to your local SEO strategy step by step. 🔍 Understanding Local Keyword Optimization in OTTO OTTO is Search Atlas's AI-powered SEO automation engine. For local businesses, it analyzes your content, Google Business Profile (GBP) signals, and target keywords to recommend and apply on-page and semantic optimizations that improve local search visibility. Local keywords — especially "near me" and city-specific phrases — require a combination of semantic relevance, consistent business signals, and optimized content. OTTO helps you address all three from one place. ⚙️ Step 1: Access OTTO via OTTO SEO 1. Log in to your Search Atlas account. 2. In the left sidebar, click OTTO SEO, then open SEO Automation. This takes you to the OTTO dashboard at /seo-automation-v3. 3. Select the project or website you want to optimize for local keywords. 4. If you have not connected your site to OTTO yet, follow the on-screen prompts to add your domain and activate OTTO for that project. 📊 Step 2: Run a Semantic Optimization Audit 1. Inside your OTTO project, locate the Semantic Optimization section. This is found within the OTTO dashboard after your site is activated — look for the Semantic tab or card in the main content area. 2. Enter your target local keyword — for example, Mercedes Repair Near Me or Mercedes Repair [City Name]. 3. Click Analyze or Run Audit. OTTO will scan your page content and compare it against top-ranking competitors for that local keyword. 4. Review the semantic recommendations that appear. These typically include missing entities, related terms, and content gaps that prevent your page from ranking locally. ✏️ Step 3: Apply OTTO's Local SEO Recommendations Once the audit is complete, OTTO surfaces prioritized recommendations. For local keyword ranking, focus on these key actions: - Add location-specific entities: OTTO will flag missing geographic terms, neighborhood names, or service area details. Add these naturally to your page content. - Optimize headings and meta data: Ensure your target keyword and city/region appear in your H1, title tag, and meta description. OTTO will highlight if these are missing. - Improve semantic coverage: Add related terms and phrases OTTO identifies — for example, terms like auto repair shop, certified technician, or same-day service strengthen topical relevance. - Deploy changes with one click: Where your site is connected via the OTTO plugin or integration, you can push approved changes directly from the dashboard without editing your CMS manually. 📍 Step 4: Strengthen Your Local Signals via the Local Section Semantic optimization works best when paired with strong local business signals. Use the GBP Projects section of Search Atlas alongside OTTO: - Go to Left sidebar → Local → GBP Projects → Overview to review your GBP project health and spot gaps in your local presence. - Use Left sidebar → Local → Posts to publish GBP posts that include your target local keywords — this reinforces relevance signals to Google. - Visit Left sidebar → Local → Local Citations to audit and build consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) citations, which are a core local ranking factor. - Check Left sidebar → Local → Reviews (GBP Reviews) to monitor and respond to customer reviews — review signals directly influence local pack rankings. 📈 Step 5: Track Your Local Keyword Rankings After applying OTTO's recommendations and updating your local signals: 1. Allow 3–7 days for search engines to re-crawl and re-index your updated pages. 2. Return to your OTTO project to check updated optimization scores and remaining recommendations. 3. Monitor keyword movement using the Rank Tracker in Search Atlas. Filter by local keywords to see position changes for phrases like Mercedes Repair Near Me over time. 💡 Tips for Better Local Keyword Results - Use city + service keywords (e.g., Mercedes Repair Austin) alongside near me variants — they often have more consistent search volume. - Make sure your GBP categories and services match the keywords you are targeting with OTTO. - Run a new Semantic Optimization audit each time you create a new local landing page or add a new service area. - Consistency matters — keep your business name, address, and phone number identical across your website, GBP, and all citations. 🛠️ Need Help? If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

🗺️ Remove or Disable Duplicate Sitemaps in Otto

🔍 What Are Duplicate Sitemaps? Duplicate sitemaps occur when Otto detects more than one sitemap pointing to the same content but under different URLs. The most common example is a www vs non-www conflict, such as: - www.bleudentist.com/sitemap.xml - bleudentist.com/sitemap.xml Both URLs resolve to the same sitemap file, but search engines may treat them as separate sitemaps. This can dilute crawl signals, cause indexing confusion, and trigger technical SEO warnings inside Otto. Resolving this keeps your site's crawl data clean and ensures Otto is only tracking one authoritative sitemap. ⚠️ Why This Happens Otto automatically discovers all sitemaps associated with your connected domain. If your site responds to both the www and non-www versions of its URL without a proper redirect in place, Otto will register both sitemap variants as active. This is not an Otto error — it reflects the actual configuration of your website and needs to be resolved either at the sitemap level inside Otto or at the server level on your site. 🛠️ How to Disable a Duplicate Sitemap in Otto Follow these steps to remove or disable the duplicate sitemap entry inside Otto: 1. Log in to your Search Atlas account and navigate to OTTO SEO using the left sidebar, then open SEO Automation inside it. 2. Select the project for the affected domain (for example, bleudentist.com). 3. Inside the project dashboard, locate the Otto panel and open it. 4. Look for the Sitemaps section. Otto will display all discovered sitemaps for your domain. 5. Identify the duplicate entry — this is typically the sitemap using the non-canonical version of your URL. For example, if your canonical domain is www.bleudentist.com, the duplicate would be bleudentist.com/sitemap.xml (without www), or vice versa. 6. Select the duplicate sitemap entry and choose the option to disable or remove it from Otto's tracking. 7. Confirm the change. Otto will stop processing the disabled sitemap in future crawls. After completing these steps, only your preferred canonical sitemap will remain active in Otto. ✅ How to Identify the Correct Sitemap to Keep Always keep the sitemap that matches your site's canonical domain — the preferred URL version you use consistently across your site and in Google Search Console. To verify which version is canonical: - Check your Google Search Console account. The domain listed under your verified property is your canonical version. - Test both URLs in a browser. The version that does not redirect to the other is typically the canonical one. - Check your website's robots.txt file (e.g., yourdomain.com/robots.txt). The sitemap URL declared there should match the version you keep active in Otto. 🌐 Fix the Root Cause: Set Up a Redirect on Your Server Disabling the duplicate inside Otto resolves the issue at the SEO automation level, but the underlying cause — your site responding to both www and non-www URLs without redirecting — should also be fixed to prevent the duplication from reappearing and to protect your overall SEO. To permanently resolve this, configure a 301 redirect on your server so that all traffic to the non-canonical version automatically redirects to the canonical version. For example: - If your canonical domain is www.bleudentist.com, set up a 301 redirect from bleudentist.com to www.bleudentist.com for all pages. - If your canonical domain is bleudentist.com (non-www), redirect www.bleudentist.com to bleudentist.com. This redirect is typically configured in your .htaccess file (Apache), nginx.conf (NGINX), or through your hosting provider's domain settings. Once the redirect is live, rerun a crawl in Otto so it can verify the duplicate no longer exists. 🔄 Re-sync Sitemaps After Making Changes After disabling the duplicate in Otto and optionally fixing the server redirect, trigger a fresh sitemap discovery to confirm everything is resolved: 1. Return to the Sitemaps section inside the Otto panel. 2. Select Re-sync or Refresh Sitemaps to prompt Otto to re-discover your site's sitemaps. 3. Confirm that only one sitemap entry now appears for your domain. If the duplicate reappears after re-syncing, it means the www vs non-www redirect has not yet been applied at the server level. Address the redirect first, then re-sync again. 💬 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.

🤖 OTTO Page Titles Validation and Agency Workflow

🔍 Overview When OTTO generates page title suggestions, it validates each one against Google's recommended character limits. If a title is too long, OTTO flags it in red to alert you before the change is deployed. This article explains why that happens and walks agency teams through the most efficient workflow for managing optimizations across multiple client sites. 📏 Why Page Titles Show as Red OTTO checks every generated page title against a strict character limit. Titles that exceed the threshold are highlighted in red because Google typically truncates titles longer than 60 characters in search results, which can hurt click-through rates and user experience. A red flag does not mean the title is rejected — it is a validation warning giving you the opportunity to review and edit before applying the change. Common reasons a generated title may run long include: - The page's original title contains a lengthy brand name or product descriptor that OTTO incorporates. - The target keyword phrase itself is unusually long. - OTTO combined the primary keyword with supporting context to improve relevance, pushing the total over the limit. To resolve a red title, click the edit icon next to the suggestion, shorten the text to under 60 characters while keeping the primary keyword near the front, then save. The indicator will turn green once the title is within the accepted range. ⚙️ How OTTO Validation Works in Practice Every OTTO suggestion goes through an automated validation layer that checks: - Character length — titles over 60 characters are flagged red. - Meta description length — descriptions over 160 characters are flagged separately. - Duplicate values — OTTO warns if the same title is detected on multiple pages. Green indicators mean the element is within optimal range and ready to deploy. Yellow indicators flag minor issues worth reviewing. Red indicators require action before the optimization is considered complete. 🚀 Agency Workflow Best Practices for Managing Optimizations at Scale Clicking through each element individually is time-consuming when you manage dozens of client sites. Use the workflow below to handle OTTO optimizations efficiently without sacrificing quality control. 1. Filter by status first. Inside SEO Automation (Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation)), use the status filters to isolate all red-flagged items across a client's site. Addressing validation errors in a single focused pass is faster than reviewing every suggestion in order. 2. Bulk-review titles by page template. Group pages by template type (e.g., product pages, blog posts, location pages). Titles for the same template usually share a common structure, so you can edit one, note the pattern, and apply similar adjustments to the rest quickly. 3. Use the Accept All option for green items. Once you have resolved red flags, use the bulk accept action to deploy all green-validated suggestions in one click. This eliminates repetitive individual approvals for elements that are already within spec. 4. Set a review cadence per client. Rather than checking OTTO daily for every client, schedule a weekly or bi-weekly review session per site. OTTO queues new suggestions automatically, so batching your review reduces context-switching and speeds up each session. 5. Leave audit notes in the platform. Use any available annotation or task features to flag pages that need a copywriter's input before titles can be finalized. This keeps the workflow inside the platform and avoids back-and-forth over email. 6. Cross-check with On-Page Audit. After deploying OTTO changes, run an On-Page Audit (Left sidebar → Content → On-Page Audit) to confirm the live titles are indexed correctly and no new issues have appeared. 💡 Tips for Writing Better Page Titles If OTTO's generated titles frequently require manual editing, the following practices can reduce the number of red flags you encounter: - Keep the primary keyword under 40 characters where possible — this leaves room for brand or context modifiers without exceeding the limit. - Avoid stacking multiple keyword variations in a single title. One clear primary keyword performs better and stays concise. - Use a separator (hyphen or pipe) between the keyword phrase and the brand name rather than commas or conjunctions, which add character count. - Review OTTO's configuration settings for your client's site to ensure the brand name appended to titles is using an abbreviated version if the full name is long. 🛠️ Quick Troubleshooting Reference - Title shows red after editing: Recount characters including spaces. Punctuation and spaces both count toward the 60-character limit. - Title reverts to the original after saving: Refresh the page and re-apply the edit. If the issue persists, check whether another user on your team has a conflicting change pending. - Bulk accept button is greyed out: One or more items in the selected batch still have red flags. Resolve all validation errors before bulk accepting. - OTTO is not generating new suggestions: Confirm that the site's crawl is up to date inside OTTO SEO and trigger a manual re-crawl if the last crawl date is older than seven days. 📞 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.

⚙️ OTTO Page Titles: Generation, Validation, and Bulk Workflows

🔍 Overview This article covers two common OTTO questions agencies encounter: why generated page titles are flagged in red, and how to manage optimizations across multiple clients without clicking each element one by one. Both topics are addressed below. 🚦 Why Page Titles Show as Red in OTTO Red highlighting on a page title means the title exceeds the recommended character limit. OTTO validates title length based on the version of the automation engine your workspace is using. - OTTO v2: Flags titles longer than 60 characters. - OTTO v3: Uses a stricter pixel-width threshold (approximately 580px), which translates to roughly 55–60 characters depending on the characters used. Wider characters such as uppercase letters or W/M can cause a title to fail even if the raw character count appears acceptable. To check which version your workspace is running, go to OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation). The version indicator appears at the top of the OTTO dashboard. If you are on v3 and titles are consistently flagging red, the pixel-width rule is likely the cause even when character counts look fine. 📋 When OTTO Generates New Titles vs. Copies Existing Ones A frequent source of confusion is that OTTO sometimes produces a suggested title that is identical to the page's current title rather than generating fresh content. This is expected behavior in specific situations, but it can also signal a configuration issue worth checking. OTTO generates a new title when: - The existing title is missing, too short, or does not contain the target keyword. - The page has been crawled recently and OTTO detects a clear optimization gap. - You manually trigger regeneration using the refresh icon on the suggestion card. OTTO copies or preserves the existing title when: - The current title already meets all validation rules (length, keyword inclusion, readability score). - The page was not recrawled before OTTO generated suggestions, so OTTO is working from a cached version that reflects the old title. - The target keyword field for the page is empty, giving OTTO no signal to optimize against. Troubleshooting steps if OTTO is not generating new content: 1. Go to OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation) and open the affected site in OTTO. 2. Locate the page in the task list and confirm a target keyword is assigned. If the keyword field is blank, add the primary keyword and save. 3. Click the recrawl icon for the page to force a fresh data pull before regenerating. 4. Select the title suggestion card and click the Regenerate (refresh) icon to produce a new suggestion based on updated data. 5. If the regenerated title still copies the existing one, check whether the existing title already satisfies all OTTO criteria. In that case, OTTO considers the title optimized and will not change it unless you manually edit the suggestion. 🏢 Agency Bulk Optimization Workflows Clicking through each optimization element one at a time is time-consuming when managing multiple clients. OTTO and the broader Search Atlas platform offer several ways to process optimizations in bulk. 1. Use OTTO's Deploy All feature Inside the OTTO dashboard (OTTO SEO → All Sites (SEO Automation)), each task category — including page titles, meta descriptions, and schema — has a Deploy All button at the top of the task list. Clicking Deploy All approves and pushes every pending suggestion in that category at once. Review the suggestions in the list view before deploying to catch any titles that are still flagged red. 2. Filter and action by status Use the status filters within each task category to isolate only the items marked Pending or Error. This lets you focus on items that need attention without scrolling past already-deployed optimizations. After filtering, you can select all visible items using the checkbox in the column header and deploy them together. 3. Batch across client sites using the Agency Dashboard If your workspace has multiple client sites connected, navigate to the top-level agency view. From here you can switch between client workspaces quickly without logging out. Plan a workflow where you move through each client site, run a filtered view for pending OTTO tasks, and use Deploy All per category before moving to the next client. 4. Generate meta tags in bulk with Meta Generator For clients who need titles and meta descriptions created before OTTO deployment, use Left sidebar → Content → Meta Generator. You can input multiple URLs or paste a list of page names and generate optimized meta content in one session. Copy the output into OTTO task cards or your CMS directly. 5. Schedule recrawls to keep suggestions fresh Stale crawl data causes OTTO to generate suggestions based on outdated page content. In the OTTO site settings, set a recurring crawl schedule aligned with your client reporting cadence — weekly for active sites, monthly for stable ones. Fresh crawl data means suggestions are relevant when you run bulk deployments and reduces the chance of copying titles that have already been updated. 6. Use On-Page Audit to prioritize which pages need titles first Go to Left sidebar → Content → On-Page Audit and filter by Missing Title or Title Too Long. Export the filtered list and use it as your working checklist inside OTTO, so you deploy high-impact fixes first rather than processing pages in arbitrary order. ✅ Quick Reference - Red title in OTTO v3: Exceeds pixel-width limit — shorten the title or reduce wide characters. - OTTO copying existing titles: Check keyword assignment, recrawl the page, then regenerate. - Bulk deployment: Use Deploy All per task category inside OTTO. - Multi-client efficiency: Filter by Pending status, use Meta Generator for batch creation, schedule recrawls. 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.

🤖 Why OTTO Shows Fewer Pages Than Expected

🔍 Overview When OTTO scans your website, it detects the total number of pages on your site. However, the number of pages shown inside specific issue sections — such as Title Tags, Meta Descriptions, or Heading Tags — may be lower than the total page count. This is expected behaviour, not a bug. For example, OTTO might detect 16 total pages on your site but only display 3 pages in the Title Tags section. This article explains why this happens and what you can do about it. 💡 Why the Page Counts Differ OTTO's total page count reflects every URL it discovered during the site crawl. Issue sections, however, only list pages that have a specific problem detected. Pages that already meet best-practice standards for a given element are not included in that section because they require no action. - Total pages detected: All URLs found during the crawl, regardless of their SEO health. - Pages in an issue section: Only the URLs where OTTO identified a problem with that specific element (e.g., a missing, duplicate, or too-long title tag). If 13 out of 16 pages have well-optimised title tags, only the remaining 3 pages — those with a title tag issue — will appear in the Title Tags section. This focused view is intentional so you can act on problems without sifting through pages that are already optimised. ⚙️ Common Reasons a Page May Not Appear in an Issue Section - The page already has a compliant title tag, meta description, or heading structure. - The page was excluded from a specific check because it is a tag page, archive page, or other non-primary URL type. - The page was crawled but OTTO determined it does not require optimisation for that particular element. - The crawl is still in progress and not all pages have been fully analysed yet. ✅ How to Verify Your Site Is Fully Scanned 1. Go to OTTO SEO in the left sidebar, then open SEO Automation (or navigate to /seo-automation-v3). 2. Open your OTTO session for the relevant website. 3. Check the total pages detected figure shown in the OTTO dashboard header. 4. Confirm the crawl status shows Complete. If a crawl is still running, wait for it to finish before reviewing issue sections. 5. Once the crawl is complete, review each issue section individually. The pages listed in each section are exclusively those needing attention for that specific issue. 🛠️ What to Do If Pages Seem to Be Missing If you believe a page should appear in an issue section but does not, follow these steps: 1. Re-crawl your site. In your OTTO session, trigger a fresh crawl to ensure the latest version of each page is analysed. New or recently updated pages may not have been included in the previous crawl. 2. Check for excluded URLs. Review whether the missing page's URL pattern has been excluded from scanning in your OTTO settings. 3. Inspect the page directly. Manually verify whether the page truly has the issue you expect. If the element is already optimised, OTTO will correctly omit it from that section. 4. Review filters. Make sure no active filters inside the issue section are hiding certain pages from view. 📊 Understanding Your True SEO Coverage To get a complete picture of all pages and their individual SEO statuses, use the Site Metrics (Site Explorer) section in the left sidebar. This area gives you broader visibility into your site's overall performance and can help you cross-reference which URLs have been crawled and how they are performing across different metrics. Remember: a lower page count in an issue section is a positive signal — it means fewer pages need fixing. Focus your effort on the pages that are listed, resolve each issue, and re-run the crawl to confirm the fixes are reflected. 💬 Still Need Help? If you have reviewed your crawl results and still believe pages are incorrectly missing from an issue section, 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.

📏 Understanding Otto AI H2 Length Size Chart Labels

🔍 What Is the 'Size Chart' Label? When reviewing H2 headings in Otto AI, you may notice some of your original headings are flagged with a label that reads Size Chart. This is not a reference to text content inside your headings. It is a UI metric indicator — a classification label Otto AI uses to describe the character length category of your H2 heading. In other words, Otto AI groups H2 headings into named length tiers so you can quickly see whether a heading is too short, well-sized, or too long — without counting characters manually. Size Chart is the name of one of those tiers. 📊 What Do the H2 Length Tiers Mean? Otto AI evaluates each H2 heading on your page and assigns it to a length category based on its character count. These categories act like a sizing scale: - Too Short — The heading is likely too brief to be descriptive or keyword-relevant. - Size Chart — The heading falls within a mid-range length that Otto AI has flagged for review. It is not necessarily wrong, but it sits outside the recommended optimal range and may benefit from adjustment. - Optimal — The heading length aligns with SEO best practices for H2s. - Too Long — The heading is likely too lengthy, which can dilute focus and hurt readability. When you see Size Chart next to many of your original H2s, it means those headings share a similar character-count range that Otto AI considers worth reviewing — not that the words "Size Chart" appear anywhere in your content. 🗺️ Where to Find H2 Length Metrics in Otto AI 1. In the left sidebar, click OTTO SEO, then open SEO Automation. 2. Select the project or page you want to review. 3. Navigate to the On-Page or Content Audit section within Otto AI. 4. Look for the H2 Headings panel. Each heading listed will display its current length label — such as Size Chart, Optimal, Too Short, or Too Long — alongside the original text of the heading. The label column describes the size classification, while the adjacent column shows the actual heading text from your page. These are two separate pieces of information. ✅ What Should You Do When H2s Are Labeled 'Size Chart'? Seeing Size Chart on multiple headings is a signal to review those H2s for length, not a content error. Here is how to approach it: - Check the character count — Otto AI may display the exact character count next to the label. Compare it against the recommended optimal range shown in the panel. - Decide whether to adjust — If a heading is clear, descriptive, and relevant, a minor length adjustment may be all that is needed to move it into the Optimal tier. - Use Otto AI's suggestions — Where available, Otto AI will offer a recommended rewrite. You can accept, edit, or dismiss the suggestion depending on your content strategy. - Prioritize high-traffic pages first — If many pages show the Size Chart label, start with pages that receive the most organic traffic for the greatest SEO impact. 💡 Quick Summary - Size Chart is a length classification label in Otto AI's H2 metrics — not text found in your headings. - It indicates the heading's character count falls in a range that Otto AI recommends reviewing. - The fix is a length adjustment, not a content rewrite, unless the heading also has separate content issues. - You can find these labels under OTTO SEO in the left sidebar, inside SEO Automation. 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.

📊 Understanding OTTO's Optimization Score and Weekly Refresh

🔍 Why Does My Optimization Score Drop After Fixing Issues? If your OTTO optimization score has fallen after you fixed issues — or previously resolved items are showing up again weeks later — this is expected behavior, not a bug. OTTO is designed to continuously monitor your website and rescan it on a weekly basis. Each rescan reflects the current state of your site, not a historical record of past fixes. This means that if new SEO problems have appeared, existing issues have recurred, or page content has changed in a way that reintroduces a problem, OTTO will flag those items again — even if you marked them as fixed months ago. 🔄 How the Weekly Refresh Cycle Works OTTO automatically rescans your connected website every week. During each rescan, it does the following: - Crawls your site's pages fresh, as they exist right now - Re-evaluates every SEO signal it tracks — titles, meta descriptions, headings, internal links, schema, page speed, and more - Updates your optimization score to reflect the current findings - Flags any issues it detects, regardless of whether they were previously marked as fixed Your optimization score is a live health indicator, not a progress tracker. A score that drops after a rescan means OTTO found new or recurring problems on your site at that point in time. ⚠️ Common Reasons Previously Fixed Issues Reappear There are several reasons an issue you resolved can come back after a rescan: - Content updates introduced a new problem. Editing a page — changing a title, removing a heading, or updating body copy — can unintentionally break an SEO element that was previously correct. - CMS or plugin changes overwrote your fixes. Theme updates, plugin conflicts, or automated CMS changes sometimes reset metadata, schema, or other on-page elements. - The fix was not saved or deployed correctly. If a change was made in a staging environment or not published, the live page OTTO scans will still show the original issue. - The underlying SEO problem was not fully resolved. For example, if a page had a missing meta description and a new description was added but left empty after a template change, OTTO will flag it again. - New pages were added that have the same issue. OTTO scans your whole site. New pages with unfixed SEO problems contribute to your overall score. ✅ How to Keep Your Optimization Score Stable To prevent your score from reverting after each rescan, follow these best practices: 1. Verify fixes on the live site. After making a change, visit the published page directly and confirm the update is visible before marking the issue as resolved in OTTO. 2. Check your CMS settings. Make sure plugins or theme updates are not overwriting your SEO metadata automatically. 3. Review OTTO after each weekly refresh. Make it a routine to log in and check for newly flagged items. Early fixes keep your score high. 4. Use OTTO's issue details before dismissing. Each flagged item includes context about what OTTO found. Review this carefully to make sure your fix directly addresses the root cause. 🗂️ How to Access OTTO and Review Your Current Score To check your optimization score and see which issues OTTO has flagged in the latest rescan: 1. Log in to Search Atlas. 2. In the left sidebar, click OTTO SEO, then open All Sites (SEO Automation). 3. Select your project to open the OTTO dashboard. 4. Review the optimization score at the top of the page and the list of active issues below it. 5. Click any issue to see OTTO's details and recommended fix. 💡 Key Takeaways - OTTO rescans your site every week and recalculates your score based on what it finds at that moment. - A dropping score means new or recurring SEO issues were detected — it does not mean your previous work was undone inside OTTO. - Issues marked as fixed in the past will be flagged again if the same problem reappears on your live site. - Consistent site maintenance is the most reliable way to keep your optimization score high over time. 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.

⚡ Bulk Generate Meta Titles in OTTO SEO

🧭 Overview OTTO SEO supports bulk meta title generation for large numbers of pages directly from the OTTO SEO dashboard. If you are having trouble locating bulk generation controls or are unsure where to start, this article explains how to get help completing this workflow. ✅ How to Bulk Generate Meta Titles in OTTO SEO Bulk meta title generation is managed from within the OTTO SEO dashboard for your project. To complete this task: 1. Log into your Search Atlas account and navigate to OTTO SEO from the left sidebar, then open SEO Automation inside it. 2. Select the project you want to work on to open its OTTO SEO dashboard. 3. Inside the dashboard, locate the section or task category related to meta titles or title tags for your pages. 4. Use the available selection controls to choose the pages you want to generate meta titles for — you can select individual pages or use any bulk-selection option shown in the interface. 5. Trigger meta title generation using the generation option available for your selected pages. 6. Wait for OTTO SEO to process the pages. The status of each page will update in the task list as generation completes. 7. Review the generated meta titles. You can edit individual titles if needed before applying them. 8. Use the available approval or deployment option shown in the interface to publish the generated meta titles to your site. Because the exact controls and labels in the OTTO SEO dashboard may vary depending on your account configuration and platform version, if you do not see the expected options, please reach out for direct assistance. 🔍 What to Have Ready If You Need Support If you encounter an error or a step does not match what you see on screen, please have the following ready when you reach out: - The name of the project you are working on in OTTO SEO - A description of what you see on screen and which step you are stuck on - Any error messages you have encountered - Approximately how many pages you need to generate meta titles for 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.

📊 How to Bulk Export On-Page SEO Data from OTTO to Google Sheets

📋 Overview If you manage on-page SEO at scale, you may want to pull all of OTTO's recommendations out of Search Atlas in one go. Exporting to a spreadsheet lets you review changes in bulk, share them with your team, or transfer them into another tool such as Rank Math, Yoast, or your CMS. This guide shows you how to bulk export your on-page SEO data from OTTO into Google Sheets and use it to update other platforms. 📦 What You Can Export OTTO's on-page module generates page-level recommendations that you can export, including: - Page URLs - Title tags (current and suggested) - Meta descriptions (current and suggested) - Header tags (H1, H2) - Image alt text suggestions - Schema and other structured data recommendations Note on schema: Schema and other structured data are currently handled on a per-page basis, so they export alongside each page's row rather than as a single, separate full-site schema file. A dedicated full-site schema download is a known limitation and is on our roadmap, so a one-click export of all schema across the entire site is not yet available. ✅ Before You Begin - Make sure OTTO is installed and active on the project you want to export. - Allow OTTO time to finish crawling and generating recommendations. A complete crawl produces a complete export. - Confirm you have access to a Google account so you can open the file in Google Sheets. 🪜 Step-by-Step: Export On-Page Data 1. Log in to your Search Atlas dashboard. 2. From the left-hand menu, open OTTO SEO and select the project you want to work with. 3. Go to the Onpage Audit tab to view the full list of page-level recommendations. 4. Use the filters at the top to narrow the data if needed (for example, by page type, status, or recommendation type). To export everything, leave filters cleared. 5. Click the Export button, usually found in the top-right corner of the table. 6. Choose CSV as your export format. CSV opens cleanly in Google Sheets and Excel. 7. The file downloads to your device. 💡 Tip: Exporting Large Sites For sites with thousands of pages, the export may take a moment to generate. If your plan or table view limits the number of rows shown, export in batches using filters (for example, by folder or page type) and combine the files later in your spreadsheet. 📑 Open the File in Google Sheets 1. Go to sheets.google.com and open a new blank spreadsheet. 2. Select File > Import. 3. Click Upload and choose the CSV file you downloaded. 4. Under import settings, set Separator type to Comma and click Import data. 5. Your on-page SEO data now appears in organized columns, ready to review or edit. 🔄 Transferring Data to Rank Math (or Other Tools) Once your data is in Google Sheets, you can use it to update title tags, meta descriptions, and other elements in another SEO tool. ✍️ Option 1: Manual Updates Best for smaller sites or selective changes: 1. Open the spreadsheet next to your CMS editor. 2. For each page, copy the suggested title and meta description from the sheet. 3. Paste them into Rank Math's title and description fields on the corresponding page or post. 4. Save and publish the page. ⚡ Option 2: Bulk Import with Rank Math Best for large sites. Rank Math supports CSV imports for bulk metadata edits: 1. In your spreadsheet, arrange columns to match Rank Math's bulk-edit format, typically including the page ID or URL, SEO title, and SEO description. 2. Download the sheet as a CSV (File > Download > CSV). 3. In WordPress, go to Rank Math > Status & Tools > Import & Export and use the CSV import option. 4. Map the columns, run the import, and review the results. Always test on a few pages first and keep a backup before running a full bulk import. 🟢 Keeping OTTO Active Exporting your data does not change how OTTO works on your live site. If OTTO is deploying optimizations dynamically, those remain in place. Use the export as a reference or as a way to migrate recommendations into a platform where you prefer to manage them manually. 🔧 Troubleshooting - Export button is missing: Confirm you are on the On-Page tab and that OTTO has finished generating recommendations. - File looks jumbled in Sheets: Re-import and confirm the separator is set to Comma. - Some pages are missing: Clear any active filters, or wait for the crawl to complete and export again. - Very large export: Split the export into batches using filters, then merge them in your spreadsheet. - You want all schema in one file: Schema exports on a per-page basis today; a single full-site schema download is not yet supported. Export your on-page data as described above, which includes the per-page schema recommendations. 🙋 Need More Help? If your export is incomplete or you do not see the data you expect, reach out to our support team through the in-app chat typing "Human Teammate". Include your project name and a screenshot of the On-Page tab so we can assist quickly.

🔍 How Search Atlas Swaps Page Elements and What Google Sees

When Search Atlas optimizes your pages through OTTO, it applies changes via JavaScript using the OTTO pixel script. This script is injected into the <head> tag of your site and makes updates directly in the browser at render time. Because of this approach, your underlying source code is never modified — meaning you will not see OTTO's changes if you right-click and view the raw page source. Despite this, Google can still read and index all changes OTTO applies. When Googlebot crawls your site, it executes JavaScript before reading the fully rendered HTML, just as a modern browser would. This means updates to the following elements are visible to Google during indexing: - Page titles and meta descriptions - Headings (H1, H2, etc.) - Internal and external links - Image alt text - Meta tags and canonical tags To verify what Google has actually indexed for your pages, check your pages in Google Search Console (GSC). Connecting GSC to Search Atlas is also recommended, as it provides deeper insights into how your optimizations are performing. If you want to confirm that OTTO's changes are being applied correctly before Google re-crawls your pages, open your browser's Developer Tools and navigate to the Elements panel. This panel shows the fully JavaScript-rendered version of your page, so any changes OTTO has applied will appear there. You can also install the Detailed SEO Extension, run it on your page, and confirm whether your updated titles, headings, meta tags, and other elements are live. One important benefit of OTTO's dynamic overlay approach is that your original backend code — for example, your WordPress templates and database — is never touched. Your source code remains completely unaffected regardless of your subscription status, which helps maintain the overall integrity and stability of your site. If you have additional questions about how OTTO applies changes to your specific site setup, feel free to chat with a human teammate directly through the in-app live chat widget.

✨ Content Optimization with OTTO

OTTO's Content Optimization feature automatically enhances your web pages by adding NLP (Natural Language Processing) entities and relevant semantic terms. These additions help search engines better understand the context and depth of your content, leading to improvements in topical relevance, topical authority, and overall content quality. Here is what OTTO does when it optimizes your content: - Adds NLP entities: OTTO identifies and incorporates named entities — such as people, places, concepts, and organizations — that are semantically related to your page's topic. This signals to search engines that your content is comprehensive and contextually accurate. - Inserts relevant semantic terms: Beyond exact keywords, OTTO weaves in semantically related terms and phrases that naturally belong in a well-rounded discussion of your topic, helping your page cover the subject more thoroughly. - Improves topical relevance: By aligning your content more closely with the language and concepts search engines associate with your target topic, OTTO helps your pages rank for a broader and more meaningful set of queries. - Strengthens topical authority: Consistently optimized pages signal to search engines that your site is a credible, authoritative source on the topics you cover. - Raises content quality: The additions OTTO makes are designed to make your content more useful and complete for readers, not just for algorithms. Content Optimization runs as part of OTTO's automated workflow, so enhancements are applied directly to your web pages without requiring you to manually research or insert each term yourself. If you have questions about how Content Optimization is being applied to a specific page, or if you notice anything unexpected, feel free to chat with a human teammate using the live chat widget in the app.

🛠️ Whitespace Gaps Between Content Blocks After OTTO/UCMS Sync

Extra <br> tags injected during an OTTO or UCMS content sync cause large blank spaces between Gutenberg blocks. The platform fix is already deployed — use the steps below to manually clean up any posts synced before the fix rolled out. ⚠️ What Causes the Whitespace Gaps During an OTTO or UCMS content sync, extra <br> (line-break) tags are inserted between Gutenberg block elements — for example, between a heading block and a paragraph block. WordPress renders each injected <br> as a full line of vertical space, producing the large visible gaps you see in both the Block Editor and the published frontend. This bug has been fixed in the recent platform update. Posts synced before the fix was deployed may still contain injected <br> tags and need the manual cleanup steps below. 📌 Which Posts Are Affected Any post synced via OTTO or UCMS before the recent platform fix was deployed may contain injected <br> tags and require manual cleanup. Posts synced after the fix do not need cleanup. If you are unsure which posts were synced before the fix, contact Search Atlas support for confirmation. 🔍 How to Confirm Extra <br> Tags Are Present Switch to the WordPress Code Editor to inspect the raw block markup: 1. Open the affected post in the WordPress Block Editor (Gutenberg). 2. Click the Options menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the editor toolbar. 3. Select Code editor to view the raw HTML markup. 4. Scroll through the markup and look for standalone <br /> or <br> tags that appear between block comment delimiters — lines beginning with <!-- /wp:... or <!-- wp:.... If you see <br> tags between block boundaries rather than inside a block's own content, the OTTO/UCMS sync injection is confirmed as the source of the whitespace gaps. 🛠️ How to Remove the Extra <br> Tags Manually While in Code editor view (see the confirmation steps above), remove the injected tags: 1. Use your browser's find function (Ctrl+F on Windows / Cmd+F on Mac) inside the Code editor to locate each instance of <br. 2. Delete every <br /> or <br> that appears between two block comment delimiters. Leave any <br> tags that sit inside a block's own content — those are intentional line breaks. 3. Click Exit code editor to return to the visual Block Editor and verify the gaps are no longer visible. 4. Click Update (or Save draft) to save the cleaned post. 5. Reload the live frontend page to confirm the extra vertical spacing is gone. Your page now displays with normal spacing between all content blocks. 🚀 Permanent Fix Status The platform-level fix has already been deployed. OTTO and UCMS syncs will no longer inject extra <br> tags between Gutenberg blocks — no manual cleanup is required for future syncs. Posts synced before the fix are not retroactively corrected; use the manual removal steps above to clean up any existing affected posts. 🎯 You now know why OTTO/UCMS syncs produce whitespace gaps in the Gutenberg Block Editor and how to manually remove the injected <br> tags from affected posts. If gaps persist after the fix has rolled out to your account, contact Search Atlas support so the team can investigate further.