Troubleshooting: Data Missing or Mismatched

📧 Fixing Report Emails Sent to Wrong Addresses

🔍 Why Reports Go to the Wrong Address Every scheduled report in Search Atlas has its own recipient list. That list is set when the report is first scheduled and does not automatically sync with your account email or your current team roster. This is why a report can arrive at an address that is not registered on your account, or keep reaching a teammate who was removed months ago. Common causes include: - The report was scheduled with a different email before your current account email was set. - A former team member's address was never removed from the report's recipient list. - The email toggle is switched on while the visible recipient list looks empty, so an older stored address is still being used. Changing your profile email or deleting a user does not update existing report schedules. The fix is to edit each scheduled report directly. 🛠️ Update Recipients on a Scheduled Report 1. In the left sidebar, click Reports to open your report projects. 2. Open the project that contains the affected report. 3. Locate the report and open its email or schedule settings. 4. In the recipients field, delete any address that should not receive the report, especially addresses that are not registered on your account. 5. Type in the correct email address and add any other recipients you want on the list. 6. Confirm the schedule frequency is correct and click Save. 7. Repeat these steps for every scheduled report in the project. Recipient lists are stored per report, so updating one report never updates the others. 👥 Clear a Former Teammate's Email Removing someone from your account removes their access, but it does not remove their email from reports they were added to. If a departed teammate is still receiving your reports: 1. Go to Reports in the left sidebar and open the project. 2. Open each scheduled report's email settings. 3. Delete the former teammate's address from the recipient list. 4. Save the report. If a report keeps sending after a subscription lapsed or an account was deactivated, check that the schedule toggle is switched off and save again. 📨 About the Sender Address Scheduled report emails are delivered from a fixed system sender address on behalf of Search Atlas. This sender address is not configurable and has no effect on where the report is delivered. As long as your own email appears in the recipient list, the report will reach your inbox even though the sender address looks different. 💡 Tips to Avoid Stale Recipients - Review recipient lists whenever someone joins or leaves your team. - After changing your account email, audit every scheduled report and update the recipient list on each one. - When you duplicate a report, the copy keeps the original recipient list, so edit it before the next scheduled send. - Switch the email schedule off on reports you no longer need instead of leaving them active. 🤝 Still Landing in the Wrong Inbox? If you have updated the recipient list and emails still go to the old address, or a report sends weekly with no visible recipients, there may be a cached schedule on our side that needs to be cleared. 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.

📊 Fix Report Date Range Not Saving Correctly

🔍 Overview Some customers are experiencing an issue in Search Atlas where a custom date range set in Report Builder does not remain saved. This article explains what is happening and what information to provide when reporting the issue. ⚙️ Understanding the Date Range Revert Issue When you create or edit a report in Report Builder and apply a custom date range, the platform may not retain your selection after saving. The report may reopen with a different date range or without the previously selected dates. Current status: This is a known bug affecting report date range configuration. The date range may not save correctly until the underlying issue is fixed. 🛠️ What to Do If Your Date Range Does Not Save If the selected date range does not remain saved, report the issue to our team so it can be investigated. Include the report name, the date range you selected, what date range appears after saving, and the approximate time the issue occurred. Screenshots showing the selected and saved ranges can also help with the investigation. If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

🔧 Fix Reports Sent to Wrong Email Address

📋 Overview Automated reports in Search Atlas — including LLM Visibility and citation notification emails — may sometimes continue to be delivered to an outdated or incorrect email address. This can happen when an account email changes, a team member leaves, or a recipient was saved incorrectly during an earlier configuration. Because this issue involves how recipient data is stored on the backend, it typically requires our team to investigate and correct it directly. 🔍 Why Reports Go to the Wrong Email This issue usually happens for one of the following reasons: - A stale email address was saved as a report recipient before your account email was updated. - A previous team member's email was set as the recipient and was never removed. - Automated emails were configured during onboarding and have not been reviewed since. In some cases, the system may continue delivering reports to a stored email address even after changes are made on your end. This type of issue is resolved on the backend by our support team. 🛠️ What to Do If Reports Are Going to the Wrong Address Because recipient data for automated reports is managed at the backend level, the most reliable resolution is to contact our support team directly. To help us resolve this as quickly as possible, please have the following ready when you reach out: - Your project name and the Search Atlas account email address associated with it. - The email address currently receiving the reports (the incorrect or stale one). - The correct email address you want reports to be sent to going forward. - The type of report affected (for example, LLM Visibility reports, citation emails, or scheduled reports). - Any relevant timestamps — such as when you first noticed the issue or when the last incorrectly delivered report was received. Our team will locate the stored recipient data on the backend and update it to the correct address on your behalf. 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.

🔴 Fix Trend Arrows Showing Wrong Direction in Reports

🧭 Overview Trend arrows in your reports are designed to give you a quick visual signal — green with an upward arrow for improvement, red with a downward arrow for decline. If you notice a red or downward arrow next to a metric that is clearly increasing, this is a UI rendering issue, not a data accuracy problem. Your underlying data is correct; the directional indicator is simply displaying the wrong state. This article explains why this happens and walks you through the steps to resolve it. ⚠️ How to Confirm You Have This Issue Before troubleshooting, confirm that what you are experiencing matches this specific issue: - The numeric value of the metric is higher than the previous period (for example, organic traffic increased from 1,200 to 1,450 visits). - The trend arrow next to that number is pointing down or displayed in red. - The contradiction is consistent — it does not resolve itself after a page refresh. If your numbers themselves look wrong or unexpected, that is a separate data accuracy issue and may be related to filters or sync timing. This article specifically addresses cases where the number is correct but the arrow direction or color does not match it. 🔍 Why This Happens Trend arrow direction is calculated by comparing the current period value against a baseline comparison period. The most common reasons for misalignment are: - Comparison period is set incorrectly. If your comparison window is set to a period when the metric was higher than today, the arrow will show red even if the metric has grown recently. For example, comparing this week to a peak month six months ago will always look like a decline. - Metric direction logic is inverted for that KPI. Some metrics are "lower is better" — such as crawl errors, bounce rate, or page load time. If the arrow logic for one of these metrics was applied to a "higher is better" metric, you will see the opposite color. - The report was duplicated or imported with mismatched settings. Cloned or shared reports sometimes carry over comparison period settings from their original configuration, which may not match your current reporting intent. - A rendering glitch after a recent report edit. In some cases, editing a report layout — such as reordering columns or changing date ranges — can cause the trend indicators to render based on stale cached values until the report is fully refreshed. 🛠️ Steps to Fix the Misalignment 1. Open your report. Go to the left sidebar and select Reports, then choose the affected report from your projects list at /report-builder/projects-list. 2. Check the comparison period setting. At the top of the report, locate the date range controls. Confirm that the Compare To period is set to the interval you intend — typically the previous equivalent period (previous week, previous month, or previous year). Adjust it if it is pointing to an unintended timeframe. 3. Verify the metric type. Review whether the metric showing the incorrect arrow is one where a decrease is considered positive (such as bounce rate, error count, or load time). If so, the arrow direction may be correct by design. If the metric should treat an increase as positive, proceed to the next step. 4. Force a full report refresh. Click the Refresh Summary button within the report view (Executive Summary). Do not rely solely on a browser page reload, as this may serve a cached version of the rendered indicators. 5. Re-save the report. If the arrow remains incorrect after refreshing, make a minor edit — such as toggling a display option on and off — then save the report. This forces the rendering engine to recalculate all visual indicators from the current data. 6. Rebuild the affected widget. If the issue persists on a specific metric widget, remove that widget from the report and re-add it from scratch using the widget library. Reconfigure the metric and comparison period. This clears any corrupted display state tied to the original widget instance. ✅ Confirming the Fix After completing the steps above, the trend arrow should align with the metric value. A green upward arrow should appear next to any metric that has increased relative to the selected comparison period, and a red downward arrow should only appear when the metric has genuinely declined. If the arrows are now consistent with the numbers, no further action is needed. 🚫 What This Issue Is Not To avoid confusion, here is a quick distinction between this issue and other common report problems: - This is not a data sync issue. If your numbers themselves are missing, outdated, or appear lower than expected, that may be related to API sync delays or active filters — which require separate troubleshooting. - This is not a permissions issue. All users with access to a report see the same rendered indicators. - This is not caused by ad blockers or browser extensions in the vast majority of cases, though clearing your browser cache is always a safe first step if behavior seems erratic. 💬 Still Seeing the Wrong Arrow Direction? If you have followed all the steps above and the trend arrow direction still does not match the metric value, the issue may require a manual review of your report configuration 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.

📉 Site Score and Traffic Drop: No Site Changes

🔍 What This Article Covers If your site score dropped sharply — for example, from the low 90s to the 40s — and your reported visitor numbers declined at the same time, without any changes made to your website, this guide explains what may be happening and the exact steps to take. A simultaneous drop across multiple metrics with no site changes is a specific scenario. It is different from gradual performance decline and should be treated as a potential reporting or data sync issue, not just normal fluctuation. ⚠️ Why This Pattern Matters When only one metric drops, the cause is often straightforward — a new technical issue detected, a ranking shift, or a crawl update. However, when your site score and visitor data both drop sharply at the same time and you have made no changes to your site, this correlation may suggest a data or reporting discrepancy between Search Atlas and Google Search Console. This type of issue is worth escalating to our support team for investigation. 🧭 What to Check Before Reaching Out Before contacting support, gather the following information so our team can investigate quickly. 1. Locate your site score within Search Atlas and note the current value and the approximate date the drop appears to have started. 2. Take a screenshot or record the exact score values shown — both the current reading and any historical data visible in the chart. 3. Check whether your keyword rankings also show a sudden change around the same date. 4. Open Google Search Console directly and compare your GSC traffic data for the same date range. Note whether the drop in Search Atlas matches or contradicts what GSC shows. 5. Check whether your GSC connection in Search Atlas is still active. If it appears to have lapsed, reconnect your Google Search Console account through Site Metrics → Site Explorer → Manage Sites/Connect GSC Account (GSC Accounts page). 📊 Comparing Search Atlas Data With GSC Search Atlas pulls visitor and impression data from your connected Google Search Console account. A discrepancy between the two platforms can occur when the GSC connection has lapsed or when there is a data sync issue on the platform side affecting how your property's data is displayed. If your GSC data and Search Atlas data do not match, note the specific date range and metric values for both platforms and share these with our support team so they can investigate further. 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.

📊 Fix Report Customization and Data Discrepancies

📋 Overview Search Atlas reports let you tailor what data you share with clients or stakeholders. If your report shows numbers that differ from Google Search Console (GSC), or you need to remove specific sections, this article walks you through both tasks step by step. 🗂️ How to Access the Report Builder Navigate to the Report Builder by selecting Reports from the left sidebar. Here you will see all existing reports tied to your projects. ✂️ How to Remove Sections from a Report 1. Open the Reports page from the left sidebar. 2. Click the report you want to edit to open it in the builder. 3. Locate the section you want to remove and look for the options control associated with that section. 4. Select the option to remove or delete that section to hide that block from the report. 5. Preview the report to confirm the section no longer appears, then save your changes. Tip: Removing a section only affects the report layout — it does not delete the underlying data from your project. ⚠️ Why Report Numbers May Not Match Google Search Console Seeing different numbers between Search Atlas and GSC is a common concern. The most frequent reasons are listed below. - Date range offset: GSC may apply a data freshness delay. Make sure the date range selected in Search Atlas matches exactly what you are viewing in GSC. - Property type mismatch: GSC distinguishes between Domain properties and URL-prefix properties. Confirm that the property connected to Search Atlas is the same type and URL you are checking in GSC. - Data sampling: GSC may apply sampling to large data sets. Search Atlas may surface a slightly different sample depending on when data was pulled. - Filters applied in GSC: If you have active filters in GSC (e.g., country, device, or search type), the totals will differ from an unfiltered Search Atlas view. Remove filters in both tools before comparing. - Metric definition differences: Impressions, clicks, and CTR can be counted differently depending on the GSC report view you are using. Verify you are comparing equivalent metrics. - Connection or sync timing: If your GSC account was connected recently, historical data may still be importing. Allow some time after connecting for a full data sync before drawing comparisons. 🔌 How to Verify Your Google Search Console Connection 1. Go to Site Metrics → GSC Performance (Manage Sites) from the left sidebar. 2. Confirm that the correct GSC property is connected and actively syncing data. 3. If the property does not appear or shows an error, disconnect and reconnect your GSC account. 4. After reconnecting, allow time for data to fully import before comparing numbers again. 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 Create Client Reports with OTTO SEO Data

This article explains how to create client reports that include data from your OTTO SEO projects using the Report Builder. If you've been unsure how to pull OTTO SEO information into a shareable report — or how to confirm the report is set up correctly — this guide covers each step in detail. 📍 Where to Find It Navigate to Left sidebar → Reports to open the Report Builder. From here you can create new reports, refresh summary, download a CSV, and configure automated email delivery to clients. 🛠️ Step-by-Step 1. In the left sidebar, click Reports to open the Report Builder project list. 2. Click + Create to start a new report. 3. When prompted to select a project or data source, choose the client project that has OTTO SEO enabled. OTTO SEO data is tied to the project it was activated on, so make sure you select the correct project from the list. 4. Configure the report sections you want to include — such as site audit results, keyword rankings, or on-page optimizations that OTTO SEO has applied or recommended. 5. Add your client's branding or any custom notes as needed, then save the report. 6. To share the report automatically, use the Automated email reports option to schedule recurring delivery directly to your client's inbox. 7. To provide an immediate download, use Download .CSV to export the current data snapshot. ✅ How to Confirm It Worked After creating the report, verify the following to confirm everything is set up correctly: - The report appears in your Report Builder project list under Left sidebar → Reports. - Opening the report shows data sections populated with information from your selected OTTO SEO project — not blank or placeholder fields. - If you scheduled an automated email, confirm the delivery settings show the correct recipient email address, frequency, and next send date. - If you downloaded a CSV, open the file and check that the rows contain real metric values (rankings, audit scores, etc.) rather than empty columns, which would indicate the wrong project was selected. 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 Use the Refresh Summary button (Left sidebar → Reports → [Report] (Executive Summary) → Refresh Summary) to ensure the report is pulling the most current OTTO SEO data before previewing or sharing. Also confirms the URL path /report-builder/projects-list and advises verifying the project name matches the OTTO SEO deployment before proceeding.

🎓 Fix a Zero Factuality Score in Scholar

🔍 Overview If your Scholar grader is showing a factuality score of 0, this article explains what may be happening and what information to have ready when contacting support. Because this issue requires investigation on the backend, the most effective next step is to reach out to our support team directly. 🤔 What Does a Zero Factuality Score Mean? A factuality score of 0 typically indicates that Scholar was unable to complete the grading process for that content. This can happen for a number of reasons, such as the content not being processed correctly or a temporary issue with the grading pipeline. Our support team can investigate the specific cause directly on your account. 🛠️ Before Contacting Support — Steps to Try First 1. Reload the page and reopen the Scholar report to check whether the score updates. 2. Run the Scholar grader again on the same content to see if the zero score persists on a fresh run. 3. Check whether the zero factuality score affects only one report or multiple reports in your account, as this helps identify whether the issue is isolated or broader. 4. Confirm that the content you submitted is not empty and meets the minimum length requirements for Scholar analysis. 📋 What to Have Ready When You Contact Support If the zero score persists after trying the steps above, please have the following ready when you reach out: - The project name or URL of the Scholar report showing the zero score. - The exact scores displayed (e.g. Factuality: 0). - Whether the issue affects one report or multiple reports. - The date and approximate time you first noticed the issue. - Any steps you have already tried, including whether re-running the grader made any difference. 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.

🔍 Diagnose Unexpected Geo-Targeted Traffic Spikes

🌐 Why Am I Seeing Traffic From China or Singapore? If your UK-targeted websites are suddenly showing traffic spikes from countries like China or Singapore, there are two likely explanations: bot or crawler activity, or a misconfiguration in your geo-targeting settings. This article walks you through how to diagnose the cause and take corrective action. 🤖 Step 1 — Determine Whether the Traffic Is from Bots Unexpected international traffic spikes are most commonly caused by automated bots, web scrapers, or data centre crawlers rather than real users. Look for these warning signs in your analytics platform: - Bounce rate is unusually high (above 90%) for the suspicious traffic segment - Session duration is near zero — bots rarely spend time on pages - Pages per session is exactly 1 across a large volume of visits - No conversions or goal completions from the traffic source - Traffic arrives in short, concentrated bursts rather than a gradual increase If several of these signs are present at the same time, bot activity is the most likely cause. Real organic growth from a new region is typically gradual and shows meaningful engagement metrics. ⚙️ Step 2 — Verify Your Geo-Targeting Configuration Even when bot traffic is the primary cause, it is worth confirming that your geo-targeting settings are correctly configured. A misconfiguration could amplify the problem or mask its true source. Check each of the following: 1. Google Search Console — International Targeting: Go to Search Console → Legacy Tools → International Targeting. Confirm the target country is set to United Kingdom for each of your four sites. If it is set to Unlisted or the wrong country, correct it immediately. 2. Hreflang tags: If your sites serve multiple language variants, verify that hreflang="en-gb" tags are present and correctly implemented in your page source or sitemap. Incorrect or missing hreflang can cause search engines to serve your pages to unintended audiences. 3. Server or CDN location: Confirm your hosting or CDN is not automatically routing traffic through international nodes that could confuse geo-detection. 4. Analytics filters: Check whether any existing IP exclusion or geo filters in your analytics account have been accidentally removed or changed. 📊 Step 3 — Investigate in Search Atlas Site Explorer Use Search Atlas to cross-reference whether the traffic spike corresponds to any real keyword ranking changes in those regions. This helps confirm whether the visits are organic or artificial. 1. In the left sidebar, navigate to Site Metrics (Site Explorer). 2. Enter your website URL and review the organic traffic data by region and keyword. 3. Go to Keywords → Rank Tracker and check whether any keywords are ranking in Chinese or Singaporean search results. If your keywords are purely UK-focused and show no international rankings, this strongly suggests the traffic is not organic. 4. Go to Keywords → Keyword Gap to compare your site against competitors and confirm whether international visibility has genuinely expanded or whether your domestic rankings remain unchanged. If Site Explorer shows no corresponding keyword rankings or visibility in China or Singapore, the traffic spike is almost certainly non-organic. 🛠️ Step 4 — Filter and Block Bot Traffic Once you have confirmed the traffic is from bots or crawlers, take the following steps to filter it from your data and reduce its impact: - In Google Analytics 4: Create an audience filter to exclude traffic from the relevant countries (China, Singapore) if you have no legitimate audience there. Navigate to Admin → Data Streams → Configure Tag Settings → Define Internal Traffic, or use Reporting Identity filters. - In Google Analytics 4 (Bot filtering): Go to Admin → Data Settings → Data Filters and enable the Bot and spider filtering option if it is not already active. - At the server or firewall level: Work with your hosting provider or IT team to block known data centre IP ranges associated with scraping activity using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) such as Cloudflare. - robots.txt: Ensure your robots.txt file is correctly configured. While it will not stop malicious bots, it signals legitimate crawlers and helps identify bad actors that ignore the file. 💡 Step 5 — Monitor Going Forward After applying filters and verifying your settings, monitor your traffic over the next 7 to 14 days. Watch for: - A return to your normal UK-centric traffic baseline - Any further spikes that may indicate persistent crawler activity - Changes in your UK keyword rankings, which should remain unaffected by bot traffic alone Set up custom alerts in your analytics platform to notify you if traffic from specific countries exceeds a defined threshold. This allows you to catch future spikes early and investigate before the data skews your reporting. 💬 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.

📊 Site Metrics Domain vs Page-Level Reporting Explained

Why Site Metrics Shows Domain-Level Data Only Site Metrics is designed to report aggregated, domain-level SEO data — it summarises the overall performance of your entire website as a single entity. This means the metrics you see reflect your whole domain, not individual pages. This is expected behaviour. Even after a successful crawl of your site, Site Metrics will not break down performance on a per-URL basis. It is not a limitation of the crawl — it is simply how Site Metrics is built to function. What Site Metrics Does and Does Not Show - Does show: Aggregated, domain-level SEO metrics for your whole site. - Does not show: Individual URL performance, page-by-page data, or per-page breakdowns within the Site Metrics overview screen. Where to Find Page-Level Performance Data To analyse individual URLs across your site, you need to use tools that are built for page-level analysis. Search Atlas includes dedicated tools for this purpose — please refer to the in-platform documentation or tooltips within each tool to confirm exactly what each one reports. As a general guide: 1. Site Auditor: Your primary destination for page-by-page crawl data, including on-page SEO issues and technical signals at the individual URL level. 2. Rank Tracker: Allows you to monitor ranking performance for specific keywords and URLs over time. 3. Keyword Magic: Use this for keyword research relevant to specific pages and URLs. 4. Keyword Gap: Helps compare keyword coverage between your domain and competitors to identify content opportunities. 5. OTTO SEO: Supports creation and optimisation of individual pages with AI-driven recommendations. Quick Reference: Which Tool to Use - Overall domain-level SEO data? → Site Metrics overview - Crawl results and on-page issues per URL? → Site Auditor - Keyword rankings for specific pages? → Rank Tracker - Keyword research for individual URLs? → Keyword Magic - Content gap opportunities vs competitors? → Keyword Gap - AI-assisted page creation and optimisation? → OTTO SEO If you are unsure which tool to open for your specific use case, explore the main navigation menu in the platform to locate each of these tools. When contacting support about a page-level data issue, please have ready: the specific URL(s) you are investigating, the project or domain name in your account, and a description of what data you expected to see versus what was displayed. 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.