# **🔍 Overview** OTTO SEO automates on-page optimizations across your site, but there are times when you need to protect specific pages from being edited. This article explains how to exclude URLs from OTTO's scope and how to roll back changes OTTO has already applied.

# **🗺️ How OTTO Page Exclusions Work** Exclusions are URL rules configured in your project's OTTO SEO settings. You add a condition (for example, "Exclude all URLs that contain /blog/"), and OTTO's crawler and analyzer skip every URL that matches it. Excluding a URL turns off all of OTTO's optimizations on that page, not just one feature. The rule also covers pages added to your site later, as long as they match the condition.

# **⚙️ Step 1 — Open OTTO SEO** 1. Log in to Search Atlas. 2. In the left sidebar, click **OTTO SEO**, then open **SEO Automation**. This opens the All Sites view at **/seo-automation-v3**. 3. Make sure you select the correct project.

# **⚙️ Step 2 — Open OTTO SEO Settings** 1. Open your project's overview. 2. At the top of the page, click the **Autopilot / Smart Crawl** card (it shows the gear icon and the next-analysis countdown). This opens the **OTTO SEO Settings** modal. You can also reach it from the All Sites table by clicking the **Smart Crawl** status text on your site's card.

# **🚫 Step 3 — Add URL Exclusion Conditions** 1. In the settings modal, scroll to the section titled **URL Exclusion conditions**. 2. Click **+ Add condition**. 3. Set the fields: - First dropdown: **Exclude**. - Match type: **Contains** or **Start With**. - Text field: type the part of the URL to match, for example `/blog/`. 4. Click **Update Settings** to save. OTTO will no longer scan or optimize any URL that matches the condition. Repeat for additional rules if needed (each rule is its own condition).

# **↩️ Step 4 — Roll Back Changes OTTO Already Made** If OTTO has already deployed changes to a page, exclusions alone do not undo them. Roll the changes back first: **To roll back a specific page:** 1. In the project overview, open **Filter by URL** and enter the page's URL to see every recommendation OTTO made for it. 2. On each row, click the green **Deployed** (or **Enabled**) button in the Status column. This immediately un-deploys OTTO's modification for that item. **To roll back a whole category (for example all Page Titles):** 1. Open the category table in the project overview. 2. Click **Roll back all** at the top right of the table and confirm. This reverts every deployed suggestion in that category.

# **💡 Things to Keep in Mind** - **Excluding disables everything on that page.** OTTO will not apply any new optimization to an excluded URL, and existing deployments are not automatically reverted — roll them back manually as described in Step 4. - **Exclusions persist until removed.** To let OTTO work on a page again, delete the matching condition in OTTO SEO Settings and click **Update Settings**. - **Rollback only affects OTTO changes.** Manual edits you made outside OTTO are not affected.

# **🆘 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.