Troubleshooting: Other Issues

🔒 Fix Gmail 'App is Blocked' Error in Campaigns

🧭 Overview When connecting a Gmail account to Search Atlas Authority Campaigns, you may see an 'App is Blocked' error or an SMTP/IMAP authentication failure. This happens because Google blocks direct password sign-ins for third-party apps by default. The fix is to generate a Gmail App Password and use it in place of your regular Google account password. This article walks you through generating an App Password and entering it correctly inside Search Atlas so your campaigns can send and receive emails without interruption. ⚠️ Why This Error Occurs Google's security policy prevents third-party applications from authenticating with your standard Gmail password. When Search Atlas attempts to connect via SMTP or IMAP using a regular password, Google blocks the request and returns an 'App is Blocked' or 'Username and password not accepted' error. An App Password is a unique 16-character code that Google generates specifically for a single app, bypassing this restriction securely. Before you begin, confirm the following requirements are met on your Google account: - 2-Step Verification is enabled on your Google account — App Passwords are only available when 2-Step Verification is active. - You are signed in to the Google account you want to connect to Search Atlas. - The Google account is not a Google Workspace account with App Passwords disabled by an administrator. If it is, contact your Workspace admin to enable App Passwords for your account. 🔑 Step 1 — Enable 2-Step Verification on Google Skip this step if 2-Step Verification is already active on your account. 1. Go to myaccount.google.com and sign in. 2. Click Security in the left navigation panel. 3. Under How you sign in to Google, click 2-Step Verification. 4. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete setup. 🛠️ Step 2 — Generate a Gmail App Password 1. Go to myaccount.google.com/apppasswords while signed in to your Gmail account. If prompted, re-enter your Google password. 2. In the App name field, type a recognisable label such as Search Atlas Campaigns. 3. Click Create. 4. Google will display a 16-character App Password in a yellow box. Copy this code immediately — Google will not show it again. Store it somewhere safe until you have finished the next step. 📧 Step 3 — Connect Gmail to Search Atlas Authority Campaigns 1. In Search Atlas, navigate to Left sidebar → Authority → Campaigns. 2. Open your campaign settings or click Add Email Account (the exact label may vary depending on your campaign setup). 3. When prompted for your email connection details, enter the following SMTP settings: - SMTP Host: smtp.gmail.com - SMTP Port: 465 (SSL) or 587 (TLS) - Username: your full Gmail address (e.g. yourname@gmail.com) - Password: the 16-character App Password you generated in Step 2 — not your regular Gmail password 4. For IMAP (incoming mail), use these settings: - IMAP Host: imap.gmail.com - IMAP Port: 993 (SSL) - Username: your full Gmail address - Password: the same 16-character App Password 5. Save your settings and test the connection. A successful connection will show a green confirmation status. ✅ Verifying the Connection After saving, send a test email from within the Campaigns interface. Navigate to Left sidebar → Authority → Sent to confirm the email appears in your sent log. Check Left sidebar → Authority → Inbox to verify incoming mail is being received correctly. 🔍 Common Issues and Fixes - App Password option not visible: 2-Step Verification is not yet enabled. Complete Step 1 above and then return to the App Passwords page. - Still seeing 'App is Blocked' after entering the App Password: Confirm you copied the full 16 characters and removed any spaces. Re-generate a new App Password and try again. - Google Workspace account errors: Your Workspace administrator may have restricted App Passwords. Ask your admin to enable App Passwords at the domain level in the Google Admin Console. - Connection times out: Confirm the correct SMTP/IMAP ports are entered. Some networks block port 465; switch to port 587 with TLS. 💬 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.

🔒 Preventing Unauthorized Account Linking

Understanding Account Linking in Search Atlas Search Atlas allows you to connect external accounts such as Google Business Profile (GBP) and third-party integrations to power your Local and Social projects. These connections should only grant access to users you have explicitly authorized. In rare cases, a known technical issue may cause accounts to become unintentionally linked. When this occurs, a user on a separate account may gain visibility into—or the ability to modify or delete—projects they should not have access to. What This Means for Your Projects If your account has been affected by this bug, you may notice: - Projects appearing in your workspace that you did not create. - Projects missing that you or your team did not delete. - Accounts or data visible that do not belong to your workspace. - Changes to your projects made by someone outside your organization. This is a technical issue on our platform's side, not a result of misconfigured permissions or shared credentials. Our engineering team is aware of the problem and is actively working on a resolution. How to Report This Issue If you suspect unauthorized account linking or unexplained project deletion, please gather the following information so our engineering team can investigate promptly: - Project name(s) affected by the issue. - Account email(s) involved — both yours and the unauthorized account, if known. - Timestamp(s) of when you first noticed the linking or deletion. - Description of what happened, including any unexpected changes, deletions, or new projects. - Screenshots of any unfamiliar projects, accounts, or activity you have observed. What to Expect Once you report the issue, our engineering team will investigate the root cause of the unauthorized linking, work to separate the affected accounts, and attempt to recover any deleted projects where possible. Resolution times may vary depending on the complexity of the account linkage and the extent of the data affected. 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 Authority Building 403 Error

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

📊 Authority Pillar Score Dropped to Zero

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

🔗 Fixing Broken Knowledge Base Links

🔍 What This Issue Looks Like Some customers clicked a Knowledge Base (KB) link inside the Search Atlas (SA) Dashboard and landed on a 404 "Page Not Found" error or an outdated help article. This mostly affected OTTO-related help links, such as guides opened from OTTO SEO setup screens. The issue appeared after our Knowledge Base was migrated to a new platform. 💡 Why the Links Broke Our Knowledge Base was migrated to a new platform. During the migration, some Dashboard links continued pointing to retired collection URLs that no longer exist, causing broken pages. Our team has been working to update affected Dashboard links to point to the current Knowledge Base location. 🛠️ How to Fix It on Your End If you still see a broken link, follow these steps: 1. Refresh the Dashboard. Perform a hard refresh (Ctrl+F5 on Windows, Cmd+Shift+R on Mac) so your browser loads the updated links instead of a cached page. 2. Clear your browser cache and cookies for searchatlas.com if the 404 error persists after a hard refresh. 3. Update your personal bookmarks. If you saved an old Knowledge Base URL, replace it with the current Knowledge Base address. Any bookmark pointing to a retired collection URL will not load. 4. Go directly to the Knowledge Base. Navigate to the Knowledge Base directly in your browser and use the search bar to find the article you need while your cached links catch up. 📌 Links Opening in the Same Tab A separate, related behavior was also reported: some Knowledge Base links opened in the same browser tab instead of a new one, which took you away from your Dashboard work. If you ever spot a link that replaces your current tab, you can work around it by right-clicking the link and choosing Open link in new tab (or middle-clicking the link with your mouse). ✅ How to Confirm Everything Works After following the steps above, check that: - Knowledge Base links open to current, working help articles. - Articles load current content, including OTTO SEO setup and troubleshooting guides. - Help links keep your Dashboard open by loading in a new tab. If a link still fails after a hard refresh and a cache clear, it may be an edge case that has not been spotted yet. Note the page you were on and the exact link you clicked so our team can 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 instantly connected with a member of our team.

🔍 Finding and Accessing Missing SEO Analysis Features

Overview Some customers notice that features such as meta keywords analysis, missing keywords, semantic analysis, knowledge graph optimization, and knowledge-based trust are not immediately visible in their account. This article explains what to check and what information to have ready if you need support to resolve the issue. Why Features May Appear Missing Because the original source for this topic did not include a documented agent resolution, the exact root cause can vary. Common factors that have been reported include plan-level access restrictions, features that only appear after a site analysis has been run, or features located in a different section of the platform than expected. The actual cause in your case may differ and may require a backend review by our team. What to Check Before Escalating Work through the following checks to rule out common display or access issues: 1. Confirm a site analysis has been run. Navigate to your project and verify that a crawl or on-page analysis has been completed. Some features only populate with data after this step. 2. Check all relevant sections of the platform. Expand any collapsed submenus and switch between tabs to make sure you are not overlooking a nested section. 3. Select a specific page or URL. Some analysis features only appear when an individual URL is selected rather than the project-level overview. 4. Review your subscription plan. Go to your Avatar (top-right) → Billing (Plans & Top-ups) and confirm which features are included in your current plan, as plan-level restrictions may limit visibility. 5. Clear your browser cache or try a different browser. Client-side rendering issues can occasionally prevent features from loading correctly. If the Feature Is Still Not Visible If none of the above steps resolve the issue, our team will need to investigate on the backend. Please have the following ready when you reach out: - The exact name of the feature you cannot locate (e.g., Missing Keywords, Knowledge Graph, Semantic Analysis) - Your project name and the specific URL or page where you expected to find the feature - A screenshot or screen recording showing what you see in place of the expected feature - The date and time you first noticed the feature was missing - Your current subscription plan name 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.

🔄 Restoring Recurring Platinum Account Benefits

💡 What This Article Covers If your recurring Platinum account benefits are no longer available, this guide explains what information to provide when reporting the issue. 🛠️ How to Report Missing Benefits Contact our support team so they can investigate why your recurring Platinum benefits are no longer available. Provide your account details, the benefits that are missing, and when you first noticed the issue. Support can review the reported issue and advise on the next steps. ✅ What to Include in Your Request - Your account or workspace name. - The Platinum benefits that are missing, including any OTTO SEO or AI Visibility benefits. - When the benefits stopped appearing or reset. - Any relevant error message or recent account change. If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be instantly connected with a member of our team.

🔗 Fix an Incorrect Search Atlas Link

🔍 Identify the link problem If a Search Atlas link does not open the expected page, first check whether the address is complete and current. A link may be incorrect if it opens an error page, redirects to an unrelated location, or shows a missing workspace, project, or report. ✅ Check the link 1. Confirm that the link begins with the official Search Atlas website address. 2. Copy and paste the full link into your browser instead of selecting a shortened or partial version. 3. Check for missing characters, spaces, or punctuation at the beginning or end of the link. 4. Sign in to the Search Atlas account associated with the project or report. 5. Refresh the page and try the link again in a supported, up-to-date browser. 🛠️ Use the correct page If the link still does not work, open Search Atlas directly and navigate to the relevant workspace, project, or report from the platform menu. This can help when an older link has expired or when the link belongs to a different account or workspace. 🔒 Stay safe when opening links Do not enter your password on a page that looks unusual or does not use the official Search Atlas website address. When in doubt, close the page and access Search Atlas directly through the platform login page. 💬 Get help with a missing or incorrect link When requesting help, include the page name, the action you were trying to complete, and the error message shown. Avoid sharing passwords or other sensitive information. If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be instantly connected with a member of our team.