Troubleshooting: Audit Errors (General)

🔐 Fix Signal Genesys API Scope Errors

🔎 What the 403 error means A 403 Invalid scope provided response means the access token does not include the scope required by the endpoint. The request may be correctly formatted, but the token was issued without the permission the API checks. This is different from an expired or invalid token. Repeating the request with the same token will continue to return 403 until the token is issued with the correct scope. ⚙️ How Signal Genesys authentication works Each Signal Genesys endpoint defines one or more required scopes. Your authentication setup must request those scopes, and the Signal Genesys authorization service must approve them for the client or application. Scopes are controlled by Signal Genesys and the client configuration used for your integration. Search Atlas cannot add, approve, or enable a Signal Genesys scope from the Search Atlas interface. ✅ Verify your configuration 1. Confirm that you are using the current Signal Genesys API base URL and endpoint documentation. 2. Check the endpoint’s required scope and copy it exactly, including capitalization, punctuation, and separators. 3. Review the token response and confirm that the returned scope value contains the required permission. 4. Request a new token after changing scopes. Existing tokens do not gain newly approved permissions. 5. Send the token as an authorization header using the format Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN. 6. Make sure the token was issued for the same environment, client, and API host as the request. 🚫 Common causes of invalid scopes - The scope was omitted from the token request. - The scope name was typed incorrectly or uses an unsupported alias. - The client is not approved for that scope. - A token from another environment or application is being reused. - The integration is using an authentication flow that does not support the required scope. - The API documentation and deployed endpoint require different scope names. 👤 Is a Search Atlas account required? A Search Atlas account is required when you use a Search Atlas feature or workflow that connects to Signal Genesys. However, having a Search Atlas account does not automatically grant Signal Genesys API access or the scopes required by external endpoints. For a direct Signal Genesys API integration, access depends on Signal Genesys client registration, authorization, and scope approval. Confirm the required account and client setup with the Signal Genesys API owner or administrator. 🛠️ When to request configuration help If every endpoint returns the same invalid-scope response, provide your integration owner with the endpoint, HTTP method, requested scope, token response scope, client environment, and request timestamp. Do not share client secrets or full access tokens. Ask the API owner to confirm that the client is approved for the exact scope and that the selected authentication flow can issue it. Search Atlas support can help review how the Search Atlas workflow is configured, but cannot grant Signal Genesys permissions. 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 Bulk AI Image Alt Text Generation Error

🔍 Overview Some users encountered an error message — 'A valid integer is required' — when selecting all images and attempting to run bulk AI alt text generation in OTTO. This prevented alt text from being generated for any images in the selection. This issue was confirmed as a bug and has since been fully resolved by our engineering team. No workaround is needed — the fix is live in production. ⚙️ What Caused the Issue The error was caused by a bug in the bulk image alt text generation process inside OTTO. When a user selected all images and triggered bulk generation, the system passed an invalid value that caused the process to fail immediately with the 'A valid integer is required' message. The issue was tracked and resolved under an internal engineering fix for bulk alt text generation. ✅ What You Should Do Now 1. Navigate to the OTTO image alt text section in your Search Atlas platform. 2. Access the area where you previously experienced the error. 3. Select your images and run the bulk AI alt text generation again. 4. The process should now complete successfully without displaying any error message. If the generation completes but changes do not appear deployed, allow a few moments and refresh the page, as bulk operations on large image sets may take additional time to fully apply. 📊 Additional Notes on Large Image Sets If you are working with a very large image inventory, be aware that bulk alt text generation may take longer to complete. For especially large sets, the process may time out or report completion before all changes are fully applied. If you notice this behaviour, try processing images in smaller batches to ensure reliable results. 💡 Still Seeing the Error? If you have refreshed the page and are still experiencing the 'A valid integer is required' error after the fix has been deployed, it is possible your browser is serving a cached version of the platform. Try the following steps: - Clear your browser cache and cookies, then reload the platform. - Try using a different browser or an incognito/private window. - Ensure you are logged in to the correct Search Atlas account and workspace. If the issue persists after these steps, 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 'How to Fix' Details Not Showing in Site Auditor

🧭 Overview When the Site Auditor flags issues in your web report, the Issues or Page Explorer tab should display a How to Fix section for each problem. If that section is blank, the button is missing, or instructions never appear, a few specific conditions may be responsible. This article walks you through every known cause and the steps to resolve them. 🔎 Why 'How to Fix' Details May Not Appear There are four distinct reasons this content can be missing. Work through each one before contacting support. 🖥️ Reason 1 — Browser Zoom Is Not Set to 100% The How to Fix button is only rendered correctly when your browser zoom level is exactly 100%. At any other zoom level the button may be clipped, pushed off-screen, or hidden entirely. 1. In your browser, press Ctrl + 0 (Windows) or Cmd + 0 (Mac) to reset zoom to 100%. 2. Alternatively, open your browser menu, locate the zoom control, and manually set it to 100%. 3. Reload the Site Auditor page and re-open the issue detail panel. 4. Confirm the How to Fix button is now visible before proceeding. ⚙️ Reason 2 — JavaScript Rendering Is Disabled Fix details are loaded dynamically. If JavaScript rendering is blocked or disabled in your browser, the content will never populate — even if the button appears. 1. Open your browser settings and search for JavaScript or Site settings. 2. Ensure JavaScript is set to Allowed for the Search Atlas platform. 3. Disable any browser extensions that block scripts (ad blockers, script blockers) temporarily and reload the page. 4. If you use a corporate firewall or proxy, confirm it does not strip JavaScript responses from the platform domain. 🌐 Reason 3 — The Issue Is External or Requires a Manual Fix Not every flagged issue has an in-platform fix. Some problems exist on third-party services, your hosting environment, or your CMS — and the auditor correctly flags them without being able to resolve them automatically. In these cases the How to Fix section will either be absent or will show a short manual guidance note. Common examples include: - Missing or misconfigured robots.txt or sitemap.xml files hosted on your server. - Slow server response times (TTFB) controlled by your hosting provider. - Third-party scripts causing render-blocking issues. - Broken backlinks pointing to removed pages on external domains. For these issues, use the flagged URL and error description shown in the Page Explorer to locate and fix the problem directly in your CMS, hosting dashboard, or with your developer. 🔒 Reason 4 — Downstream Crawler Blockers Are Preventing Full Issue Analysis Some issues only surface completely after the crawler has full access to your site. If any of the conditions below apply, the audit may be incomplete and fix details may be partially or fully missing. - Mixed-content HTTP images: Pages that load images over HTTP instead of HTTPS can cause the crawler to fail mid-audit, including blocking sitemap reads. Ensure all image URLs in your HTML and CMS use HTTPS. - Crawler not whitelisted: If your site has bot protection (Cloudflare, Sucuri, password protection, or a WAF), the Search Atlas crawler user-agent may be blocked. Add the Search Atlas crawler IP or user-agent to your allowlist. Contact support via the chat widget for the current crawler details. - Crawl quota exceeded: Large sites may hit the crawl page limit included in your plan. When the quota is reached, pages beyond the limit are not analysed and their fix details will not be generated. Check your current plan limits and consider upgrading or narrowing the crawl scope in your audit settings. ✅ Quick Checklist Before Escalating - Browser zoom is set to exactly 100%. - JavaScript is enabled and no script-blocking extensions are active. - You have confirmed whether the issue is external or requires a manual fix. - Your site does not serve mixed-content (HTTP) images. - The Search Atlas crawler user-agent is whitelisted on any bot-protection layer. - Your crawl quota has not been exceeded for this audit. 🔄 How to Re-Run the Audit After Fixing Issues 1. Apply your fixes in your CMS, server, or hosting dashboard. 2. In Search Atlas, navigate to Site Metrics in the left sidebar. 3. Select your property and open the Site Auditor report. 4. Click Re-crawl or Start New Audit to generate a fresh report. 5. Once the audit completes, return to the Issues or Page Explorer tab to confirm the flags have cleared and How to Fix details load correctly. 💬 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.

🛠️ Fix Site Audit CORS and Sync Errors

🔍 Overview If your Site Audit is not picking up changes you made in Search Atlas — or you are seeing a Google Rich Results error or a CORS policy error blocking resource access — this article will explain why these issues occur and walk you through the steps to resolve them. ⚙️ Why Your Site Audit May Not Reflect Recent Changes Search Atlas Site Audits crawl your live website. This means the audit can only detect changes that have already been published and deployed to your site. Changes made inside Search Atlas (such as optimised meta tags, structured data, or content edits) will not appear in a new audit until they are pushed live on your actual website. Common reasons your audit results appear outdated: - Changes were saved in Search Atlas but not yet implemented on your website by your developer or CMS. - Your site uses a caching layer (CDN, server cache, or plugin cache) that is serving an older version of your pages. - The audit was re-run before your server had fully propagated the updates. - A previous crawl result is still being displayed — a fresh audit has not been triggered since the changes went live. 🚫 Understanding the CORS Policy Error A CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) error occurs when your website's server blocks external requests to load certain resources — such as scripts, stylesheets, or fonts — from a different origin. During a Site Audit, Search Atlas crawls your pages and attempts to access linked resources. If your server's CORS headers do not permit these requests, the audit flags the affected resources as inaccessible. This is a server-side configuration issue on your website, not a Search Atlas platform error. It must be resolved by updating your server or CDN headers to allow the necessary cross-origin requests. ✅ How to Fix Sync Issues (Changes Not Appearing) 1. Confirm your changes are live: Open your website in an incognito or private browser window and verify the updates are visible on the published pages. 2. Clear your site cache: Purge any caching plugin, CDN cache (such as Cloudflare or Fastly), or server-side cache so the latest version of your pages is served to crawlers. 3. Wait for propagation: After publishing and clearing caches, allow at least 15–30 minutes before re-running the audit. 4. Run a new Site Audit: Navigate to Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → Site Audit, locate your project, and trigger a fresh crawl. Do not rely on a cached audit result from before your changes went live. 5. Check your implementation: If the audit still does not reflect your changes after a fresh crawl, confirm with your developer that the correct code or meta data was deployed to the production environment, not just a staging server. ✅ How to Fix the CORS Policy Error 1. Identify the blocked resources: Review the Site Audit report to note exactly which URLs or resource types are being blocked by the CORS policy. 2. Update your server headers: Work with your developer or hosting provider to add the appropriate Access-Control-Allow-Origin header to your server or CDN configuration. For most sites, setting this to * (wildcard) or to the specific origins required will resolve the error. 3. Check CDN settings: If you use a CDN such as Cloudflare, check the CORS settings within your CDN dashboard. Some CDNs cache CORS headers separately and may require a cache purge after updating rules. 4. Re-run the audit: Once your headers are updated and caches are cleared, trigger a new Site Audit to confirm the CORS errors are resolved. 🌟 How to Fix the Google Rich Results Error A Google Rich Results error in your audit typically means that structured data (schema markup) on one or more of your pages is missing required fields, contains invalid values, or is not formatted correctly according to Google's specification. 1. Identify the affected pages: Review the Site Audit report to find which pages have Rich Results errors and what specific fields are flagged. 2. Test your structured data: Copy the page URL and paste it into Google's Rich Results Test tool (search.google.com/test/rich-results) to get a detailed breakdown of the errors. 3. Correct the schema markup: Update the structured data on your page to include all required properties for your schema type (e.g., Article, Product, FAQ). Ensure values match the expected format. 4. Re-publish and re-audit: Once corrections are live and your cache is cleared, run a fresh Site Audit to confirm the Rich Results errors are resolved. 💡 Tips to Prevent These Issues in the Future - Always verify changes are deployed to your live production site before running a new audit. - Set up a cache-clearing workflow as part of your deployment process so crawlers always see the latest version of your pages. - Validate structured data with Google's Rich Results Test tool before and after making schema changes. - Ensure your server's CORS headers are configured correctly as a baseline, especially if you use a CDN or third-party resource hosting. 🆘 Still Seeing the Error? If you have followed all the steps above and your Site Audit is still not reflecting your changes or continues to show CORS or Rich Results errors, 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 Audits, Promo Codes, and Account Essentials

🔍 How to Navigate to Your Site Audits Your site audits are stored under the Site Metrics (Site Explorer) section of the platform. Follow these steps to find them: 1. Log in to your Search Atlas account. 2. In the left sidebar, click Site Metrics (Site Explorer). 3. Your list of site audits and related reports will appear in this section. From Site Metrics (Site Explorer) you can also access sub-tools including Keyword Magic, Rank Tracker, and Keyword Gap — all available directly from the left sidebar under Site Metrics (Site Explorer). 🏷️ How to Apply a Promo Code If you have a promo code, you can apply it from your account billing settings. Here is how: 1. Click your account avatar or name in the top-right corner of the platform. 2. Select Billing from the dropdown menu (page title: "Billing"). 3. Look for the Promo Code or Coupon field on the billing page. 4. Enter your code exactly as provided — promo codes are case-sensitive. 5. Click Apply and confirm the discount is reflected before completing any payment. Important: Promo codes must be applied before a payment is processed. They cannot be applied retroactively to past charges. If your code is not being accepted, double-check for extra spaces or typos. 📁 Why Do I Have Saved Projects I Did Not Create? It is common to see pre-saved or example projects in your account, especially on new or trial accounts. Here are the most likely reasons: - Demo or starter projects: Search Atlas may pre-populate your account with sample projects so you can explore the platform immediately without setting everything up from scratch. - Workspace or team sharing: If your account is part of a shared workspace or was set up by an agency or team administrator, other members may have created projects that are visible to everyone in the workspace. - Previous account activity: If your account email was used in the past — for example, during a trial — any previously saved projects may still be attached to your account. If you see projects that should not be there or that you want to remove, you can delete them from within the relevant tool. Simply open the project and look for a Delete or Remove option, usually accessible via a settings icon or three-dot menu. ⚙️ General Account Management Tips Keeping your account organised helps you get the most out of Search Atlas. Here are a few best practices: - Regularly review your saved projects and delete any that are no longer relevant to keep your workspace clean. - Check your subscription plan under Billing to make sure it matches your current needs. - If you manage multiple websites, use clear and consistent project naming so audits and reports are easy to identify. - Team admins can manage user permissions and shared projects from the account settings area. 💬 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 Audit Suddenly Taking Much Longer Than Usual

🔍 What This Article Covers If your site audit is taking significantly longer than usual — for example, an hour when it normally completes in five minutes — this is called a performance regression. This is different from an audit that has always been slow. A sudden, dramatic increase in duration usually has a specific cause that can be identified and resolved. This article walks you through how to diagnose it. ⚠️ First: Confirm It Is a Regression, Not a One-Off Before investigating, confirm the pattern is real and not an isolated incident. - Check when the slow audit occurred and whether it has happened more than once recently. - Compare the current audit duration with your last three to five completed audits to establish a clear baseline. - Note whether any changes were made to your site or audit settings around the time the slowdown began. If the duration has increased consistently and significantly (more than three times your normal baseline), proceed with the steps below. 📋 Step 1: Check Whether Your Site Has Grown The most common reason for a legitimate audit slowdown is that your site now has substantially more pages to crawl than before. 1. Open Site Metrics → Site Explorer (Site Explorer) from the left sidebar. 2. Locate your domain and review the total indexed or crawled page count from your most recent audit report. 3. Compare this with historical audit reports to see whether the page count has increased significantly. A site that has grown from 200 pages to 2,000 pages will naturally take longer to audit. If this is the case, the increased duration is expected and no action is required beyond adjusting your expectations. 🛠️ Step 2: Review Your Crawl Settings Misconfigured crawl settings can cause the crawler to work much harder than necessary, dramatically increasing audit time. 1. Navigate to your site audit project settings. 2. Check the crawl limit — if it has been increased recently, the audit will take longer. 3. Check whether subdomains or external links have been enabled for crawling, as these expand the scope significantly. 4. Verify that URL patterns you do not need audited (such as pagination, filtered URLs, or staging paths) are excluded using the URL exclusion settings. Reset any settings that were changed unintentionally and re-run the audit to see whether duration returns to normal. 🌐 Step 3: Check for Site-Side Issues If your crawl settings are unchanged and your page count is the same, the slowdown may be caused by your website responding more slowly than usual to the crawler's requests. - Server response time: If your server is under heavy load or experiencing issues, every page request takes longer, multiplying across hundreds or thousands of pages. - Redirects: A sudden increase in redirect chains (for example, after a site migration or plugin update) forces the crawler to follow multiple hops per URL. - JavaScript rendering: If JavaScript rendering has been enabled in your audit settings and your site recently added heavy JavaScript pages, crawl time increases substantially. - New redirect loops: Even a small number of pages caught in redirect loops can stall the crawler and inflate total audit time. To check for these issues, run an independent speed test on your site (such as Google PageSpeed Insights or a server uptime monitor) and review your site's recent change log or deployment history for anything that may have affected response times or URL structure. 🔄 Step 4: Cancel the Stuck Audit and Re-Run If the audit has been running for an unusually long time with no sign of completing, it may have stalled rather than simply being slow. In this case: 1. Cancel the current audit run from within your site audit project. 2. Wait two to three minutes before starting a new run. 3. Monitor the new run for the first few minutes to confirm pages are being processed at a normal rate. A stalled audit is different from a slow one — stalled audits show little or no progress in page count over a long period. Re-running typically resolves this. 📊 Step 5: Compare Audit Reports for Clues Your completed audit reports contain information that can help identify what changed. 1. Open your most recent completed audit report and note the total URLs crawled, total issues found, and any high volumes of specific issue types such as redirect chains or server errors. 2. Compare these figures with a report from before the slowdown began. 3. A spike in 3xx redirects, 5xx server errors, or total URL count between reports is a strong indicator of what is causing the increased duration. ✅ Quick Reference: Common Causes and Fixes - Page count increased: Expected — audit takes longer as your site grows. - Crawl limit raised in settings: Lower it back to your previous value. - Subdomains or external links enabled: Disable if not needed. - Server slowdown or high load: Investigate with your hosting provider and re-run when resolved. - Recent site migration or URL restructure: Review and fix redirect chains. - Audit stalled rather than slow: Cancel and re-run the audit. 💬 Still Seeing Unusually Long Audit Times? If you have worked through all the steps above and your audit is still taking much longer than your normal baseline, our team can investigate whether there is a system-level issue affecting your project. 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 Site Auditor False Positive Redirect Flags

🧭 Overview Some customers notice that Site Auditor raises two specific issues even when their website redirects are correctly configured: - HTTP doesn't redirect to HTTPS - Protocol/WWW variants don't redirect to the same place These flags are false positives — meaning your redirects are working as expected, but the auditor has incorrectly marked them as errors. This article explains why this happens and what steps you can take to resolve it and recover your Site Health points. ⚠️ Why These False Positives Occur Site Auditor checks your site's redirect behaviour by testing several URL variants, including: - http://yourdomain.com - http://www.yourdomain.com - https://yourdomain.com - https://www.yourdomain.com In some cases, the auditor may not correctly confirm that all variants resolve to the same canonical destination, and flags the redirects as broken — even if they are functioning correctly. This is a known detection limitation and does not mean your site has an actual SEO problem. ✅ How to Confirm Your Redirects Are Correct Before taking any action inside Search Atlas, verify your redirects are properly set up using an external tool. This rules out a genuine configuration issue on your end. 1. Go to a free redirect checker such as httpstatus.io or redirect-checker.org. 2. Test all four URL variants listed above for your domain. 3. Confirm that each variant returns a 301 redirect leading to your preferred canonical URL (typically https://www.yourdomain.com or https://yourdomain.com). 4. Make sure all variants ultimately land on the same final destination. If your external redirect test passes cleanly, the flags in Site Auditor are confirmed false positives and the steps below will resolve them. 🔄 How to Clear the False Positive Flags The most reliable way to resolve false positive redirect flags is to trigger a fresh crawl of your site. Follow these steps: 1. Log in to your Search Atlas account. 2. In the left sidebar, go to OTTO SEO → Site Audit. 3. Initiate a new crawl of your site using the crawl option available within Site Auditor. 4. Wait for the crawl to complete — this can take a few minutes depending on your site size. 5. Once the crawl finishes, return to your Site Health report and check whether the two redirect flags have been cleared. In most cases, a fresh crawl is enough to resolve these false positive flags and restore your Site Health score. If the flags persist after re-crawling, please escalate so our team can investigate further. When reaching out, have the following ready: your project name, the exact flag names shown in Site Auditor, and a screenshot or export of your external redirect checker results. 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 Cloudflare Blocking Your Shopify Site Audit

🧭 Overview If your Site Audit crawl has been running for an extended period with little or no progress, your site is likely stalled, not just slow. On Shopify stores, a common cause is Cloudflare blocking Search Atlas crawl requests before they reach your site. This article helps you confirm the root cause and take the right next steps. ⚠️ Slow Crawl vs. Stalled Crawl: Know the Difference - Slow crawl (normal): Pages are being discovered and audited gradually. Progress increments over time. Large sites with many pages can take several days. - Stalled crawl (problem): The crawl shows little or no progress over an extended period. The page count stays frozen or advances by only a handful of pages per day. This is a blocking issue, not a size issue. If your crawl has been running for a prolonged period with minimal progress, proceed through the steps below in order. Do not skip to sitemap fixes — if Cloudflare is blocking the crawler, sitemap changes will have no effect. 🔍 Step 1: Confirm Cloudflare Is Active on Your Shopify Store 1. Visit your Shopify store URL and open your browser's developer tools (F12 → Network tab). 2. Look for response headers containing cf-ray or server: cloudflare. If present, Cloudflare is active on your domain. 3. Alternatively, check your DNS or hosting settings to confirm whether your domain is proxied through Cloudflare. If Cloudflare is confirmed active, continue to Step 2 before doing anything else. 🛡️ Step 2: Configure Cloudflare to Allow Search Atlas Crawler Requests Cloudflare's bot protection and firewall rules can silently block automated crawlers, returning errors or empty responses that stall your audit. You will need to configure Cloudflare to allow the Search Atlas crawler through. 1. Log in to your Cloudflare account and select your domain. 2. Review your active security and bot-protection rules to identify any that may be blocking or challenging automated crawl requests. 3. Contact our support team to obtain the current list of Search Atlas crawler IPs and guidance on how to create the appropriate allow rules for your specific Cloudflare configuration. 4. Once the rules are in place, return to Search Atlas and restart your Site Audit crawl to verify that progress resumes. 📋 What to Have Ready When Contacting Support If you are unsure which settings to change, or if the crawl remains stalled after reviewing your Cloudflare configuration, please have the following information ready so our team can assist you efficiently: - Your project name in Search Atlas - Your Shopify store URL - Confirmation that Cloudflare is active on the domain (e.g., cf-ray header present) - A description of how long the crawl has been stalled and approximately how many pages have been audited - Any error messages or unusual response codes you have observed 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 Site Audit Projects Locked by OTTO

🔍 Overview If you are trying to delete a Site Audit project — such as canary or armbarmarketing — and the option is greyed out or unavailable, the most common cause is an active OTTO pixel linkage. Even if you are not actively using OTTO on that site, the pixel connection still ties the project to OTTO SEO and prevents deletion. This article explains why this happens and walks you through the steps to resolve it. ⚙️ Why OTTO Pixel Linkage Blocks Deletion Search Atlas links each Site Audit project to OTTO SEO when the OTTO pixel is deployed on that domain. This connection allows OTTO to continuously read site data and push optimisations. Because the two tools share a live data relationship, the platform protects the Site Audit project from accidental deletion while that link is in place — even if OTTO is not actively running tasks on the site. This means you cannot delete the Site Audit project directly. You must disconnect the OTTO pixel first, which breaks the linkage and makes the project deletable. 🚀 How to Disconnect the OTTO Pixel 1. In the left sidebar, click OTTO SEO, then open SEO Automation (URL: /seo-automation-v3). 2. Locate the site you want to unlink — for example, canary or armbarmarketing. 3. Open the site's OTTO settings and find the pixel or domain connection option. 4. Select Disconnect or Remove Pixel to sever the link between OTTO and the Site Audit project. 5. Confirm the disconnection when prompted. Once the pixel is disconnected, return to Site Audit and the delete option for that project will become available. 🗑️ How to Delete the Site Audit Project 1. Navigate to Site Metrics → Site Explorer (Site Explorer) in the left sidebar (URL: /site-explorer/list). 2. Locate the project you want to remove from the list. 3. Click the three-dot menu or settings icon next to the project name. 4. Select Delete Project and confirm your choice. The project will be permanently removed and that slot will immediately count toward your available capacity. 📊 Understanding the 5-Project Cap Search Atlas allows a maximum of 5 active Site Audit projects per account on standard plans. Each project — whether actively crawling or idle — occupies one slot. Projects with an OTTO pixel linkage cannot be deleted without first disconnecting OTTO, which is why customers sometimes find themselves stuck at the cap with projects they no longer need. To free up slots quickly, follow this order: - Step 1: Identify all projects you no longer need by reviewing your project list in Site Explorer. - Step 2: For each unwanted project, check whether it has an OTTO pixel connected via the OTTO SEO V3 section. - Step 3: Disconnect any active OTTO pixel links before attempting deletion. - Step 4: Delete the project from Site Explorer once the link is cleared. 💡 Tips to Avoid This Issue in Future - When you stop using OTTO on a domain, disconnect the pixel immediately rather than leaving the linkage in place. - Before adding a new Site Audit project, audit your existing projects to confirm all slots are in active use. - If you manage client sites that have ended, remove their OTTO connections as part of your offboarding process. 🆘 Still Need Help? If you have followed the steps above and are still unable to delete a project, or if the disconnect option is not appearing as expected, our team is ready to assist. If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

🛠️ Site Auditor Error Banner Link Fixed

A bug affecting the Site Auditor error banner has been resolved. The help link displayed when a site audit gets stuck was incorrectly exposing SearchAtlas branding to white-label platform users, which has now been fixed. ✨ What's New The help link inside the Site Auditor error banner — shown when a site audit appears stuck — has been corrected. Previously, this link was routing users to a resource that revealed SearchAtlas branding, breaking the white-label experience for GHL platform users. The link now behaves as expected and maintains a consistent, branded experience. 📋 What to Expect If you encounter an error banner in the Site Auditor indicating that your audit is stuck, the help link will now direct you to the appropriate support resource without exposing any unintended branding. No action is required on your end — the fix has been applied automatically. This change only affects users on the GHL white-label platform who previously saw the error banner. 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 Specific Site Audit SEO Issues by Page

🗺️ How to Navigate to a Specific Issue Every flagged item in the Site Audit links directly to the affected page and issue type. To reach the fix view, open the Site Audit report, click the issue count next to any category, then click an individual URL to see all issues flagged for that page. Use the sections below to act on each issue type once you land there. 🧩 Schema Markup Issues Schema errors tell search engines your structured data is incomplete or invalid, which can prevent rich results from appearing. 1. Missing schema: Identify the page type (article, product, FAQ, local business). Add the matching JSON-LD block inside a <script type="application/ld+json"> tag in the <head>. Use schema.org for the required properties for each type. 2. Invalid or incomplete schema: Copy your existing JSON-LD into Google's Rich Results Test. Fix every property marked as missing or incorrect, then re-validate before republishing. 3. Duplicate schema blocks: Remove all but one JSON-LD block of the same type per page. Duplicates cause parsing conflicts and can suppress rich results. 🖼️ Image Optimization Issues Unoptimized images slow page load and miss accessibility signals that search engines use for ranking. 1. Missing alt text: Add a descriptive alt attribute to every <img> tag. Example — Before:<img src="shoe.jpg"> | After:<img src="shoe.jpg" alt="Red running shoe with white sole">. Keep alt text under 125 characters and avoid keyword stuffing. 2. Oversized file size: Compress images to under 150 KB where possible. Use WebP format instead of PNG or JPEG. Tools like Squoosh or ShortPixel can batch-compress your library without visible quality loss. 3. Missing width and height attributes: Add explicit width and height values to every <img> tag to prevent Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), which directly impacts Core Web Vitals scores. 📝 Page Title Issues Page titles are one of the highest-impact on-page SEO elements. Search Atlas flags titles that are too short, too long, missing, or duplicated. 1. Title too long (over 60 characters): Trim the title so the primary keyword appears within the first 60 characters. Everything beyond roughly 580 px of rendered width is truncated in search results. 2. Title too short (under 30 characters): Expand the title to include your primary keyword and a secondary modifier or brand name. A strong structure is: Primary Keyword – Secondary Modifier | Brand. 3. Missing title tag: Add a <title> tag inside the <head> of the page. Every page must have exactly one unique title tag. 4. Duplicate titles: Open Content → Meta Generator in the left sidebar to generate unique, keyword-targeted titles for each affected URL at scale. 🔗 Link Issues Link issues split into two categories: broken links that return errors and internal linking gaps that limit crawl depth and authority flow. 1. Broken internal or external links (4xx/5xx): Click the flagged URL in the Site Audit to see the exact broken link and the page it lives on. Fix internal broken links by updating the href to the correct destination URL, or redirect the broken target with a 301. For broken external links, replace them with a working equivalent or remove them entirely. 2. Orphaned pages (no internal links pointing to them): Navigate to Content → On-Page Audit in the left sidebar, enter the orphaned page's URL, and use the internal linking suggestions to find contextually relevant pages on your site that should link to it. Add those links in your CMS. 3. Low internal link count: Use the Page Explorer integration inside the Site Audit to identify high-authority pages on your domain. Add contextual anchor-text links from those pages to the under-linked URL, prioritising anchors that include the target page's primary keyword. ⚡ Technical Performance Issues Technical issues affect page speed and crawlability. The two most common flags are render-blocking resources and uncompressed assets. 1. CSS and JavaScript not minified: Enable minification in your CMS or build tool. In WordPress, plugins such as WP Rocket or NitroPack handle this automatically. In custom builds, add a minification step to your deployment pipeline (e.g., using Terser for JS and CSSNano for CSS). After enabling, re-run the Site Audit to confirm the flag clears. 2. Compression not enabled (Gzip/Brotli): Enable Gzip or Brotli compression at the server or CDN level. For Apache, add mod_deflate rules to your .htaccess. For Nginx, set gzip on; in your config. Most CDNs (Cloudflare, Fastly) offer a one-click compression toggle in their dashboard. 3. Render-blocking resources: Move non-critical CSS to load asynchronously and add defer or async attributes to non-essential JavaScript tags so they do not block the initial page render. 🎨 Inline Style Issues Inline styles (style attributes written directly on HTML elements) bloat page HTML, make maintenance harder, and can conflict with your site's CSS cascade. 1. Search your page's source for style=" to locate all inline declarations. 2. Move each style rule into your external stylesheet, assigning a class or ID to the element instead. 3. Before:<p style="color: red; font-size: 14px;"> | After:<p class="note-text"> with .note-text { color: red; font-size: 14px; } in your CSS file. 4. If your CMS page builder injects inline styles automatically, switch to a CSS custom properties or theme settings approach within the builder to keep styling out of the HTML markup. ✅ Verifying Your Fixes After making changes, return to the Site Audit and click Recrawl on the affected project. Once the crawl completes, open the same issue category and confirm the flagged URLs no longer appear. For titles and meta descriptions, you can also use Content → Meta Generator to audit and update metadata in bulk before re-crawling. 💬 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.

🔍 Find Your Site Audit ID and Blog Site ID

🗺️ Overview Two identifiers are commonly needed when troubleshooting or integrating Search Atlas data: the Site Audit ID (also called a crawl batch ID) and the Blog Site ID. This article explains what each one is and how to retrieve them with help from the Search Atlas team. 📋 What Are These IDs? - Site Audit ID / Crawl Batch ID: A unique identifier assigned to each crawl run performed on your domain. Every time Search Atlas audits your site, a new batch ID is generated. - Blog Site ID: A persistent identifier linked to a specific domain registered under your Search Atlas account. It remains the same across crawl sessions. 🔍 How to Retrieve Your Blog Site ID and Site Audit ID The Blog Site ID and Site Audit ID (Crawl Batch ID) are internal identifiers associated with your domain inside Search Atlas. To retrieve the correct IDs for your domain, contact our support team via the chat widget. When you do, have the following information ready so we can locate your IDs as quickly as possible: - The exact domain name you need the IDs for (for example, example.com). - Your Search Atlas account name. - The approximate date of the crawl session if you need a specific Site Audit ID (Crawl Batch ID). 📊 About Crawl Batch IDs Each time Search Atlas audits your site, a new Crawl Batch ID is generated for that session. If you need the ID for a specific crawl run, providing the date of that crawl when you contact support will help the team identify the correct batch quickly. Note: Crawl batches are typically generated automatically on your set schedule, or manually when you trigger a new audit. If you do not see evidence of a crawl for a given day, a new audit may not have been initiated yet. 💡 Quick Reference: What to Have Ready - Blog Site ID: Provide your domain name and account name to support — they will supply the ID. - Site Audit ID / Crawl Batch ID: Provide your domain name, account name, and the crawl date to support — they will supply the specific batch ID. 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 Developer-Level Site Audit Issues

What the Site Audit Checks The Search Atlas Site Audit scans your website for technical SEO problems across more than 80 categories, including crawlability, indexability, page speed, structured data, broken links, meta tags, and mobile usability. When the scan is complete, you receive a detailed report that flags every issue found, organized by severity and category. Some issues can be resolved directly within your content management system or through Search Atlas tools like OTTO SEO. Others involve the underlying code, server configuration, or architecture of your website — and those typically require a web developer to fix. Why Some Issues Need a Developer Search Atlas is a diagnostic and optimization platform. It can identify problems and, in many cases, apply fixes automatically through AI-driven tools. However, certain issues are rooted in areas that Search Atlas does not have the ability to modify: - Server configuration — redirect rules, .htaccess files, nginx settings, and response headers - Site architecture — URL structure, canonical tag logic, and faceted navigation - Custom-coded themes or plugins — hand-built templates, proprietary CMS setups, and legacy code - JavaScript rendering — client-side content that search engines struggle to crawl - Database-level problems — duplicate content generation, parameter-based URLs, and pagination logic In short, Search Atlas can tell you exactly what is wrong and why it matters for SEO, but applying the fix in these categories requires someone with access to your site's codebase or hosting environment. What Search Atlas CAN Fix Automatically Many common SEO issues do not require a developer. Search Atlas and OTTO SEO can address a wide range of on-page and technical optimizations, including: - Meta titles, meta descriptions, and header tag optimization - Internal linking suggestions and automated linking - Content gaps, keyword optimization, and topical coverage - Schema and structured data markup (in supported CMS environments) - XML sitemap generation and submission - Robots.txt recommendations If you are using OTTO SEO, many of these fixes are applied automatically as part of your ongoing optimization workflow. How to See Page-Specific Issue Details Every audit report in Search Atlas breaks issues down to the individual page level — not just a general summary. Here is how to find the specific pages affected: 1. Open your most recent Site Audit report. 2. Select any issue category from the report. 3. You will see a detailed list showing every specific URL affected by that issue, along with the detected problem for each page. When you encounter an issue that requires a developer, share the specific page-level details from your audit report with your development team so they have the exact URLs and issue descriptions needed to implement the fix. 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 Site Audit Failures After Hosting Migration

🔍 Overview After migrating your website to a new host, you may notice that Site Audits inside Search Atlas repeatedly fail. This article explains why this happens and what to have ready when contacting our team so the issue can be resolved as quickly as possible. ⚠️ Why This Happens A hosting migration changes several technical details about your site — including its IP address, DNS records, SSL certificate, and server response behaviour. These changes can prevent Search Atlas's audit pipeline from completing successfully, resulting in postprocessing failures and, in some cases, quota consumption without a completed report being produced. ✅ What to Check Before Escalating 1. Confirm your site is publicly reachable. Open a browser in a private/incognito window and navigate to your domain. If the site does not load, the issue is with your hosting setup — resolve DNS propagation or SSL errors with your hosting provider before contacting us, as Search Atlas cannot audit a site that is not publicly accessible. 2. Check for redirects on your root URL. After a migration, root domains sometimes temporarily redirect to a staging URL or return a non-200 status code. Verify that your homepage is loading correctly for external visitors before re-running any audit. 3. Do not repeatedly re-trigger audits while the issue persists. Running multiple audits in quick succession while the underlying connectivity problem is unresolved may result in additional quota consumption without producing output. Wait until your site is confirmed publicly reachable before attempting another audit run. 📋 What to Have Ready When You Contact Support Because this type of failure requires a backend investigation by our engineering team, please gather the following information before reaching out: - The exact project name and domain affected - The approximate date and time the migration took place - The approximate date and time the failed audit was triggered - Any error messages or status indicators you can see within the platform - Confirmation of whether your site is now publicly reachable (and when it became reachable, if it was temporarily down) Having this information ready will allow our team to investigate the backend failure and, where applicable, review any quota consumed during the failed audit. 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.

🔍 View Site Auditor How to Fix Details

🧭 Where Your Site Audit Lives All site audit data is accessed through the OTTO SEO section of Search Atlas. Start by navigating to Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → All Sites and clicking your project card. This opens your project's audit dashboard, where you can review crawl results and flagged issues across the Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → Site Audit → Overview (Website Overview) and Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → Site Audit → Page Explorer screens. 🐛 How to Find Your Flagged Issues The Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → Site Audit → Overview (Website Overview) screen is your starting point for reviewing all issues detected during the most recent crawl. Issues are grouped by severity into three categories: Errors, Warnings, and Notices. Each category lists every issue type found, together with the number of affected pages. ✅ How to Access 'How to Fix' Details The How to Fix guidance is not visible at the category level — you must click into a specific issue to reveal it. Follow these steps: 1. Go to Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → All Sites and open your project card. 2. Navigate to Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → Site Audit → Overview (Website Overview) to see the full issues list. 3. Expand the relevant severity category (Errors, Warnings, or Notices) if it is collapsed. 4. Click the specific issue name — for example, Missing Meta Descriptions or Broken Internal Links — not the category header. 5. A detail panel will open showing three sections: About (an explanation of the issue), How to Fix (step-by-step remediation instructions), and Affected Pages (every URL impacted). 6. Read the How to Fix section and work through the Affected Pages list to identify which URLs need to be updated. 📄 Investigating Issues by URL in Page Explorer If you prefer to see all issues on a specific page rather than all pages with a specific issue, use the Page Explorer. Navigate to Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → Site Audit → Page Explorer, search for or select the URL you want to inspect, and a full list of flagged issues for that page will appear. Clicking any issue in this view also surfaces its How to Fix guidance. ⚠️ Common Reasons 'How to Fix' Is Not Visible If the How to Fix section is not appearing, check the following: - You clicked a category header, not an individual issue. Expand the category and click the specific issue name underneath it to open the detail panel. - The crawl is still running. Issue details only fully populate after the crawl finishes. Check progress at Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → Site Audit → Crawl Monitoring and wait for the status to show as complete before reviewing results. - The issue shows zero affected pages. If no pages are impacted, there are no fix details to display — your site passes that particular check. - A stale browser cache. Perform a hard refresh with Ctrl + Shift + R (Windows) or Cmd + Shift + R (Mac), or open the platform in a private or incognito window. 🔄 Verifying Your Fixes After Making Changes Once you have applied the recommended fixes to your site, trigger a new crawl to confirm the issues are resolved. From Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → Site Audit → Overview (Website Overview), click the Re-crawl button. After the crawl finishes, return to the same issue and confirm the affected page count has dropped. You can monitor crawl progress in real time at Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → Site Audit → Crawl Monitoring. 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 Delete Frozen OTTO and Site Auditor Projects

If your account was downgraded or a subscription lapsed, one or more of your OTTO or Site Auditor projects may appear as frozen. These projects still occupy a plan slot but cannot be used. Deleting them frees those slots so you can create new, active projects. ❄️ What Is a Frozen Project? A project becomes frozen when your current plan no longer includes enough slots to cover all existing projects — typically after a downgrade or cancellation. Frozen projects remain visible in your dashboard but are completely inactive. They count against your slot limit and will not unfreeze on their own. Note: In some cases a frozen OTTO project may also be in a deep-frozen state — for example, if it is still linked to an active OTTO client. Deep-frozen projects cannot be deleted through the dashboard at this time. If you attempt to delete a frozen project and receive an error, or if the project does not have a delete option, please contact support via the chat widget (see below). 🗑️ How to Delete a Frozen OTTO Project 1. Open OTTO SEO from the left sidebar in your Search Atlas dashboard (Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → All Sites). 2. Locate the frozen project in your OTTO project list. 3. Click the three-dot menu (⋮) on the project card. 4. Select Delete Project or Remove Site. 5. Confirm the deletion when prompted. After deletion, the freed slot may take up to 24 hours to reflect in your quota count. If your slot count does not update right away, refresh the page and allow up to 24 hours for the change to fully process. 🔍 How to Delete a Frozen Site Auditor Project 1. Go to Site Auditor in the left sidebar (Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → All Sites). 2. Find the frozen project in your project list. 3. Click the kebab menu (⋮) or the project settings icon. 4. Select Delete or Remove. 5. Confirm the deletion when prompted. After deletion, the freed slot may take up to 24 hours to reflect in your quota count. ⚠️ Important: What Happens After Deletion - Deletion is permanent. All audit history, OTTO deployments, suggestions, and configuration are gone and cannot be restored. - OTTO changes on your live website are not automatically removed. If OTTO deployed schema markup or NLP modules to your site, those changes remain live until you remove them manually — by uninstalling the WordPress plugin or deleting the OTTO JavaScript snippet from your site's code. - Frozen projects will not unfreeze on their own. To keep a project without deleting it, you must upgrade to a plan that supports the additional slot. - Slot counts may take up to 24 hours to update in your dashboard after deletion. This is a known platform delay; a page refresh may show the updated count sooner, but full propagation can take up to 24 hours. - Some frozen projects cannot be deleted from the dashboard. If a frozen project is linked to an active OTTO client (deep-frozen state), the delete option may be unavailable or return an error. Contact our support team using the chat widget below to have the slot manually freed. 💬 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.

🔍 Tracking Pixels in Site Audit Alt Text Tasks

🧩 Why Tracking Pixels (Usually) Don't Appear in Alt Text Tasks Site Audit builds alt-text tasks from the <img> elements it finds on each crawled page. Images are analyzed as part of the page that hosts them — they are never crawled or audited as separate URLs. Before an image is stored, two automatic filters run: - Known tracking-pixel URLs are skipped — including bat.bing.com, Facebook pixel URLs, Google Analytics collection URLs, and DoubleClick domains. - Tiny images are skipped — images declared as 0×0 or 1×1 never become alt-text tasks. Because of this, the common tracking pixels should never reach your alt-text task list. If your list is still filling up with third-party images, they are pixels the automatic filter does not recognize yet. 🎯 What This Means for Your SEO Score When unrecognized pixels dominate your missing-alt-text task list, two problems occur: - Your overall SEO score appears lower than it actually is for real content. - Your team wastes time reviewing non-actionable items instead of fixing genuine image accessibility issues. Clearing them out lets the audit surface only the images that truly need your attention. 🛠️ What Actually Works — and What Doesn't What doesn't work: adding the pixel's domain (for example bat.bing.com) to the Site Audit URL exclusions list. URL exclusions are matched against the URLs of your own pages — they never match the source of an image embedded in a page — so an external image domain in that list has no effect on image tasks. What works: 1. Delete or ignore the individual tasks. This is the fastest option. Note that if the image is still not recognized as a tracker, the same task can reappear after the next recrawl. 2. Exclude the hosting page — only when that page itself is low-value (for example a thank-you or confirmation page loaded with pixels). In OTTO SEO → Site Audit → All Audits, click the ⋮ menu on your site's row, select Crawl Settings, and add a URL exclusion matching that page's path. This removes all analysis for that page, not just its images, so use it only for pages you do not want audited anyway. 3. Report a recurring unrecognized pixel to our support team. Search Atlas maintains an internal tracker filter, and a new pixel pattern can be added there so it is skipped for every site — this is the durable fix. ✅ Best Practices for Managing Alt Text Tasks - Prioritise content images first: sort remaining tasks by page priority or organic traffic to fix the highest-impact images first. - Review after tag deployments: new marketing or analytics tools can inject images the filter doesn't know yet. Check your alt-text task list after major tag changes. - Use descriptive alt text: for real images that are flagged, write concise, keyword-relevant descriptions that reflect both the image content and the page topic. ⚠️ Important Considerations - Third-party alone does not exempt an image. A real <img> element with real dimensions that is not on the tracker list can be legitimately flagged — in that case the correct fix is to give it proper alt text, not to suppress the task. - Tag-manager scripts are handled separately. Pixels injected purely by JavaScript are not <img> elements in the crawled HTML, so they do not produce image tasks at all. 💬 Need Further Help? If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team. Additional Notes After a recrawl, deleted tasks for an unrecognized pixel may return — that repetition is the signal to report the pixel pattern to support so it can be added to the internal tracker filter.

🔄 Syncing Site Audit with OTTO and Search Atlas Changes

🧭 Overview Site Audit and OTTO are two separate tools that collect and display data differently. If you have made changes inside Search Atlas or applied OTTO optimizations but your Site Audit still shows the same errors after several days, it does not mean the tool is broken. It means a few important steps may be missing before those changes can appear in your audit results. This article explains how Site Audit and OTTO work together, what causes the disconnect, and exactly what to do to get your audit results up to date — including resolving Google Rich Results errors and CORS policy errors. 🔍 Why Site Audit and OTTO Show Different Results Site Audit crawls your live website to detect technical issues. It reads what is actually published and accessible on your domain at the time of the crawl. OTTO, on the other hand, generates and stages optimizations inside Search Atlas. OTTO changes are not live on your website until you explicitly publish them. If optimizations remain in a staged or draft state, your live site is unchanged, and Site Audit will continue to report the same errors it found on the previous crawl. This is the most common reason customers see no improvement in Site Audit results after working in OTTO for multiple days. ✅ Step 1 — Confirm Your OTTO Changes Are Published 1. Go to Left sidebar → OTTO SEO → SEO Automation (URL: /seo-automation-v3). 2. Review your list of OTTO optimizations and check the status of each item. 3. Any optimization showing a staged, pending, or draft status has not been pushed to your live site yet. 4. Select the optimizations you want to apply and click Publish (or the equivalent deploy action shown in the UI). 5. Wait for confirmation that the changes have been successfully pushed before moving to the next step. Important: Skipping this step means your live website never received the changes. Site Audit will keep reporting the same issues no matter how many times it recrawls. 🕷️ Step 2 — Trigger a New Site Audit Crawl Site Audit does not automatically detect that changes were made. After you have confirmed your OTTO optimizations are published to your live site, you must manually start a new crawl so the audit can pick up the updated state of your pages. 1. Navigate to your Site Audit dashboard inside Search Atlas. 2. Locate the project for the domain you updated. 3. Use the available option in the interface to launch a fresh crawl for that project. 4. Wait for the crawl to complete. Depending on the size of your site, this may take several minutes to a few hours. 5. Once the crawl finishes, review the updated results. Previously flagged errors that were correctly fixed should now be resolved. 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 Site Audit Is Taking Long

🕐 What Is a Normal Audit Duration? Most site audits complete within 10–45 minutes for small to medium static sites, with sites of a few dozen to a few hundred pages often finishing in 5–15 minutes. Large static sites with several thousand URLs typically take 1–3 hours, while JavaScript-rendered crawls usually take 12–24 hours (longer for very large sites). 📋 Common Reasons an Audit Takes Longer If your audit is taking significantly longer than usual — for example, an hour instead of five minutes — one or more of the following factors is likely the cause: - Large site size: Websites with a high number of pages, subdomains, or deeply nested URL structures require more time to fully crawl. - Slow server response times: If your web server responds slowly to requests, the crawler must wait longer at each page, extending the overall crawl time. - Crawl budget limits: Some servers throttle or rate-limit automated crawlers. Search Atlas respects these limits to avoid impacting your site's performance, which can slow the audit down. - Redirects and redirect chains: A high volume of redirects — especially chains of three or more hops — adds processing time at each URL. - JavaScript-heavy pages: Sites that rely heavily on client-side JavaScript rendering require additional processing per page. - Temporary server or network issues: Intermittent connectivity problems on your hosting provider's side can cause the crawler to pause and retry multiple times. - First-time or re-configured audit: If this is the first audit for a domain, or if settings were recently changed, the system performs a more thorough baseline crawl which takes longer. ✅ What You Can Do Right Now 1. Wait for the audit to complete. A longer crawl is not necessarily a failed one. If the progress indicator is still moving, the audit is still running. Give it additional time before taking action. 2. Check your site's availability. Open your website in a browser and confirm pages are loading normally. A site that is down or returning errors will cause the crawler to retry repeatedly. 3. Review your crawl settings. Navigate to your audit settings and confirm the crawl depth and page limit are appropriate for your site size. Reducing the crawl depth can significantly speed up future audits. 4. Avoid running multiple audits simultaneously. Triggering a new audit while one is already in progress can cause delays or conflicts. Wait for the current audit to finish first. 🔄 When to Restart an Audit If the audit has shown no progress for more than 60 minutes and your site is confirmed to be online and responsive, it is safe to cancel the current audit and start a new one. Note that audits stalled for more than 60 minutes are automatically detected and re-queued, and on a standard-sized site an audit still processing after 24–48 hours may be stuck. Use the same crawl configuration to ensure consistent results. 📊 Checking Site Health After the Audit Once your audit completes, you can review the full results under Left sidebar → Site Metrics (Site Explorer). This section gives you an overview of technical issues, page health scores, and crawl data that can help explain any slowdowns — such as a high number of redirect chains or server errors discovered during the crawl. 💡 Tips to Keep Future Audits Fast - Set a reasonable page crawl limit that matches your site's actual size. - Fix redirect chains — aim for direct 301 redirects with no more than one hop. - Ensure your robots.txt file is not accidentally blocking pages you want audited. - Keep your hosting server response time under 200ms where possible. - Schedule audits during off-peak traffic hours to avoid server throttling. 🛠️ Still Seeing Unusually Long Audits? If your audit consistently takes far longer than expected even after applying the steps above, our team can investigate whether there is a platform-side issue or a specific configuration problem with your domain. If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

🔍 Site Auditor: How to Find Newly Added Audits

🤔 Why your new audit does not appear When you add URLs and start a new site audit, the audit is created and begins processing correctly — but it is added to the bottom of your All Audits list, not the top. If you have several existing audits, the new one may not be visible without scrolling or loading more results. 📍 How to find your audit 1. Go to OTTO SEO → Site Audit in the left sidebar of your Search Atlas dashboard 2. On the All Audits page, scroll to the bottom of the list 3. Click Load More to reveal additional audits 4. Your new audit will appear at the bottom of the expanded list The All Audits page also has a sort control shown as Sorting: Recently Added. It is easy to overlook because it does not look interactive, but you can use it to reorder the list and help bring your most recent audit into view. An update to this page is in development to make the sort control more discoverable and to surface common actions (such as Recrawl and Crawl Settings) directly on each audit card. ⏳ The audit is still processing Newly created audits may show a processing or crawling status while Search Atlas scans your URLs. This is normal and can take a few minutes depending on the size of your site. 🆘 Still cannot find it? If the audit does not appear even after clicking Load More and waiting a few minutes, it is possible it was never created because the URL failed a pre-audit validation check. When validation fails, the Create Site Audit modal normally shows a red alert box describing the problem — for example the site being unreachable, a bad SSL certificate, or the homepage redirecting to an external domain. Note that some validation failures — such as a blocked (non-public) domain or a site that returns an HTTP error — may currently fail without an on-screen message; clearer messaging for these cases is in development. If a brand-new audit never appears, confirm the URL is publicly accessible, online, and returns no errors, then try creating it again. If you still cannot locate the audit, contact support with the URL you submitted and the date/time you created the audit.

🔍 Fix Hidden H1, Open Graph, and Alt Text Issues

🧭 Overview When Search Atlas audits your website, it flags on-page issues that can quietly hurt your search rankings. Three of the most common — hidden H1 tags, missing Open Graph tags, and missing image alt text — are easy to misunderstand but straightforward to fix. This article explains what each issue means, why it matters, and how to resolve it. 🔄 How to Run a New Site Analysis Before reviewing any issues, make sure your audit data is up to date. Follow these steps to run a fresh analysis: 1. Log in to Search Atlas and open the Site Auditor from the left-hand navigation. 2. Select the project you want to audit, or add a new one by entering your domain. 3. Click Run New Analysis in the top-right corner of the dashboard. 4. Wait for the crawl to complete — this typically takes a few minutes depending on site size. 5. Once finished, your updated results will appear automatically in the Issues tab. Re-running an analysis after making fixes is the best way to confirm that issues have been resolved. 🏷️ What Is a Hidden H1 Tag — and Is It Good for SEO? An H1 tag is the main heading on a webpage. Search engines treat it as a strong signal for what the page is about. A hidden H1 means the tag exists in the page's HTML code but is not visible to users — for example, it may be styled with display: none, visibility: hidden, or positioned off-screen. Is a hidden H1 effective for SEO? No — and it can be harmful. Here is why: - Google's guidelines discourage hiding content from users while serving it to search engines. This is considered a deceptive practice and can trigger a manual penalty. - If users cannot see your H1, it does not help them understand your page, which can increase bounce rates. - A visible, well-written H1 reinforces your page's topic for both users and search engines. To fix this issue, make your H1 tag fully visible on the page. Update its CSS so it is displayed normally and positioned within the page content. Every page should have exactly one visible H1 that clearly describes the page topic. 📣 What Are Open Graph Tags and Why Do They Matter? Open Graph (OG) tags are snippets of code placed in your page's <head> section. They control how your content appears when shared on social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and X (formerly Twitter). When Open Graph tags are missing, social platforms will attempt to guess the title, description, and image for your page — often with poor results. This can lead to unappealing link previews that reduce click-through rates from social media. The most important Open Graph tags to add are: - og:title — The title of the page as it should appear in a share preview. - og:description — A short summary of the page content (recommended: 150–160 characters). - og:image — A URL to the image that should appear in the preview (recommended size: 1200 × 630 pixels). - og:url — The canonical URL of the page. To fix missing Open Graph tags, add them to the <head> section of each affected page. If you use WordPress, plugins such as Yoast SEO or Rank Math can add these tags automatically. On other platforms, consult your theme or developer documentation for how to add custom meta tags. 🖼️ What Is Missing Image Alt Text and How Do I Fix It? Alt text (alternative text) is a short written description added to an image's HTML tag using the alt attribute. For example: <img src="team-photo.jpg" alt="Search Atlas team at the 2024 conference">. Missing alt text matters for two key reasons: - Accessibility: Screen readers used by visually impaired users rely on alt text to describe images. Missing alt text makes your site harder to use for these visitors. - SEO: Search engines cannot see images — they read alt text to understand what an image shows. Descriptive alt text helps your images appear in Google Image Search and reinforces your page's topic. To fix missing alt text: 1. In Search Atlas, go to the Issues tab and filter by Missing Alt Text to see all affected images. 2. Click on any flagged URL to see which images are missing alt text on that page. 3. Open your CMS (for example, WordPress Media Library) and add a concise, descriptive alt text to each image. 4. Avoid keyword stuffing — write naturally, as if describing the image to someone who cannot see it. 5. Leave the alt attribute empty (alt="") only for purely decorative images that add no informational value. ✅ Quick Summary - Hidden H1: Make it visible — hiding headings from users violates Google's guidelines and can trigger penalties. - Open Graph tags: Add og:title, og:description, og:image, and og:url to every key page to control how your content looks on social media. - Missing alt text: Write clear, descriptive alt text for all informational images to improve both SEO and accessibility. - Re-run your audit after making fixes to confirm the issues are resolved. 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.

Broken Links: Causes, Impact, and Fixes

Broken links are hyperlinks that lead to non-existent pages, often resulting in error codes like 404. They occur due to deleted content, URL changes, typos, server errors, or redirect issues. Broken links harm SEO, frustrate users, and reduce brand credibility. This guide explains what broken links are, why they happen, their impact, and how to detect, fix, and prevent them. 🔎 What Are Broken Links? Broken or dead links are hyperlinks that no longer work, leading users to error pages. Types of broken links include: - Broken internal links – lead to non-existent pages on your own site. - Broken external links – lead to missing content on other sites. Broken backlinks – exist on other sites but point to missing pages on yours. ⚠️ What Causes Broken Links? There are several common causes: 1. Deleted or moved content – Pages removed during redesigns or updates. 2. Changes in URL structure – Renaming folders or categories without updating links. 3. Misspelled URLs – Typos when inserting links. 4. External content removal – Linked resources deleted or updated by other sites. 5. Server or protocol issues – Downtime, HTTPS/HTTP mismatches, or blocked resources. 6. Redirect chains or loops – Circular redirects make pages inaccessible rather than technically missing; fixing them requires editing redirect rules, not restoring content. 7. AI-generated or automated content restructuring – Tools that automatically move, merge, or reorganize page content can break previously valid URLs if the project is not republished afterward. Soft 404 errors – Pages returning “not found” messages without proper error codes. Note on CMS/site-builder 404s: Some CMS or site-builder platforms (including Search Atlas Website Builder) can generate pages that return a 404 even when a button or navigation link points to them. This typically happens when the underlying page is empty or unpublished. Verify that pages are fully published and contain content, not just linked in navigation. Note on URL regeneration: Some CMS platforms may regenerate previously deleted URLs, which can cause confusion about which URL is canonical and may unintentionally reinstate broken states. Audit URL changes carefully after content deletion to avoid link resurrection. 📊 How Do Broken Links Impact Your Website? SEO Impact - Waste crawl budget when bots follow dead ends. - Stop link equity transfer between pages. - Disrupt site crawlability and architecture. - Create JavaScript rendering issues on dynamic sites. 🧭 User Experience - Dead ends frustrate users and stop their journey. - Higher bounce rates from early exits. - Poor satisfaction and perception of site quality. - Issues can appear differently on mobile devices. Brand Reputation - Broken links make sites appear unprofessional. - Reduce trust with partners, journalists, or customers. - Signal neglect to both users and search engines. - Harm multilingual or international site credibility. 🛠️ How to Check for Broken Links With OTTO SEO - Detects redirects and broken links directly. - Recommends replacing old URLs with final versions. - Fixes implemented automatically without manual effort. With the Site Audit Tool - Scans your site for broken external and internal links. - Reports organize issues like crawlability, link errors, and indexability. - Identifies 404 errors and displays HTTP status reports for pages. With Site Lens - Detects broken internal links, broken backlinks, and orphan pages within the Search Atlas platform. - Surfaces link health alongside on-page and technical SEO signals. - Helps prioritize fixes across the site from a single dashboard. Alternative Tools - Online scanners for quick checks on small sites. - Browser extensions to spot issues during content reviews. - Command-line tools for automated workflows in development. Note on audit tool lag: Site audit tools (including Site Lens) may show a delay between when a 404 is resolved and when the tool updates its status. If a broken link or 404 still appears as unresolved despite Google indexing the page, trigger a manual recrawl. If the issue persists, contact support, as this may indicate a reporting discrepancy rather than an actual broken link. ⏱️ How Often Should You Check for Broken Links? - Large, frequently updated sites: Weekly or bi-weekly scans. - Smaller sites: Monthly checks. - All sites: Comprehensive quarterly audits. - After migrations or redesigns: Check all links within 48 hours. 🔧 How to Fix Broken Links ✅ Prioritize by impact – Fix high-traffic or conversion-critical pages first. ✅ Remove the broken link – Delete links with no replacement value. ✅ Redirect to a new URL – Use 301 redirects to preserve authority. ✅ Restore missing content – Publish replacement pages under the same URL. ✅ Contact site owners – Request updates to broken backlinks. ✅ Replace or remove external sources – Use alternative references if originals no longer exist. Track improvements with: - Crawl error reports (Google Search Console). - Bounce rates on fixed pages. - Organic traffic recovery. - Ranking performance after redirects. 🛡️ How to Prevent Broken Links - Use consistent URL structures – Avoid unnecessary changes. - Check links before publishing – Test them manually. - Run regular link checks – Use OTTO SEO or GSC. - Apply redirects thoughtfully – Match new destinations with original intent. - Monitor and update redirects – Retire old ones when no longer needed. ❓ FAQs ❓ What’s the most common cause of broken links? Deleted or moved content is the most frequent cause, especially during redesigns. ❓ Do broken links hurt SEO directly? Yes. They waste crawl budget, stop link equity flow, and harm site structure. ❓ How fast should I fix broken links after a migration? Run a full audit within 48 hours and fix immediately. ❓ Which is better: removing or redirecting a broken link? Redirect if relevant content exists, otherwise remove the link ✅ Final Takeaway Broken links are a normal part of any website’s lifecycle, but leaving them unchecked harms SEO, user experience, and brand trust. By running regular audits, fixing issues quickly, and setting up strong prevention practices, you can keep your site healthy and user-friendly. Staying proactive ensures visitors always find what they need — and search engines reward you for maintaining a seamless, reliable site.

Fix Site Analysis Lead Capture Widget Issues

🔍 Overview The Site Analysis Lead Capture Widget is a tool that lets your agency collect prospective client information directly from your white-label site analysis page. If leads are not appearing in your Leads section, notification emails are not working, or there is no call-to-action (CTA) on the summary page or outgoing emails, this article explains what to check. ⚙️ Step 1: Access the Lead Capture Widget Settings Navigate to the Site Analysis Lead Capture Widget settings via More Features → Agency Hub (Agency Settings). This is where all lead capture configuration lives. Any missing or incorrect settings here will cause the issues described above. 📋 Step 2: Verify the Widget Is Enabled Inside the Lead Capture Widget settings, confirm that the widget itself is toggled on. If the widget is disabled, no lead data will be collected, regardless of how your other settings are configured. Save any changes before moving to the next step. 📨 Step 3: Fix Missing Notification Emails If you are not receiving alerts when a new lead is captured, check the following: - Notification email address: Make sure a valid email address is entered in the notification field. If this field is empty or contains a typo, no alerts will be sent. - Email toggle: Confirm the email notification toggle is switched on. The toggle and the email field must both be active for notifications to fire. - Spam or junk folder: Check your spam or junk folder in case notification emails are being filtered by your email provider. After updating the email address or toggling the setting on, save your changes to apply them. 💡 Step 4: Add a CTA to the Summary Page and Emails A missing call-to-action on the summary page or in emails sent to prospects is almost always caused by incomplete white-label branding settings. Follow these steps: 1. In the Site Analysis Lead Capture Widget settings, locate the CTA configuration section. 2. Enter the text you want to display on the CTA button — for example, Contact Us or Get a Free Consultation. 3. Add the destination URL or contact link you want prospects to use when they click the button. This is typically your agency website, a contact form, or a booking page. 4. Confirm the CTA toggle is enabled so the button appears on both the summary page and in outgoing emails. 5. Save your changes. Without a destination URL and button label entered and the CTA toggle enabled, the button will not appear for your prospects. 🚨 Still Experiencing Issues? If leads are still not being captured or your CTA is still missing after verifying all settings above, our support team can investigate further on the backend. When reaching out, please have the following ready: your agency account details, the specific lead capture behavior you are seeing, and any relevant screenshots. 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 the D15 Validation Check Infinite Loop

🔍 What Is the D15 Validation Check? The D15 validation check is an on-page audit rule inside OTTO SEO. When working correctly, it flags any issues it detects, you address them, and the recommendation is marked as resolved. However, some customers experience a bug where the D15 check continues to flag the same items as incomplete — even after confirming they have been addressed. This is a known issue currently being investigated by the Search Atlas engineering team. ⚠️ Why This Happens The root cause is a loop in the OTTO recommendation engine. Under certain conditions, the agent re-evaluates the same checks in a cycle without registering that the previous recommendation was completed. This can result in: - The D15 recommendation reappearing immediately after being resolved - The audit appearing stuck or resetting to a previous state - No visible feedback to confirm whether your changes were registered This behaviour is not caused by anything you have done incorrectly. The loop is a platform-side issue with how recommendations are processed and dismissed. ✅ Steps to Take Right Now 1. Confirm your changes are saved correctly. Revisit the relevant page or settings and verify that any fields flagged by the D15 check are properly filled in and saved. Take a screenshot for your records. 2. Refresh the OTTO dashboard. Close the tab, clear your browser cache, and reopen the platform. In some cases a fresh session allows the recommendation engine to re-evaluate your page cleanly. 3. Check for duplicate recommendations. Scroll through your full recommendation list to see if the D15 item appears more than once. If it does, this confirms the looping behaviour and is useful information to share with our team. 4. Do not repeatedly re-enter the same information. Making repeated edits in an attempt to resolve the flag will not fix the underlying loop and may cause additional confusion in the audit log. 📋 What to Have Ready When You Escalate Because this is a platform-side bug, our team will need to investigate on the backend. To help us resolve it as quickly as possible, please have the following ready before reaching out: - The exact name of the project or page affected - A screenshot showing the D15 recommendation appearing after you have already addressed it - Any timestamps or details about when the looping behaviour first started - Whether the recommendation appears more than once in your list 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 HTTPS Redirect False Positives

📋 What This Article Covers If your Site Audit is flagging "HTTP doesn't redirect to HTTPS" or "Protocol/WWW variants don't redirect to the same place" as issues — but your redirects are actually working correctly — you may be encountering a known false positive. This article explains what this means, how to verify your redirects, and what information to have ready when contacting our team. 🔬 Why This Happens In some cases, the Search Atlas Site Audit crawler may flag HTTPS or WWW redirect issues even when your redirects are correctly configured. This is a known false positive that our engineering team is aware of and actively investigating. The crawler may not always detect or fully interpret certain redirect setups, which can result in an inaccurate flag in your audit report. ✅ How to Verify Your Redirects Are Working Before reporting the false positive, confirm your redirects are functioning correctly: 1. Test in your browser: Type your HTTP URL (for example, http://yoursite.com) into the address bar and press Enter. If it automatically changes to HTTPS, your redirect is working. 2. Check all variants: Test all four versions of your domain — HTTP, HTTPS, WWW, and non-WWW. They should all resolve to a single canonical URL. 3. Use a redirect checker: Free tools like Redirect Checker or HTTPStatus.io can confirm your redirect chains and status codes. 4. Verify in Google Search Console: Check that Google has indexed the HTTPS version as the canonical URL. 🛠️ What to Do If You Confirm a False Positive If you have verified that your redirects are working correctly but the Site Audit is still flagging them as issues, this is a known false positive that our team is investigating. To help us resolve this more efficiently, please gather the following information before reaching out: - Project name: The name of the project in Search Atlas where the false positive appears. - Exact flagged issue text: The specific redirect issue message shown in your Site Audit report. - Domain URL(s) affected: The URLs or domain variants that are being incorrectly flagged. - Proof redirects work: A screenshot or note confirming that your redirects resolve correctly when tested in a browser or third-party redirect checker. Our engineering team is actively working on improving the crawler's ability to accurately detect redirect configurations so that these false positives are reduced in the future. 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 Outdated Site Metrics and Screenshots in Search Atlas

🧭 Why Is Search Atlas Showing Outdated Data? When a site has been recently updated or redesigned, Search Atlas may temporarily display older metrics and screenshots. This lag is normal and typically occurs for one or more of the following reasons: - The site has not been added to your Search Atlas dashboard. Without an active dashboard connection, Search Atlas cannot track or update your site's metrics in real time. - The OTTO pixel is not installed. The OTTO pixel is required to enable continuous data collection. Without it, Search Atlas relies on periodic external crawls rather than live site signals. - Google has not yet re-indexed the updated site. Site Explorer screenshots are sourced from Google's index. If Google has not recrawled your site since the update, the cached version will appear in Search Atlas. - Custom reports have not been refreshed. Metric snapshots in reports reflect the timeline you have configured. An outdated range will show historical data. The sections below walk you through each fix step by step. 📊 Step 1 — Add Your Site to the Dashboard Adding your site to the Search Atlas dashboard is the first step to enabling live metric tracking. 1. Log in to Search Atlas and go to Home (/home). 2. Locate the Add Website option and enter your full domain (for example, northamericanenclosures.us). 3. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the setup. Search Atlas will begin pulling current data for the site once it is added. 4. Allow up to 24 hours for the initial metrics to populate after the site is added. If your site is already listed in the dashboard but metrics still appear stale, proceed to Step 2. ⚙️ Step 2 — Install the OTTO Pixel The OTTO pixel enables continuous, real-time data collection for your site. Without it, Search Atlas cannot track on-site changes as they happen. 1. From the left sidebar, navigate to OTTO SEO → SEO Automation (/seo-automation-v3). 2. Select your site and open the OTTO Setup section. 3. Copy the OTTO pixel snippet provided. 4. Paste the snippet into the <head> section of every page on your site, or install it via your tag manager (for example, Google Tag Manager). 5. Verify the installation by returning to the OTTO SEO dashboard and confirming the pixel status shows as Active. Important: The pixel must be present on your live, published site. Installing it only on staging or development environments will not trigger metric updates for the production domain. 📅 Step 3 — Update Your Custom Report Timeline If your reports are still showing old data after adding the site and installing the pixel, the report date range may need to be updated. 1. Open the report you want to refresh inside Search Atlas. 2. Locate the Date Range or Timeline selector within the report settings. 3. Set the range to include your desired start date — for example, from the date your site was updated to today. 4. Save and regenerate the report. The updated metrics will now reflect the selected period. Setting the correct timeline ensures you are viewing current performance data rather than historical snapshots from before your site changes. 🖼️ Step 4 — Understand the Site Explorer Screenshot Timeline Site Explorer displays a screenshot of your site sourced directly from Google's index. Search Atlas does not control when this image is updated — it depends entirely on when Google recrawls and re-indexes your site. - Typical refresh window: Screenshots update within 2 to 6 weeks after Google recrawls the site, though this varies based on your site's crawl frequency and domain authority. - Speed up the process: Submit your updated sitemap to Google Search Console and use the URL Inspection tool to request indexing for key pages. This signals to Google that your site has changed and encourages a faster recrawl. - No manual override: There is currently no option inside Search Atlas to force a screenshot refresh. The image will update automatically once Google has recrawled and cached the new version of your site. In the meantime, all other metrics — traffic, keywords, backlinks — will update in Search Atlas independently of the screenshot once Steps 1 through 3 are complete. ✅ Quick Checklist - Site added to dashboard? Go to Home (/home) and confirm your domain is listed. - OTTO pixel installed and active? Check OTTO SEO → SEO Automation (/seo-automation-v3) for a green Active status. - Report date range updated? Set the timeline to cover the period after your site changes. - Sitemap submitted to Google? Use Google Search Console to request faster recrawling for the screenshot to refresh. 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.