Troubleshooting

Common issues and solutions across AI SEO and technical optimization.

AI Visibility Issues

Not appearing in AI answers

Symptoms: Your content doesn't get cited in ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc.

Potential causes & fixes:

Cause	Solution
Content not in raw HTML	Check JS rendering - content must be in initial HTML
AI bots blocked	Check robots.txt for ChatGPT-User, PerplexityBot, etc.
Low authority	Build backlinks, improve E-E-A-T signals
Content too thin	Expand with comprehensive coverage
Outdated content	Add freshness signals, update regularly

AI gives incorrect information about you

Steps:

1. Document the incorrect statement
2. Check if your site has conflicting information
3. Update canonical sources (website, Wikipedia, etc.)
4. For ChatGPT: Use feedback mechanism
5. Monitor for changes over time

Competitor cited instead of you

Analysis steps:

1. Compare content depth and structure
2. Check their E-E-A-T signals
3. Analyze their backlink profile
4. Review content freshness
5. Consider content format differences

Technical SEO Issues

Pages not being indexed

Soft 404 errors

Cause: Pages returning 200 but Google treats as error

Common culprits:

• "No products found" category pages
• Search results pages
• Thin content pages

Fix: Return proper 404 or add substantial content

Duplicate content issues

Check for:

• [ ] WWW vs non-WWW
• [ ] HTTP vs HTTPS
• [ ] Trailing slashes
• [ ] Parameter variations
• [ ] Mobile vs desktop URLs

Solution: Implement proper canonicals or 301 redirects

Embedding & Colab Issues

Colab code errors

Step 1: Copy the exact error message

Step 2: Paste to ChatGPT with context:

I'm running this code in Google Colab:
[paste code]

I got this error:
[paste error]

Please fix the code.

Embeddings not extracting from Screaming Frog

Checklist:

• [ ] OpenAI API key configured
• [ ] API key has credits
• [ ] Correct model selected
• [ ] Content extraction enabled
• [ ] Not hitting rate limits

Poor similarity matches

Potential causes:

Issue	Fix
Using different models	Ensure same model for both datasets
Titles only vs full content	Include page content in embeddings
Different languages	Use multilingual model or translate first
Data format issues	Check CSV encoding and structure

TikTok SEO Issues

Videos not appearing in search

Check:

• [ ] Keyword in first 3 seconds of speech
• [ ] Keyword in text overlay
• [ ] Relevant hashtags used
• [ ] Caption includes keywords
• [ ] Video is public

Low watch time despite views

Common causes:

• Hook not compelling (first 2 seconds)
• Content doesn't match title/thumbnail
• Too long for the content value
• Poor audio quality

Fix: Focus on first 2-second hook and content pacing

Internal Linking Issues

AI suggesting irrelevant links

Improve prompts with:

• Industry/niche context
• Content categories
• Exclusion rules (don't link X to Y)
• Example good matches

Too many suggestions to review

Strategies:

1. Batch by page template
2. Filter by similarity score threshold
3. Prioritize high-traffic pages first
4. Use sampling for initial verification

Crawl Issues

Screaming Frog crawl taking forever

Optimizations:

• [ ] Reduce crawl rate
• [ ] Exclude unnecessary paths (images, CSS, JS)
• [ ] Remove URL parameters
• [ ] Set depth limits
• [ ] Check for crawl traps (infinite pagination)

Hitting crawl traps

Common traps:

• Calendar widgets with infinite dates
• Faceted navigation combinations
• Session ID parameters
• Sorting/filtering parameters

Solution: Add URL patterns to exclusion list before crawling

API & Tool Issues

OpenAI API rate limits

Symptoms: 429 errors, slow processing

Solutions:

• Add delays between requests
• Use batch processing
• Upgrade API tier
• Cache results to avoid re-processing

Search Console data discrepancies

Common causes:

• Data processing delay (2-3 days)
• Sampling in high-volume sites
• Filter interactions
• Time zone differences

General Debugging Checklist

When something isn't working:

1. [ ] Isolate the problem - What exactly isn't working?
2. [ ] Check recent changes - What changed before it broke?
3. [ ] Verify access - Are credentials/permissions correct?
4. [ ] Test in isolation - Does it work with simple test case?
5. [ ] Check logs - What do error messages say?
6. [ ] Search for similar issues - Has someone solved this?
7. [ ] Document and escalate - If stuck, get help with full context

Getting Help

For tool-specific issues:

• Check official documentation first
• Search community forums
• Contact tool support with specific error details

For code issues:

• Paste error + code to ChatGPT
• Include context about what you're trying to do
• Try simplifying to minimal example

See Also

• Tools Directory
• Technical SEO Audit
• Vector Embeddings