I approved a fix but nothing changed on my site
Updated
Open the task on your AI Agents board and read the status line under its title. Most approved fixes are still queued, waiting for SEOmatic to see them on your live page, or held because they need one thing from you, such as a connection, a paste or credits. The tables below match every status line to what to do.
Find your fix and its status#
- In the sidebar, click AI Agents.
- Find the card. Approved work sits in In flight while it runs or waits. It goes back to Needs you if something holds it. It moves to Measuring once the change is written to your site.
- Read the line on the card, then click the card. The panel that opens shows a status line at the top, for example "Approved, queued up" or "Needs you: held back because...".
- Find that line in the tables below. They start with the most common causes.
Can't find the card? Click Live feed at the top of the board. It lists everything your agents did, newest first. Click any row to open it.
Most common: it is still on its way#
These lines mean your fix is moving. You do not need to do anything.
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "Queued - your agents work through a few at a time" | Your fix is approved and waiting its turn. Agents start a few tasks at a time. | Nothing. If you approved many fixes at once, the last ones take longer to start. |
| "Waiting on:" followed by another task's name | It runs after another task on the same page or plan finishes. | Nothing. It starts when that task is done. |
| "Working on it right now" | The agent is making the change. | Nothing. The card moves on once the change is written. |
| "In progress: the agent is tightening this change before it goes live. Nothing needed from you." | Our quality check found something the agent could not back up. It is being fixed or closed. | Nothing. If it cannot be fixed, the task closes and nothing on your site changes. See why work is held for review. |
| "Retrying shortly - the last attempt failed" or "Retrying shortly - a shared job was busy" | One try did not work. It tries again on its own. | Nothing for now. If it is still not done the next day, check your connection on the Connections page. |
| "Done, measuring the impact" (the card is in Measuring) | The change was written to your site. SEOmatic now opens your live page about 2 minutes, 10 minutes, 1 hour, 6 hours and 24 hours later to look for it. | Wait up to 24 hours for the change to appear in the Live on your site list. If your page still looks old, see my site still shows the old version. |
| "paused by a temporary issue on our side - nothing to fix on yours; it retries automatically" | A problem on our side, not yours. | Nothing. It runs again on its own. |
| "Queued: checked and queued to go live on its own; you will get a receipt with a one-click undo" | A full-page rewrite or added link sentence that passed our checks. It goes live on its own. | Nothing. It appears in your daily email of changes, with an Undo link. See the daily email of changes. |
| "paused while it moves to the page your visitors see at this address - nothing to do on your side; it runs again by itself" | On WordPress, this address shows a different published page than the one SEOmatic had on record. SEOmatic now points the task at the page your visitors see. Nothing was written yet, and nothing on your site was deleted. | Nothing. It runs again on the right page by itself. |
| "Google finds this page through your sitemap; nothing to do on your side." | A request asking search engines to look at a page, with no way set up to send it. The task is done without a submission. It is not counted as a win. | Nothing. To send pages directly, see instant indexing or connect Search Console. |
| "Needs you: saved to your Framer project and going live with the next site deploy..." | On Framer, changes go live together in one site deploy that SEOmatic runs. | Nothing. SEOmatic deploys and then checks the live page. |
Measuring is not proof that it is live
The Measuring column says "Live on your site" under its name, but a card can sit there before SEOmatic has seen the change on your page. Only a row in the Live on your site list with the Checked on your site badge means we opened your page and saw the change.
It needs one thing from you#
These lines start with "Needs you:" and the card goes back to the Needs you column. Some lines say "run it again". There is no Run button: click Apply it now at the bottom of the task panel.
| What you see after "Needs you:" | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "not applied automatically because the agent cannot edit this page on your site yet - the exact change is here for you to apply" | Your site is not connected, or this page is not in your connected site yet. | Copy the change from the panel into your site, then click I've pasted it. Or connect your website so the agent can do it. New pages are picked up at the next daily sync. |
| "held back because this is one of your most important pages, which are never edited automatically" | Your homepage, pages such as pricing, checkout, cart, contact, login and legal pages, and any page on your Protected Pages list are never changed by work that was approved for you or that runs inside a campaign. | Read the change in the panel. Click Apply it now to apply it, or Dismiss. Edit the list in Settings > AI Agents > Protected Pages. |
| "ready for you to paste: your platform does not let apps change this setting, so the exact change and where it goes are here" | Your platform gives apps no way to change this field. One example is the Shopify home page title. | Copy the change into your platform where the panel says, then click I've pasted it. SEOmatic checks your live page for up to 24 hours. |
| "held back because your site cannot store this field automatically" or "your CMS cannot publish this field automatically" | Your platform cannot save this field through its connection. | Paste the change yourself, then click I've pasted it. See what agents can change on each platform. |
| "not applied because this page is built with a page builder that keeps its text in its own layout data, so a change to the page's text would never show - make it in your page builder" | Elementor, Beaver Builder, Oxygen and Bricks keep page text in their own layout data, so a text change written through WordPress would never show. Nothing was written to your page. | Make the change in your page builder. See page builder pages. |
| "not applied because your site connection is missing a permission this change needs - the step to grant it is here, then run it again" | Your connection can read this page but not change it. Examples: a Wix store permission, a read-only Sanity token. | Follow the step shown in the panel to grant the permission, then click Apply it now. |
| "held back because the page changed while the agent was working, so it will not overwrite your edit" | Someone edited the page while the agent was working. The agent never overwrites a newer edit. | Check the page. Click Apply it now to apply the change on top, or Dismiss. |
| "held back because the rewrite would remove an embed (map, video or widget) that is on the live page - apply only if that removal is intended" | The new text would drop a map, video or widget from your page. | Click Apply it now only if you want that embed gone. Otherwise click Dismiss. |
| "held back because your site refused the change" or "held back because your site kept refusing changes, so the connection is worth checking" | Your site said no when the agent tried to save. | On the Connections page, click Test connection and fix any error. Then click Apply it now. See fix a broken connection. |
| "held because the page is not reachable right now - publish or fix it, then run this again" | The page did not load when the agent checked it. | Publish or fix the page, then click Apply it now. |
| "not applied because this address shows a different WordPress page than the one your site lets us edit (two pages share it), so the change would never show - keep one page in WordPress, trash the other, then run it again" | Two WordPress pages share this address, and SEOmatic could not confirm which one your visitors see. Nothing was written. | In WordPress, keep the page you want and move the other to the trash. Then click Apply it now. |
| "held for your approval" followed by a note about a redirect already saved at the old or new address | Renaming the page address would clash with a redirect you already have. | Read where the old address will go. Click Apply it now to rename anyway, or Dismiss. |
| "held back because there was nothing left to change" | The page already has what the fix would add. | Click Dismiss. |
| "saved to your Framer project but not confirmed live - publish your site in Framer to take it live, or undo the change" | The change is in your Framer project, but SEOmatic could not see it on your live site. | Publish your site in Framer. |
| "held back because custom code is switched off in your Framer site settings" | Framer needs custom code on to add page details for Google. | Turn on custom code in your Framer site settings, then click Apply it now. |
| "Waiting for you to merge on GitHub" | On a GitHub-connected site, every change arrives as a pull request. | Review and merge the pull request on GitHub, or close it to say no. |
| "not delivered because this page has no main content area we can safely edit..." or "not delivered because the file in your repository does not match the live page..." | No pull request was opened. Running it again would not help. | Click Dismiss. |
| "Needs you before it can be applied" | The change is ready and waiting for you. | Read the panel, then click Apply it now or Dismiss. |
Approved over a day ago and still not started#
When approved work has not started after 24 hours, the card and the task panel say why. A button appears when there is something to click.
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| "Approved, and waiting for your site connection: the agents cannot change your site until it is connected." | Click Connect your site. See connect your website. |
| "Approved, but this month's AI credits are used up. It runs when you add credits or when they reset." | Click Add credits, or wait for your credits to renew. See out of credits. |
| "Approved, and waiting for tomorrow: today's spending limit for the agents is reached." | Wait until tomorrow, or raise the limit in Settings > AI Agents > Agent Settings > Daily credit cap. The Agent settings button on the card opens the board, not this setting. |
| "Approved, and waiting on our side: part of our system is down. It runs as soon as it is back, and nothing is lost." | Nothing. A banner at the top of the page says "Part of our system is down" too. Your approved work runs when the system is back. |
| "Approved, and paused on our side for a day: it took far more attempts than a change like this should, so we stopped it to protect your credits. Our team has been told." | Nothing. We stopped it so it would not keep using your credits, and our team looks at it. |
| "Approved, but your plan is not active, so the agents cannot run it. Reactivate the plan and it runs." | Click Open billing. If a payment failed, see your payment failed. |
| "Approved, but your plan is set to end, so the agents do not start new work. Keep your plan and it runs." | Click Open billing and keep your plan. |
| "Approved, but there is no way set up yet to submit pages to Google, so it cannot run." | Click Open integrations, or connect Search Console. |
| "Approved, but it cannot run as written: it points at a search phrase or a page the agents cannot edit. Ask the Copilot to redo it on a page it can edit." | Open SEO Copilot and ask it to redo the task on the page you want changed. |
| "Approved, but the campaign it belongs to is paused. Resume the campaign and it runs." | Open the campaign and click Resume. See why was my campaign paused. |
| "Approved and lined up in its campaign, which releases work a few pages at a time. It runs when its turn comes." | Nothing. Campaigns release pages in waves. |
| "Approved and set to run on" a date, "the agents space out changes to the same page" | Nothing. Agents space out changes to the same page, so it runs on that date. |
| "Approved over a day ago and not started, and nothing on your side is blocking it. That is on us: our team has been told and is getting it moving." | Nothing. Our team is on it. If it is urgent, email contact@seomatic.ai. |
Good to know#
- The bell does not tell held tasks apart. The Needs you list in the top bar shows every held task as "Work is ready, held for your approval", whatever the reason. It can even list work paused by a problem on our side. Open the card to read the real reason.
- Approval is not the only way work starts. Unless you chose Approval mode, changes that can be undone are approved for you and listed in a daily email with an Undo link. See approval modes.
- No email for most holds. SEOmatic emails you when your first fix goes live, but not each time a task is held. Check the board or the bell.
- Dismiss is final. A dismissed task leaves the board for good. Nothing it prepared reaches your site.
- How long should an approved fix take?
- Most single fixes run within a few minutes, and SEOmatic checks your live page for them over the next 24 hours. Campaigns release pages a few at a time, so they take longer. The result in your Google clicks takes weeks: see when will I see results.
- Did I lose credits on a held task?
- Some stops are free. When an agent stops before writing because a page is built with a page builder, the closed task says "Nothing was charged." If our quality check closes a task, the panel says "The credits it used were returned." when they were. See how credits work.
- None of this matches what I see.
- Email contact@seomatic.ai with the task name and the status line. A person replies, usually within one business day.
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