Why was my campaign paused?
Updated
Open the campaign on your AI Agents board: the reason is at the top of its panel. Campaigns pause themselves before removing many pages from Google, when too many pages fail, when the approved budget is spent, or when nothing could be changed. Safety pauses end when you click Resume. For "Nothing was changed" pauses, ask SEO Copilot or stop the campaign.
Find the reason#
- In the sidebar, click AI Agents.
- In the In flight column, find the campaign card that says Paused under its title. If a task inside it needs you, the card sits in Needs you instead.
- Click the card. The reason is in the box at the top of the panel.
- Find that reason in the table below.
The bell in the top bar shows the same reason for each paused campaign. SEOmatic does not send an email when a campaign pauses, so check the bell or the board.
What each reason means#
| What you see | Why it paused | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "Held for confirmation: this campaign will noindex, prune, redirect or re-canonicalize" a number of pages | The campaign is about to take more than 15 pages out of Google or point them elsewhere (or more than 2% of your live pages, if that is more). This is quick to do and can take weeks to reverse, so it asks for a second yes. | Click the campaign's tasks to review the pages. Click Resume to confirm, or Stop. Only an admin or the owner can resume this kind of campaign. |
| "Auto-paused:" a number of pages that "failed or were blocked" | On a campaign that makes one change across many pages, at least 5 pages, and at least 1 in 5 of the finished ones, failed or were stopped by our quality check. Usually the instruction does not fit these pages, or the pages could not be read. | Open a few tasks under Tasks to see why they stopped. Ask SEO Copilot what went wrong. Then click Resume to continue, or Stop. After you resume, only new failures can pause it again. |
| "Auto-paused: batch generation failed" a number of "times in a row" | Writing a batch of articles or pages failed 3 times in a row. | Click Resume to try again. If it pauses again, email contact@seomatic.ai with the campaign name. |
| "Budget spent: this campaign's approved budget of" a number of "credits is used up" | The campaign used the credits you approved for it. | Click Resume to add about 25% of the first estimate and continue, or Stop. |
| "Nothing was changed: none of the pages could be edited through your CMS" | None of the campaign's pages can be reached through your website connection. | Check your connection on the Connections page. Then ask SEO Copilot to create the work again, or click Stop. See fix a broken connection. |
| "Nothing was changed:" a number of tasks "ended without a change (the retries ran out, a newer task replaced it, or the page is gone)" | Every task finished, but none put a change on your site. | Ask SEO Copilot what happened, or click Stop. |
| "Nothing is live yet: your site stores" a number of changes "but your theme or SEO plugin shows different values on the page" | Your site saved the changes, but something on your site shows other values to visitors. | Ask SEO Copilot which setting overrides it. See my site still shows the old version. |
| "Nothing is live yet:" changes "were saved to your site, but we could not see them on the live page" | The changes were saved, but SEOmatic could not see them on your page. If it adds "(your site blocks our check)", your site turned our checker away. | Open a few pages and look for the changes yourself. Ask SEO Copilot what happened. |
| "Paused:" followed by a reason, on a landing pages campaign. For example "Paused: connect a CMS first", a template that needs columns your data does not have, or pages our quality check judged not worth publishing. | The campaign stopped before writing pages it should not publish. | Do what the reason says, for example connect your site or fix your data or brief. Then click Resume. |
| "Paused: the restore pull request of this campaign is open" | On a GitHub-connected site, a pull request that takes this campaign's landing pages back out is open. | Merge or close the restore pull request on GitHub. No new batch opens until you do. |
| "Paused automatically: site-wide search clicks dropped sharply versus the past month" | Clicks across your whole site fell sharply, so the agents stopped editing pages while you look into it. The card does not say Paused, and there is no Resume button. | Look into the drop. Work starts again on its own once your traffic recovers. |
| Paused with no reason, or "Campaign paused, needs your fix" in the bell | Someone on your team clicked Pause. | Click Resume when you are ready. |
Resume does not help with "Nothing was changed"
When a campaign pauses with "Nothing was changed" or "Nothing is live yet", its tasks have already ended. Resuming does not bring them back, so the campaign is likely to pause again with the same reason. Ask SEO Copilot to look into it or to create the work again, or click Stop to close the campaign.
Campaigns that close instead of pausing#
When there is nothing you could fix, a campaign closes and leaves the board. For example: every page was built with a page builder such as Elementor, the agent found nothing to fix, or every task was dismissed. Nothing on your site changed. To find out what happened to a campaign that disappeared, ask SEO Copilot.
Pause, resume or stop a campaign yourself#
- Pause stops new work from starting. Changes already on your site stay. Pause is hidden while a task inside the campaign needs you.
- Resume starts it again from where it stopped.
- Stop dismisses the remaining tasks. Changes already on your site stay live and keep being measured.
- Undo all changes puts back every page this campaign changed. A page someone edited since is handed to you for review instead of being overwritten.
Approved tasks inside a paused campaign wait. Their cards say "Approved, but the campaign it belongs to is paused. Resume the campaign and it runs." More in campaigns.
- Does a paused campaign use credits?
- No new work starts while it is paused, so it does not start new charges.
- Will SEOmatic tell me when a campaign pauses?
- Not by email. The campaign shows in the bell in the top bar, and on the board with Paused under its title.
- Why was my article campaign paused because of the reviewer?
- Our quality check stops text with facts it cannot back up, and landing pages that would not be worth publishing. See why work is held for review to help your agents write more that can be published.
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