Troubleshooting the SEO Command Center

Every common failure in one place — blocked research, parked runs, greyed-out buttons, empty research tabs, stuck posts, failed deploys and missing reports.

Most SEO Command Center problems are one of five things: a prerequisite that is not met, a budget that is blank or reached, a permission you do not have, a runner that is not open, or a deploy that failed on the client's own site. This page groups them that way.

Where a page covers a fix in depth, the row links to it.

Read the exact words on screen first

Zyan names its refusals rather than hiding them — a disabled button carries the reason in its tooltip, a parked run carries a reason chip, and a blocked save prints the reason above the button. The exact phrase is usually in a table below.

Research will not start

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Start research is greyed out, tooltip mentions a draft conflict	The website already has an open draft strategy	Activate, discard or finish the draft from the Living strategy hero. An empty machine-created shell is adopted instead
Amber line asking you to set the niche and primary services	The brief has neither	Fill Niche and Primary services on the Brief pane, or click Draft from the website
The Research brief looks auto-filled — review it before spending	A field reads like prose rather than a term	Edit the flagged fields. This is a warning, not a block
Start is disabled and you are a member	Starting and resuming are owner and admin actions	Ask an owner. Cancel is not owner-gated

A run parked with Needs you

Symptom	Cause	Fix
A Cap reached chip	The run hit its cost cap mid-pipeline	Type a higher value in Raise cap $ and Resume, or Cancel and keep the evidence already captured
The run says entries read as a sentence, not a search term	Seeds could not be grounded	Fix the brief so each field is a term, then Resume
The run says only brand searches were found	Search Console returned brand queries only	Fill the services on the brief so research has non-brand seeds, confirm Search Console has data, then Resume
A stage failed	One pipeline stage errored	Retry stage — it resumes from the evidence already captured

Buttons are greyed out

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Owner only: running this spends the DataForSEO budget	You are a member	Ask an owner. Free actions still work for you
Paid controls are disabled for a moment after loading	The research roster has not loaded yet	Wait a beat; it resolves itself
The checklist says paid research is blocked until a positive monthly SEO budget is set	The budget is blank	Set a positive number in Settings → Automation & budget
Buttons read Run anyway or Start research anyway	The monthly budget is reached	Wait for next month, raise the budget, or click through as an owner to record an acknowledged overrun
A paid control is disabled before you even click	The target's ceiling or your credit balance cannot cover the estimate	Raise the research target's monthly ceiling
Every paid surface shows cached data	The platform research credential is unavailable for the workspace	Nothing to change locally — this is a platform state

A research tab is empty

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Research `<host>` with DataForSEO instead of data	The website has no research target yet	Click Create research target for `<host>` — it is free
Target creation refuses with a market error	Settings stores a non-country location code	Set a Country in Settings → Content & page rules first
Strategy, Content, Page, Technical, Results and Settings are disabled	You are on an unlinked research target	Link it to a Builder project, or switch back to the website
Keyword Gap shows Add a competitor to compare	No competitors and no defaults found	Add up to four domains, and pin competitors under Strategy → Research → Evidence for next time
Use with Claude is disabled	Nothing selected, more than 25 keywords selected, or no linked project	Reduce the selection or link the target — see Keyword Gap

Connections and site data

Symptom	Cause	Fix
The Search Console property does not match the host	The selected property is the other `www` variant	Pick the matching property in Analytics settings. Data still flows
Search Console write access needs attention	The Google connection predates the sitemap-submission scope	Reconnect Google on that row and re-consent
Site knowledge is amber after a crawl	The crawl was truncated	Retry site crawl from the Research brief
Site knowledge stays amber after a re-crawl	The site is a client-rendered shell with nothing to read	Add knowledge sources by hand, or render the site server-side
A lane says some sources never pulled	Part of the lane has no data at all	Run that lane; a lane always reports its oldest clock

Posts do not appear

Symptom	Cause	Fix
A scheduled post never starts	Prefer desktop runner is on and no bound desktop is open, or it is older than 1.2.67	Open and sign into the desktop app with the folder bound, then Check again; or arm Cloud fallback for waiting drafts
The post sits at Awaiting review by design	The schedule publishes via Review PR	Review and merge the pull request, or change the publish mode
The post is Held before drafting	It was stopped before any writing happened	Re-draft to run it now, or Delete — nothing was written
A local run went quiet	The runner stopped reporting	Retry now on that post
Topics are generic, card says Limited SEO evidence	No cached SEO opportunities, so a generic topic was used	Run setup and research, then Preview topic ideas
Ban list is full (50 topics)	The per-schedule cap	Remove a banned phrase in Edit first

Published but not live

Symptom	Cause	Fix
The post says published, the page 404s	The commit landed, the site repo's own deploy failed	Open the drawer, follow Open the failed run, fix the site repository and push — see Publishing
Deploy status reads unavailable	The GitHub App lacks Actions: Read on the repository	Grant that permission and wait for the next re-check
Nothing publishes and the error mentions GitHub	No valid per-tenant GitHub App credential	The account owner installs or repairs it on the GitHub tile in Settings → Integrations
Posts always stop at a pull request	The publish mode, or an approval mode that refuses direct push	Set Publish mode and set Approval mode to Trusted auto-publish
Publishing is refused for every website	The platform-level publish arm is off	Ask your platform operator

Reports

Symptom	Cause	Fix
The monthly report never generates	Mode is Off, the Reports lane is paused, or the scheduler parked it after three failures	Set the mode, resume the lane, then run it from the month card
The report day will not save	The value is blank or outside 1 to 28	Enter a day between 1 and 28 and leave the field
A member cannot arm Auto-attach after QA	It is account-owner only	Ask the account owner
The public report link shows not-found	Never attached, detached, or opened on another workspace's host	Attach it, and share it on your own client-portal domain
QA blocked on an unattached report	The public route check needs the first attach	Approve & deliver; the attach-only checks resolve after
The client sees no SEO at all	Portal SEO access is strictly opt-in	Turn on Active SEO under Settings → Reporting & client

Terminal and local machine

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Terminal, live preview or git buttons are inert	The Builder terminal service is not configured for this deployment	Confirm with your platform operator; use the storage-mode editor and GitHub-side workflows meanwhile
Send to terminal fails to queue	The project terminal is not configured	Use Copy prompt and paste it in yourself
Queue for local machine instead of Run on local machine	No fresh bound desktop advertises the capability	Open the desktop app with the project bound; the queued fix runs when a runner appears
A Builder Automation says Waiting for desktop	Local schedules only run in the desktop app	Leave the app open, signed in and bound through the scheduled time