Google urged SEOs to run context-driven technical audits instead of chasing tool-generated scores, according to Search Relations team member Martin Splitt in a recent Search Central Lightning Talk. He also clarified when high 404 counts are normal.
Key details
Splitt outlined an audit approach that prioritizes a site's specific context and the factors that affect crawling and indexing.
- Work in three phases: identify potential issues, produce a site-specific report, and deliver actionable recommendations.
- Understand the site's technology stack before running automated tools.
- Group findings by required effort and potential impact to prioritize work.
- Expect high 404 counts after intentional content removals - they are not inherently problematic.
- Investigate unexplained spikes in 404s, which can signal technical problems.
- Not all tool flags matter equally - hreflang auditing is essential for international sites but unnecessary for single-language sites.
- Use the Crawl Stats report in Search Console to review 404 patterns.
- Do not follow tool scores blindly - prioritize issues by business goals and search impact.
"A technical audit, in my opinion, should make sure no technical issues prevent or interfere with crawling or indexing. Please, please do not follow your tools blindly."
Background
Search Central Lightning Talks are short videos from Google's Search Relations team that explain technical guidance and common SEO scenarios. Google's long-standing guidance treats standard 404 responses as expected when content is intentionally removed. Splitt's remarks align with that approach and distinguish normal maintenance from signals of misconfiguration. He also warned that aggregate tool scores can misprioritize issues without site context, reinforcing the need for human review and stakeholder verification.
Source
Google published the guidance through its official Search Central channels. Watch the Search Central Lightning Talk featuring Martin Splitt.
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