Google has just wrapped up its September 2026 spam update, with the final wave of volatility hitting search results on October 4 to 6. If your website lost traffic over the past two weeks, or if you’ve been publishing articles written quickly with AI just to keep up, this update deserves your full attention. Here’s what changed and what Vietnamese SMEs should do about it.
What actually happened
According to Search Engine Roundtable, Google’s September 2026 spam update began rolling out on September 24 and moved in several waves instead of the usual cycle of about two days. Google said the rollout would take roughly two weeks, so sites saw volatility on September 25 to 27, again around September 30, and a third spike on October 4 to 6, which industry watchers believe was the final phase.
A spam update is different from a core update. Instead of broadly reassessing quality, it enforces Google’s spam policies more aggressively, targeting things like scaled content abuse (large volumes of pages with little value), expired domain abuse and site reputation abuse. Some publishers reported sharp drops in traffic and Google Discover visits, including one news site that said revenue fell around 80%, while others saw Discover traffic slowly recover as the update settled.
Google also tightened its “helpful content” rules and called out fake authors
According to Search Engine Journal, on October 1, 2026 Google quietly added a new line to its documentation on helpful content created for people: avoid using deceptive authorship information. It specifically names fabricating creator profiles (headshots generated by AI, invented names or false credentials) as a form of deception. Google says any such deception makes a page untrustworthy to both users and its automated systems, and treats it as a signal of a low quality page.
This matters because fake expertise is exactly what many sites lean on when they scale content. Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines already assign the lowest rating to pages that use deception, so this isn’t an entirely new rule. It’s Google putting in writing what it has been acting on for a while. The author names, photos and credentials on your bylines and author pages are now a visible risk if they aren’t real.
Why this matters for Vietnamese SMEs
Over the last two years, a lot of Vietnamese businesses in real estate, retail, F&B, wellness and education have tried to win SEO by publishing dozens of nearly identical AI articles, often under invented “expert” author names. That shortcut is precisely what this update and the new guidance are built to catch, and the downside is no longer theoretical: lost rankings, lost Discover traffic and a site that search engines quietly stop trusting.
The good news is that the fix is also the fundamentals. Google is rewarding content that shows real experience and genuine usefulness: a dental clinic explaining what a procedure actually feels like, a property consultant breaking down real pricing district by district, a restaurant sharing its own sourcing story. That kind of firsthand content is hard for competitors to copy, and it is exactly what both Google and AI search engines now prefer to cite.
What to do now: a practical checklist
Whether your traffic dropped or you simply want to stay on the safe side, here is where to start:
- Check your analytics for the September 24 to October 6 window, comparing organic and Discover traffic against the weeks before to see if you were affected.
- Audit your published content honestly, flagging thin, duplicated or purely AI written pages that add nothing a reader couldn’t find elsewhere.
- Fix your authorship: remove fake author profiles, AI headshots and invented credentials, and attribute content to real people with real, verifiable expertise.
- Improve before you delete. Rewrite weak pages to add firsthand experience, local detail and genuine answers rather than removing them in bulk in a panic.
- Build EEAT signals (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness): add real author bios, customer reviews, case studies, and clear contact and business information so Google and your customers can see you’re trustworthy.
Frequently asked questions
No. Google does not penalize AI content by default. It penalizes content that is unhelpful, churned out at scale or deceptive. AI is fine as a drafting assistant as long as a human adds real expertise, checks the facts, and the final page genuinely helps the reader.
Yes, but recovery from a spam update usually takes time and often isn’t confirmed until the next update. Focus on removing spammy signals and genuinely improving content quality; there is no instant “reset” button, so consistency matters far more than quick fixes.
Ask whether a real customer would find the page useful on its own, whether it reflects firsthand experience, and whether you’d be comfortable showing it to a knowledgeable friend. If the honest answer is no, that’s your priority list.
Need help cleaning up your SEO and content?
At Webie Vietnam, we help SMEs audit their websites, clean up risky content, rebuild authorship and EEAT signals, and create SEO content that earns trust from both Google and AI search. If this update hit your traffic, or you simply want to protect your site for the long term, explore our digital marketing and SEO services or reach out directly via hotline +84 969 838 467 or email huyen.dang@webie.com.vn.
Sources: Search Engine Roundtable (September 2026 spam update, phase 3); Search Engine Journal and Relevant Audience (Google’s October 1, 2026 update on helpful content and deceptive authorship).
