Last night, the Google Search Center issued a new policy to expand the scope of anti-spam: hijacking the back button of a website is considered a malicious practice. If the website does not actively make corrections, it may face serious consequences such as demotion or even clearing of the index. Hijacking the back button has become a mainstream practice for many websites. This method can significantly increase website traffic, but at the cost of seriously damaging users' operational expectations. Some websites will even redirect users to advertising pages and so on.
Hijacking the back button looks like this:
Under normal circumstances, users enter a website through Google search to read certain content. After reading, they can click the back button of the browser to return to Google search and continue to view other pages. Of course, this is not limited to Google search sources. Entering another website through other websites also applies to the back operation method.
However, some websites will be hijacked by malicious code. When the user clicks the back button, it does not return to Google search, but returns to the homepage of the website or the ad recommendation page. The user may need to click the back button again to return to Google search.
What's more, it may keep jumping to different advertising pages when the user clicks the back button multiple times. The end user may have to close the tab again and reopen Google search to find the content they need.
Hijacking the back button has become a way for many websites to increase traffic, including domestic websites such as Somelang Finance, Yixin News, and foreign Techradar. However, the hijacking is usually done on the mobile version rather than the PC version.
Google starts cracking down on hijacking the back button:
Google said: Google search always puts user experience first. Hijacking the back button will interfere with the normal functions of the browser, disrupt the user's expected operation process, and make users feel frustrated. Many users have reported that this hijacking behavior makes them feel manipulated, and ultimately they are unwilling to visit unfamiliar websites.
Google emphasizes that inserting deceptive or manipulative pages into user browsing history always violates the basic principles of Google search. Google has noticed an increase in this behavior, so Google has decided to classify this behavior as malicious.
If the website does not actively cancel this malicious behavior, it may trigger manual review or automatic demotion of Google search results, ultimately leading to a decline in the website's ranking in Google search and affecting the website's normal search traffic.
Deadline: June 15, 2026. After this period, if the behavior of hijacking the back button still occurs, Google review or downgrade will be triggered.
via Google Search Center