Google Says No to Back Button Hijacking on Browsers, Details Punishments for the Practice

Google is putting its foot down on “back button hijacking,” an infamous deceptive practice where users are kept on a long loop of pressing the back button but are either not brought anywhere or redirected to other pages instead of the previous one.

While some may deduce that ads are preventing them from going back, the website itself that hosts the ads is the one locking them on that specific page and not allowing them to return.

Google Says No to Back Button Hijacking on Browsers

Google has explained in their latest blog post on the Google Search Central that they are now introducing a new spam policy on back button hijacking, which is now considered by the platform as a deceptive practice.

According to Google, back button hijacking is a practice where users click the “back” button, but instead of being brought to the previous page, they are directed to other pages, made to stay on the current one, or bombarded with unwanted ads.

Google expects that websites should make the back button work as intended, and when users click on it, they should be taken back to the previous page they saw.

With this, Google is now categorizing it as part of malicious practices under the spam policies of the platform, saying that websites that continue these practices in the future will violate its guidelines.

Google Will Punish Back-Button Hijackers, Websites

According to Google, pages that practice back button hijacking “may be subject to manual spam actions or automated demotions,” which will impact the site’s performance in Google Search results.

The company said that it is now giving site owners time to make the necessary changes as the new policy will take effect in two months, specifically on June 15, 2026.

Google said that sites that practice this should ensure that they are not “doing anything to interfere with a user’s ability to navigate their browser history” or else face the punishments that the company has laid out.

Should back button hijacking stem from the site’s included libraries or ad platform, Google still wants them to remove or disable any code to prevent the malicious practice.

The latest policy change came after Google allowed AI-generated headlines from Discover to Search.

Originally published on Tech Times