Introducing a new spam policy for "back button hijacking"     Google Search Central Blog     Google for Developers

DRANK

April 13, 2026Today, we are expanding our spam policies to address a deceptive practice known as "back button hijacking", which will become an explicit violation of the "malicious practices" of spam policies, leading to potential spam actions.What is back button hijacking?When a user clicks the "back" button in the browser, they have a clear expectation: they want to return to the previous page. Back button hijacking breaks this fundamental expectation. It occurs when a site interferes with a user's browser navigation and prevents them from using their back button to immediately get back to the page they came from. Instead, users might be sent to pages they never visited before, be presented with unsolicited recommendations or ads, or are otherwise just prevented from normally browsing the web.Why are we taking action?We believe that the user experience comes first. Back button hijacking interferes with the browser's functionality, breaks the expected user journey, and results in user…