Google will punish sites that hijack your back button

Google has made some controversial decisions regarding its flagship search engine in recent years, but it will likely be very popular.

The company announced in a developer note (via 9to5google) that it will begin punishing websites that hijack users’ back buttons in their web browsers.

If you’re not familiar with this phenomenon, sometimes you’ll click on a link on Google and realize it’s not what you wanted. When you click the back button, instead of being redirected to Google, you will be redirected to another part of the website, an ad, or something else you didn’t want to see. This practice is also known as “history manipulation,” according to our colleagues at Lifehacker.

“We believe that user experience comes first. Hacking the Back button interferes with browser functionality, interrupts the expected user journey, and leads to user frustration,” Google wrote in an update to its anti-spam policy explaining the decision.

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I’ve certainly encountered this phenomenon over the years, and others have as well, given that Google is doing something about it.

Regardless, as usual, Google will penalize sites that engage in this practice by limiting their visibility in search rankings starting June 15. This practice is now officially classified as a “malicious practice” by the company.

“Pages that hijack the back button may be subject to manual spam actions or automated demotions, which may impact site performance in Google search results. To give site owners time to make necessary changes, we are publishing this policy two months before it takes effect on June 15, 2026,” Google wrote.

A malicious practice is something that “[creates] a mismatch between user expectations and the actual outcome, leading to a negative and misleading user experience, or compromised user security or privacy. “As someone who has been the victim of a back button hack, I would say this is perfectly fine.

Google also gave direct advice to sites and developers who use this practice: “You should remove or disable it.”

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