Google Is Finally Taking a Stand Against 'Back Button Hijacking'

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It's one of the most annoying things a website can do: You visit a page, take a look, and decide for whatever reason you need to head back to the previous page you were on. Only when you click the back button, or you use a keyboard shortcut to go back a page, the current site simply reloads. So, you try again, only to reload the site once more. What gives? This is back button hijacking.

Back button hijacking is an aggressive tactic websites can use to try to keep you browsing their pages for longer. By taking over your ability to go back a page, they can keep you on the same page, redirect you to other pages, or present you with ads you normally wouldn't have seen. It's a scummy thing to do, though it isn't reserved to "malicious" websites—I've experienced it on websites big and small. It's an effective tactic for any website that wants to inflate its sessions. The rest of us hate it. Including Google, it seems.

Back button hijacking's days are numbered

Google is now doing something about this practice. In a Monday post on its Google Search Central Blog, Google officially labeled it an explicit violation of the "malicious practices" section of its spam policy, placing it alongside malware and unwanted software downloads as examples of practices Google says "create a mismatch between user expectations and the actual outcome, leading to a negative and deceptive user experience, or compromised user security or privacy." You bet it does.

When it comes to back button hijacking, Google says that users who experience the practice feel manipulated, and are less likely to visit unfamiliar sites in the future. In short, it's not just annoying; it interrupts the overall experience of surfing the web, and makes the internet a worse place to explore.

Google is warning website owners that instances of back button hijacking may result in manual spam actions, which require users to fix the issue (in this case, back button hijacking) and request a manual review by Google before the it can be marked resolved. Google says these sites may also be subject to automated demotions. Both of these actions can affect how sites are ranked in Google search results. Google advises all website owners to carefully review their sites to remove or disable any code, imports, or configurations that result in back button hijacking—even if those instances came from ad platforms or existing libraries, not just the site owner's intended design. If you know your site is using a script to prevent users from returning to the previous page, you must remove it.

When will back button hijacking rules be enforced?

Unfortunately, you may not see back button hijacking disappear overnight. Google is giving website owners a two month head start before the policy is put in place—but as of June 15, back button hijacking will be prohibited, and will result in consequences from Google.