Google punishes sites for back button hijacking

Starting in June 2026, Google will penalize websites that engage in back button hijacking, a deceptive practice that manipulates browser history to prevent users from returning to previous pages. This behavior, often used to increase pageviews on ad-driven sites, will be classified as a malicious practice under Google's existing policy. Sites found guilty of this will face demotion in search rankings, impacting their visibility and traffic. Google aims to ensure a more predictable and trustworthy user experience by enforcing that the back button functions as expected.