Google Back Button Hijacking Spam Policy (2026): What Changed and What to Check

What changed

• On 13 April 2026 Google announced that back button hijacking becomes an explicit violation of its malicious practices spam policy.
• Google defines it as a site interfering with browser navigation so that a visitor cannot immediately return to the page they came from.
• Enforcement starts on 15 June 2026, two months after the announcement.
• Affected pages may receive a manual spam action or an automated demotion, which can affect performance in Search results.
• Google notes that some back button hijacking can come from a site's included libraries or its advertising platform.

Who is affected

• Sites whose scripts, libraries or ad code interfere with the browser's back button.

What to check this week

• Review your technical implementation, including libraries and ad platform code, and remove or disable anything that interferes with the browser back button. Recommended in the platform documentation: read the official page
• If a manual action was applied and you have fixed the cause, submit a reconsideration request in Search Console. Recommended in the platform documentation: read the official page

Official sources

• Introducing a new spam policy for "back button hijacking"Google Search Central Blog · checked 7 October 2026

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