On April 13, 2026 Google announced a new spam policy for “back button hijacking”. That’s when a site owner inhibits users from returning to the last page they visited from in an attempt to trick them into remaining on their site. Those sites typically show a page with even more content and ads, and it can even look like Google Discover in some cases. It’s super deceptive, it annoys users, and now it annoys Google.
Google explained that site owners have until June 15, 2026 to make changes or they could receive a manual action (or even experience algorithmic demotions). For example, there are manual actions implemented by humans, but Google does roll out spam updates from time to time (which are algorithmic updates). Anyway, they gave sites two-months notice, which is fair.
As you can tell, I’m not a fan of hijacking the back button (on several levels). In September of 2024 I wrote an article covering the tactic and even said Google should implement a new spam policy for that! See the quote below. I also explained how hijacking the back button was often the tip off the iceberg from a quality standpoint. I was tracking a number of sites that were ‘back button hijacking’ and you could clearly see that some had been heavily impacted by major algorithm updates over time. The user experience on many of those sites was terrible, with aggressive and disruptive ads all over the place. So, ‘hijacking the back button’ was just icing on the UX cake…
Hijack Watch: Tracking the back button hijackers.
Over time I have collected a list of sites that were hijacking the back button. I was initially doing that in preparation for the post I wrote in 2024, but then my goal switched to understanding the impact from the new spam policy that was announced in April 2026. For example, I was able to check how sites responded AFTER Google announced its new spam policy.
Out of the list of sites I was tracking over time, 25 were still hijacking the back button when Google announced the new policy in April. So I waited a bit and just checked them again to see how many have stopped hijacking the back button as manual actions loom. Again, sites have until June 15, 2026 to stop hijacking the back button or they can receive a manual action, or even an algorithmic demotion (possibly during a future spam update).
So, did the sites take action and stop hijacking the back button? I dug in to find out. The results are below…
Manual actions drive change: How many sites stopped ‘back button hijacking’ after Google’s announcement?
Well, the fear of manual actions does drive change… Out of the 25 sites that were still hijacking the back button when the policy was announced, 19 have stopped hijacking the back button. That leaves just six that continue ‘back button hijacking’ (at least for now). I tested the sites both on desktop and mobile multiple times and the changes were clear. Most of the sites decided to just remove that functionality, which is smart on several levels.
For the six that have continued hijacking the back button, they still drive users to a page that resembles Google Discover, which can trick users into thinking they might have actually clicked back (if that’s where they were arriving from). The page either links to additional content from the publisher or to ads that resemble content. That means users can end up downstream on another publisher’s website. Again, it’s super deceptive and can be incredibly frustrating for users.
Here are two examples from sites that continue to hijack the back button. I provided both the desktop and mobile versions for each site:
And here’s the second site (both desktop and mobile):
So, are those publishers just waiting a bit longer before removing the hijacking functionality or are they going to keep it and face a manual action? If visibility in Google is important for the sites (which I would think it is…), then I expect at least some of the remaining six to stop hijacking the back button in the new few weeks. Time will tell. I’ll probably check back again right before the June 15th deadline.
The Gray Area – Back Button Detection:
When testing the various sites in my list, a few things stood out. Even when hijacking was removed, many of the sites had terrible user experiences. It was hard to even see the content sometimes… The aggressive, disruptive, and deceptive ads were horrible. There was auto-playing video, several popups triggering, many ads surrounding the content, skin ads, etc. To be honest, there was no way I would stay on several off those sites unless I had to… And for publishers, that is not the type of reaction you want from users.
I have covered many times in posts and presentations the risk of angering users. With Navboost being an important system to Google, you definitely do not want to frustrate users… The negative user interaction signals that many users are sending Google could come back to bite site owners pushing the limits UX-wise. Beware.
But I did notice another twist for several of the sites that stopped hijacking the back button. In its place, they are now detecting when users are about to click the back button and then they trigger a popup. It probably doesn’t violate the spam policy, but it’s super annoying and a bit creepy. Even if it doesn’t violate the spam policy, it will still yield terrible user interaction signals. I’ll reach out to Google to see if they have any feedback about ‘back button detection’.
Again, I would caution site owners to not anger and frustrate users. Navboost is a powerful system for Google that measures 13 months of user interaction signals and can impact rankings. You don’t want to be on the wrong side of Navboost.
Summary: Will more publishers stop ‘back button hijacking’ as the deadline looms?
We are now just three weeks away from Google’s deadline for ‘’back button hijacking’. If site owners do not stop hijacking the back button, they face receiving a manual action, and possibly even an algorithmic action (via spam updates). Based on the list of 25 sites I just checked that were still hijacking the back button when Google announced its new spam policy, 19 have removed the functionality already. And with the remaining six publishers in my list, they still have some time to change. I’ll keep a close eye on the situation as we approach the deadline on June 15, 2026. Stay tuned.
GG