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Google Expands Spam Policies to Penalize Back Button Hijacking

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News

TLDR

Google is adding back button hijacking—a deceptive UX trick—to its explicit spam policies, opening sites that use it to manual or algorithmic penalties.

Optimixed Overview

Optimixed's original report on this story.

SEOFOMO News reports that Google is broadening its spam policy framework to explicitly ban back button hijacking, a malicious practice that will now carry potential spam actions. The move classifies the deceptive technique under Google's malicious practices category, signaling stricter enforcement against sites that manipulate user navigation behavior to boost engagement or page metrics.

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