Manual action recovery

Back Button Hijacking - Manual Action Recovery

Google has detected that pages on your site stop visitors using their back button to return to where they came from, so we find the script responsible, remove it and get the manual action reviewed.

Free recovery brief · Written diagnostic · Fixed quote before booking

Is this the message in your Search Console?

Google’s Manual Actions report ↗

Search Console / Report example

Manual actions

Back button hijacking

WHAT IS A BACK BUTTON HIJACKING MANUAL ACTION?

Back button hijacking is when a site interferes with the visitor's browser navigation by manipulating the browser history or other functionality, so that pressing back doesn't take them straight to the page they came from. Google treats it as a violation of its spam policy on malicious practices, and it's one of the newest manual actions in the Manual actions report, which means there is very little guidance out there on dealing with it and a lot of site owners receiving it have never heard the term before.

WHAT DOES IT DO TO YOUR SITE?

The manual action affects the pages where the behaviour was detected, and Google states that repeated violations of the policy may lead to further manual actions and affect the site's overall ranking, so it needs to be removed properly across the whole site and not just patched on the URLs listed in the notice.

Scope: Affected pages and scripts
Typical clean-up time: Estimated after diagnosis
Review time: Several days or weeks

WHY DID GOOGLE ISSUE IT?

A script on the page inserts extra entries into the browser history so that pressing back keeps the visitor on your site or reloads the same page

Pressing back sends the visitor to an interstitial, an advert, a recommendations page or a "before you go" offer that they never visited

An advertising, monetisation or "exit intent" library you've added to the site includes this behaviour, and you may not have known it did

A third-party content recommendation widget takes over navigation in order to push more page views

The code was deliberately added at some point to reduce bounce rate or increase page views per session

HOW DO WE FIX IT?

We reproduce the behaviour on the affected pages across different browsers and devices, arriving from a Google search result in the same way a reviewer would
Navigation reproduction
Evidence log · Back button hijacking
Affected URL or template
Action taken
Verification date
We audit every script on those pages, first-party and third-party, for use of the browser history API, back and unload event handlers and redirects triggered on navigation
Script inventory
Evidence log · Back button hijacking
Affected URL or template
Action taken
Verification date
We identify the code or the imported library responsible and disable or remove it, speaking to the vendor where it turns out to be part of a third-party product
Responsible code removed
Evidence log · Back button hijacking
Affected URL or template
Action taken
Verification date
We test every template on the site to confirm that the back button now returns the visitor immediately to the page they came from
Browser retest
Evidence log · Back button hijacking
Affected URL or template
Action taken
Verification date
We write and submit the reconsideration request
Submission record
Evidence log · Back button hijacking
Affected URL or template
Action taken
Verification date

WHAT GOES INTO THE RECONSIDERATION REQUEST?

The request names the script or library that was causing the behaviour, explains how it came to be on the site, confirms that it has been removed sitewide and gives the reviewer example URLs to test for themselves.

Reconsideration request service →

Questions about recovery

I didn't add anything like this, so how did it get on my site?

Google's guidance refers to disabling code or imports, and in practice this kind of behaviour often arrives inside a third-party advertising or engagement script that was added for another reason, which is why every script on the page needs checking.

Is an exit intent pop-up back button hijacking?

A pop-up shown when the cursor leaves the window is a different thing, the policy is about preventing the visitor from using the back button to return immediately to the page they came from.

How long does recovery take?

Your diagnostic will include a clean-up estimate, and Google’s review usually takes several days or weeks, with link reviews sometimes taking longer.

Start your recovery brief