Back Button Trap: Have you ever come across a situation where after visiting a website you want to go back to the previous page by pressing the ‘back button’, but you can’t? Instead you are stuck on the same page or suddenly a bunch of ads pop up in front of you? If this is the case, then you are a victim of ‘back button hijacking’.
Tech giant Google is coming down to reduce the suffering of internet users. From June 15, Google is making major changes to its policies.
What is back button hijacking?
Simply put, this is a dishonest strategy. Some websites artificially insert certain ‘manipulative’ pages into their browser history. As a result, when the user presses the back button, he gets stuck in a loop created by that website without returning to the previous original site. Google has identified it as “Malicious Practice”.
Why this drastic action?
According to Google, this type of behavior disrupts the normal performance of the browser and causes annoyance to users. As a result, people are afraid to visit any new website, which is harmful to the natural environment of the Internet.
What should be punished those websites?
According to Google’s new rules, websites that block users in this way can face two types of action:
Lower ranking: Those sites will be sent much lower in the search results.
Exclusion from search: Violations of the rules in extreme cases can result in the removal of the site from Google search.
What should website owners do?
Google has alerted website owners ahead of the June 15 deadline. Their advice:
Browser history cannot be tampered with.
The technical implementation of the site should be carefully considered.
It must be ensured that the user can easily navigate from one page to another.