Google may now use your search spam reports for manual actions, and the text in those reports may be sent “verbatim” to the site owner you report.

What Google said. Google wrote it has “Clarified that Google may use spam report submissions to take manual action against violations.”

The new text says:

“Ranking manipulation techniques that attempt to compromise the quality of Google’s search results violate our spam policies and can negatively impact a site’s ranking. Google may use your report to take manual action against violations. If we issue a manual action, we send whatever you write in the submission report verbatim to the site owner to help them understand the context of the manual action. We don’t include any other identifying information when we notify the site owner; as long as you avoid including personal information in the open text field, the report remains anonymous.”

Spam reports used for manual actions. Google framed this as a clarification — that it may use spam reports for manual actions. However, it seems to contradict Google’s earlier statements that it doesn’t use spam reports for manual actions. This feels like more than a clarification to me.

Your spam report text sent along. Google also said it may send the text you include in a spam report directly to the site owner. Google wrote:

• “Send whatever you write in the submission report verbatim to the site owner to help them understand the context of the manual action. We don’t include any other identifying information when we notify the site owner; as long as you avoid including personal information in the open text field, the report remains anonymous.”

Google also warned that you should avoid including personal information or anything you don’t want the site owner to see.

Why we care. This appears to be a significant change from how Google previously handled spam reports. If you submit them, be aware of these changes and adjust your reports accordingly going forward.

Google has issued a new warning to sites using back button hijacking techniques, saying those sites have two months to remove or disable those techniques. If they do not, they will be subject to both subject to manual spam actions or automated demotions within Google Search.

Back button hijacking. Google explained that “when a user clicks the “back” button in the browser, they have a clear expectation: they want to return to the previous page. Back button hijacking breaks this fundamental expectation.” Google added:

• “It occurs when a site interferes with a user’s browser navigation and prevents them from using their back button to immediately get back to the page they came from. Instead, users might be sent to pages they never visited before, be presented with unsolicited recommendations or ads, or are otherwise just prevented from normally browsing the web.”

While Google has previously said this has no impact on Google Search, that will change in two months.

June 15, 2026. Starting in about two months, June 15, 2026, Google will begin enforcement of this action. “We believe that the user experience comes first. Back button hijacking interferes with the browser’s functionality, breaks the expected user journey, and results in user frustration. People report feeling manipulated and eventually less willing to visit unfamiliar sites,” Google added.

Why now? Google said they have “seen a rise of this type of behavior, which is why we’re designating this an explicit violation of our malicious practices policy, which says:”

• “Malicious practices create a mismatch between user expectations and the actual outcome, leading to a negative and deceptive user experience, or compromised user security or privacy.”

Google is now giving sites two months notice to take action. “To give site owners time to make any needed changes, we’re publishing this policy two months in advance of enforcement on June 15, 2026,” Google wrote.

Why we care. If you are using this technique, you probably want to remove it from your pages. You have a couple of months to make the change before any penalties or actions are taken against your website.