Unexpected redirects

Unexpected redirection is search spam in which the visitor ends up on a third-party site they did not choose to visit. Yandex describes it plainly: the redirection is neither obvious nor expected.

When it happens

• On opening the site from search results — the classic doorway pattern, where the page that ranked is not the page the user gets.
• On interacting with an element of the site, such as clicking what looks like an ordinary button.

Yandex’s own illustration is worth keeping: someone looking for a borscht recipe lands instead on a site selling houseplants. The mismatch between intent and destination is the violation, not the redirect mechanism.

The three-part test for a legitimate redirect

A redirect is not a violation when it is (1) apparent and obvious to the user, (2) has a clear reason, and (3) neither misleads nor harms them. Redirecting traffic to a redesigned version of the site during testing passes. So does a clearly labelled link or banner leading somewhere else with an evident purpose. Everything outside those conditions is treated as unexpected redirection.

Why innocent sites get caught

The most common cause we see is not deliberate. A compromised CMS plugin, an ad script, or a third-party widget inserts a redirect that fires only for visitors arriving from search, or only on mobile devices. The owner never sees it: they reach the site by typing the address, on a desktop, already logged in. Every internal test passes and the violation is real.

How to find and fix it

• Load the site as a search visitor would: a mobile user agent, referrer from a search result, no cookies, no session.
• Audit every script that can navigate the page — plugins, tag managers, ad scripts, chat widgets, anything added by a third party.
• Check that link destinations match what the link text and the surrounding page promise.

Then submit for review with a description of what was removed. Reinfection after a partial cleanup is common, and a second failed review costs 30 days.