Pagejacking is an illicit technique used in the field of search engine optimization where someone steals content from a legitimate website and copies it onto their own, often with the intention of redirecting traffic from the original site to the fraudulent one. This is typically done by copying the HTML source code of a web page, which can include meta tags and other SEO-optimized content, and then placing it on another site to mislead search engines.
The aim is to trick search engines into ranking the fraudulent page higher in search results due to its seemingly relevant and authoritative content. When users click on the search result thinking they are visiting the original, reputable site, they are instead taken to the imposter site which can often be loaded with malware, spam, or advertisements.
Page jacking is considered a form of copyright infringement and is also against the terms of service of most search engines. It can result in penalties against the offending site, including removal from search engine indexes entirely.
