Meta Refresh Redirects
What This Means
The page contains a <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=..."> tag that immediately redirects the visitor to another URL. This is a page-level redirect implemented in HTML rather than at the HTTP response level.
Why It Matters for SEO
Meta refresh redirects are non-standard and less reliable than HTTP 301 redirects. They can cause a brief flash of the original page content before the redirect fires, which is poor user experience. Search engines do not treat meta refresh with the same signal-passing reliability as 301 HTTP redirects — a 301 is the authoritative signal for a permanent URL change; meta refresh is a workaround.
They also cannot be executed by crawlers that do not execute JavaScript or render HTML meta tags, and they are blocked by some user security settings.
What the Platform Checks
The platform scans the page <head> for <meta http-equiv="refresh"> elements with a URL target. Fires when detected.
How to Fix It
- Replace every meta refresh redirect with a server-side 301 (permanent) or 302 (temporary) redirect.
- Implement the redirect in your server configuration (.htaccess, Nginx, CDN rules) or CMS redirect manager.
- Remove the meta refresh tag from the page template once the server-level redirect is in place.
Find every meta refreshredirect on your site
The audit flags every meta refresh redirect so you can replace them with proper HTTP-level redirects.