BasicSEO: mediumInside <head>

meta refresh

Instructs the browser to reload the page or redirect to another URL after a specified number of seconds.

The meta refresh tag can redirect users to another URL or reload the current page after a delay. It was historically used for redirects before server-side redirects were widely understood. Google can follow meta refresh redirects and will treat a 0-second meta refresh as a redirect, passing most link equity to the destination (though not as reliably as a 301).

Meta refresh redirects are not recommended for SEO. Use server-side 301 redirects instead — they are faster, more reliable, cleaner for Googlebot, and pass link equity more predictably. Meta refresh also creates accessibility issues: users who need more time to read content may be redirected before they finish, and screen readers handle meta redirects inconsistently.

The only valid use case for meta refresh in 2026 is auto-refreshing dashboard or status pages that legitimately need to reload periodically (use a long delay, not 0).

HTML Example

<!-- Auto-redirect after 0 seconds (not recommended — use 301 instead): -->
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=https://example.com/new-page">

<!-- Auto-reload dashboard every 30 seconds: -->
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="30">

Attributes

http-equivMust be "refresh".
contentNumber of seconds before action. Optionally followed by "; url=..." for a redirect.
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