Page uses meta refresh redirect: what it is, why it matters, and how to fix it

This page uses a <meta http-equiv="refresh"> tag to redirect users to another URL. Meta refresh redirects are slower than server-side redirects and may not pass full link equity.

Google treats meta refresh redirects with a delay of 0 as 301 redirects, but longer delays may be treated as soft redirects that do not pass full ranking signals. Meta refreshes also create a poor user experience with a visible flash of content before redirection. Server-side 301 redirects are always preferred.

Replace the meta refresh redirect with a proper server-side 301 redirect. Configure the redirect in your web server (nginx, Apache) or application routing layer. If a server-side redirect is not possible, use JavaScript window.location as a fallback, but server-side is strongly preferred.

This is a medium-severity issue: individually modest, but it compounds — dozens of medium issues across hundreds of pages add up to a real quality deficit in how search engines assess the site. It belongs to the crawlability family of checks.

Run a free Dr Urls audit: it crawls your site, detects page uses meta refresh redirect on every affected page, shows example URLs, and generates a ready-to-use fix task. Re-scan after fixing to verify the issue is gone.