How to fix meta refresh on Webflow
Remove or disable any `<meta http-equiv="refresh">` tag that automatically redirects or reloads the page in under 20 hours.
Steps for Webflow
- In the Webflow Designer, open your Project Settings (the gear icon or Site Settings in the dashboard).
- Go to the Custom Code tab and check the 'Head Code' field for any `<meta http-equiv="refresh" ...>` tag — delete it if present, then Save.
- Also select individual pages in the Pages panel → click the settings gear next to each page → check the 'Custom Code' → 'Head Code' field for that page.
- If the tag was added to a component or embed element, select that element on the canvas, open its settings panel, and remove it from the HTML Embed code.
- For URL redirects, go to Project Settings → Hosting → 301 Redirects and add a proper redirect there instead.
<!-- REMOVE this tag entirely: -->
<!-- <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="10"> -->
<!-- <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=https://example.com/new-page"> -->
<!-- For URL redirects, use a server-side HTTP redirect instead.
In Apache (.htaccess): -->
<!-- Redirect 301 /old-page https://example.com/new-page -->
<!-- In Nginx: -->
<!-- return 301 https://example.com/new-page; -->What is meta refresh?
A `<meta http-equiv="refresh">` tag is a snippet of HTML code that can be placed in the `<head>` of a web page to automatically reload the current page — or send visitors to a different URL — after a set number of seconds. For example, `<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="10">` reloads the page every 10 seconds without the visitor doing anything. WCAG Success Criterion 2.2.1 (Timing Adjustable) requires that any such automatic time limit can be turned off, adjusted, or extended by the user — and a silent, instantaneous meta-refresh gives users no such control.
Automatic page refreshes are disorienting and actively harmful for users with cognitive disabilities, motor impairments, screen-reader users, and anyone who reads slowly or uses assistive technology — a sudden reload can interrupt a screen reader mid-sentence, lose a user's place on the page, or clear a partially filled form. This violates WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 2.2.1 at Level A — the most basic conformance tier — creating legal accessibility risk under laws like the ADA (US), EN 301 549 (EU), and the Equality Act (UK). Beyond accessibility, Google's crawlers and ranking signals also penalise pages that redirect or refresh unexpectedly, which can suppress your organic search rankings. Removing the tag costs nothing and immediately eliminates all of these risks.
See the complete Meta refresh guide for every platform and the full background.
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