How to fix meta refresh on WooCommerce
Remove or disable any `<meta http-equiv="refresh">` tag that automatically redirects or reloads the page in under 20 hours.
Steps for WooCommerce
- In your WordPress Admin, go to Appearance → Theme File Editor (or use a child theme and edit files via FTP/SFTP).
- Open your active theme's 'header.php' file and search for 'http-equiv' or 'refresh'.
- Delete the `<meta http-equiv="refresh" ...>` tag if found, then save.
- If it is not in 'header.php', check if a plugin is injecting it: go to Plugins → Installed Plugins and deactivate plugins one at a time while retesting, or search plugin files via FTP for the string 'http-equiv=.refresh'.
- If you need a URL redirect instead, install a plugin such as 'Redirection' (free) and create a proper 301/302 server-side redirect there.
- For live content updates (e.g. stock levels), consult your developer about using WooCommerce's REST API with JavaScript polling rather than a full page refresh.
<!-- 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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