webdude - 2:07 pm on Sep 10, 2004 (gmt 0)

Everything I have studied and read on meta refreshes and Google tells me not to use meta refreshes. It is bad practice and could be subject to removal by Google. I always thought that was the case, so I never used them. I can find hundreds of documents supporting this. All of them say that if neccessary, set the refresh rate high or you will be penalized by Google. Just search "google" "meta refresh" and you will see what I mean.

Also, almost all references to meta refresh in google answers say that it is a bad practice to use them. In fact, it was considered a popular spam ploy years ago and was used frequently by spam sites.

Something changed and changed drastically. Now there are many meta refreshes showing up in the SERPs. And if I got the timing right, this started right around the Florida fiasco.

I read all these posts of webmasters losing pages in the SERPs, sudden drops in referrals, etc etc., especially since Florida and I wonder if some of this might be related. I have found several of my sites with this problem. Thankfully, the other sites rank higher then the refreshes, and have stayed that way for some time.

But the site now in question has been REPLACED by a meta refresh. Two weeks ago, my home page ranked #50 for a specific key phrase, as of last Monday, the #50 spot is a link to a different site with a meta refresh to my site. My page is gone.

Pretty neat trick if you ask me. I think it needs to be fixed. Google is now broken and anyone can do this. I wonder how many sites will fall before the G takes notice?