<META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh"
The refresh tag sends your page to another address.
s-URL

<META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="3;URL=http://www.some.org/some.html">

Refresh META Tag
By Submit Corner
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Overview: The Refresh Tag defines the number of seconds before refreshing your webpage

The refresh META tag is used as a way to redirect or refresh users to another webpage after X number of seconds. This META tag is often used as a "bridge" page which is accessed first by users and are then redirected to another webpage. Some search engines discourage this type of META tag because it opens opportunity for users to spam search engines with similar pages which all lead to the same page. In addition, this also makes many of the search engines databases cluttered with irrelevant and multiple versions of the same data.

The Refresh META Tag is not a META tag which should be used on pages you submit to search engines. Most search engines have algorithms that will detect the Refresh tag and may either setup their system to ignore the particular page, your entire site or may even ban your host entirely. For this reason, we strongly suggest you do not use this tag.

Recommended Usage: Not Recommended for use

Meta Refresh: Specifies a delay in seconds before the browser automatically reloads the document or URL specified. The number before the URL is the delay in seconds which the browser will "pause" before the redirect is performed.
 

Example: <META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="3;URL=http://www.domain.com/page.html">
 

Example:
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=newpage.html">

It's effect is to automatically load the next page in the number of seconds specified. The example would fetch the next page in 0 seconds. It is sometimes used unscrupulously to redirect surfers to sites and pages that they didn't choose to go to. The search engines are wise to it and penalise sites and pages that use this technique. The moral is - don't do it. The main appropriate use for the meta refresh is a non-search related redirect, e.g., a magazine printed a nonexistent URL in an article. Even in that case, other redirection methods are probably better.

Recommendation: Definately avoid. Search engines can detect the use of this tag and they consider it as Spam. Penalty is either ignoring the page, or banning your site competely from the index.

The 'refresh' meta tag

Example:
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=newpage.html">

It's effect is to automatically load the next page in the number of seconds specified. The example would fetch the next page in 0 seconds. It is sometimes used unscrupulously to redirect surfers to sites and pages that they didn't choose to go to. The search engines are wise to it and penalise sites and pages that use this technique. The moral is - don't do it. The main appropriate use for the meta refresh is a non-search related redirect, e.g., a magazine printed a nonexistent URL in an article. Even in that case, other redirection methods are probably better.

<META HTTP-EQUIV=Refresh CONTENT="10; URL=http://www.htmlhelp.com/">

tells the browser to load http://www.htmlhelp.com/ 10 seconds after the current document has finished loading. Not all browsers support this, so authors should provide an alternate means of moving to the new page where necessary. The Refresh header is sometimes used for "splash screens" or when a page has moved, but the technique is not very effective since users may not even be looking at the window that is to be refreshed and since it messes up the user's history on many browsers. Some search engines penalize pages that use a Refresh of a few seconds or less.

This use of the META element causes a document to be automatically loaded after a specified number of seconds. This form uses the HTTP-EQUIV attribute as the identifier in the META statement with a value of "Refresh". The CONTENT attribute can be either an integer value [N] representing the number of seconds to wait before refreshing the current page, or a combination value separated by a semi-colon representing a time value [N] and a URL page destination [URL].

Syntax 1: <meta HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="[N]">

Syntax 2: <meta HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="[N]; URL=[URL]">

Example:

<meta HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="5; URL=http://www.foo.com/foo.html">