header function vs. meta refresh tag on multiple servers (not spamming)

[mottwsc]

I have a PHP application that I'm separating into multiple servers to distribute the workload.  For example, there will be servers for logging in and servers for maintaining profiles, etc.  In general, I use a base page that has the PHP processing logic and then I include another page in it that displays the html for what the user sees.

 

I use a header function a good bit in the base pages to redirect the user to a new page based on what happens in the processing logic.  Since they are in the base page, they always occur before the header of the included page so they work fine.

header('Location: http://www.example.com/');

 

I have another part of the application where I need to refresh one of the included html pages because I'm displaying a timer that is counting down to an event.  When the countdown ends, the page refreshes.  I'm using a meta refresh tag for this, and the content value shown here as 0 is synched up with the timing of the event.

<meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="0; url=http://www.yourdomain.com/index.html">

 

Now, because of the multiple servers, I'm trying to determine the best way to create a function that will allow me to redirect to different servers - using the meta refresh tag (which I will still need to use for the one page uses it now for the timers) or the header functions (which are embedded in the base code).  Maybe I need both because of where they are in the code.  My hesitation in using the meta refresh tag more is that, by using it in most/all of my pages for server redirection, I could get tagged by the search engines as a potential spammer.

 

Can anyone with experience in multiple server environments provide any guidance?

 

Thanks!