There's two schools of thought: 1) navigation first, content second, with a "skip to the content" link 2) content first, navigation second, with a "skip to the navigation" link
It's often argued that 2) is better for SEO, as it "top-loads" your documents, putting your relevant content fairly high up in the document - which some search engines give extra brownie points for. What you do is really up to you, though. Just be consistent in your choice. The comparison with the index of a book works...to a point. For instance, you don't have the complete index on every single page, or at the beginning of every single chapter, of the book... My GBP0.02 on the matter, anyway, Patrick ________________________________ Patrick H. Lauke Webmaster / University of Salford http://www.salford.ac.uk > -----Original Message----- > From: Nico Morgan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 18 June 2004 14:32 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [WSG] Accessibililty and the positioning of navigation > > > I am about to start teaching a web development course to a group of > teenagers and would like to clarify something in my mind before I > mislead them. > > In short, I am unhappy with the theory behind placement of navigation > at the end of documents. > > As I understand it, the idea of placing navigation at the end of the > document flow is that when the page is viewed by JAWS or other > "disability" browsers the user wants to get straight into the content > of the page rather than wade through the navigation first. Hence the > designer places the code so that with CSS it can be aboslutely > positioned but without it is below the main content of the page. > > I'm not sure I agree. Surely when you read a book, whether you are > disabled or otherwise, the contents page is one of the first things > you come to. It enables you to find the part of the book you wish to > read first. Is the same not true of web sites? If I follow a link to a > site I've not been to before I often look for the "about" link first, > to find out more about what I am reading. I certainly wouldn't want to > wade through the whole of the home page in order to get to the > navigation. > > Can someone clarify this for me? > > Nico > ***************************************************** > The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ > See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm > for some hints on posting to the list & getting help > ***************************************************** > > ***************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help *****************************************************
