Link every site page from the home page
On a small site the home page can act as two mechanisms at once. The ordinary navigation, and a de facto site map. G185 is that arrangement, and W3C's test has two halves. The home page links to every other page, and every other page links back to the home page. Sites usually deliver the first half and forget the second, which fails the technique even though the site map exists. W3C lists this for 2.4.5 Multiple Ways at Level AA, sufficient when combined with other techniques, because that rule asks for more than one route and no single technique can supply two. There is a free benefit. W3C notes that if every page carries links to every other page, those link sets also satisfy the Level AA rule about navigation staying consistent.
How we find it in an audit
Our reviewers crawl the site and compare the page list against what the home page links to. Then we check the return path from a handful of deep pages, since a logo linking home counts and an orphaned landing page does not. On sites past about thirty pages we stop, because this technique is not the right answer at that size.
How affected users experience it
A screen reader user who cannot find a page has no way to know whether it exists. There is no glance at a menu that shows the shape of a site. An unlinked page is simply absent. A home page that lists everything gives them one reliable index, and a link back to that index from every page means they are never more than one step from it.
Passes vs. fails
Passes
The same site's home page lists all ten pages in labeled groups, work, pricing, about and contact, and every page links back to it.
Fails
A ten-page studio site where the pricing page is reachable only through a link buried in one blog post.
Other ways to satisfy this rule
8 guides on this site are filed under 2.4.5 Multiple Ways. W3C lists this one as sufficient for that rule when combined with other techniques, so the condition is part of the test rather than a footnote to it.
- G63sufficientOffer a site map as another route
- G64sufficientProvide a table of contents for long documents
- G125sufficientLink related pages so content is findable
- G126sufficientProvide a list of links to every page
- G161sufficientAdd a site-wide search function
- H99advisoryLet users jump between pages of content
This guide is our interpretation of W3C technique G185: Linking to all of the pages on the site from the home page. W3C publishes its techniques as guidance rather than as the standard, and says so on every one of them. The success criterion is what conformance is measured against, and a technique is one documented way to meet it.