Since access to information is key, use access keys

Providing access key navigation is a good policy

Why is access key navigating so important to a good business website?

Accessible website navigation information for our intended audience

Our website was written to provide easy to understand explanations about good business web site design and search engine optimization, or seo information for business website owners that already have a poorly performing website. Our site was not originally intended to provide how-to information for web site designers, even though it certainly does! The information about websites that every business owner needs, is the same information that most website designers are constantly searching the internet for! How to get a successful website and how search engines work to help a website get good results. Our goal is simply to provide the business website shopper with the quality information needed to make an informed investment decision.

Designing a new company website or optimizing a website is an important business decision. Understanding your website design options, can make the process a little easier, safer and a lot more cost-effective. Navigating through the maze of graphical website designers and important website decisions, can be an almost overwhelming task. SEO Design trys to make your research time more productive, so providing simple navigation features is just the beginning. As you read our site, you'll certainly discover how to get a website for business.

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Access key List and Navigation Descriptions

You can use this access key list anywhere on our site. Try them!

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How do access keys work?

Using access keys provides a fast and simple method for navigating around a web site without using a mouse. For some people, it's the only way to access information. With millions of people worldwide now using cell phones and other portable devices to access web sites, access key features have become critical to successful business websites. When you pay for the internet connection by the amount of useless data you download, wasting time and money trying to find information on a business website can be very annoying! If your cute little menu buttons don't show up, they can't get to the information at all.

Access keys are a single letter or number, combined with the alt function, that provide direct links to specific pages or sections of the current page. An example of an important access key is alt+g: It focuses your cursor on the site search input window. Simply pressing Enter after pressing alt+x, retrieves a listing of all the pages on our site with information related to the current page. Alternatively, you can press alt+g and type in a new phrase to get a page list on a different subject.

Why have an accessible web site? Websites that are accessible to nearly everyone, provide benefits to all web site users.

Please note, there are (2) additional special access keys:

On most of our accessible web pages, you will see the links, Previous Page (b) / Next page (n), directly above the page validation links (at the bottom of the page). These access key links allow users to jump to the previous information page or the next page on a related topic. We try to follow a Key Concept, allowing visitors to access a sequence of pages that follow directly related topics. If you reach a page topic that is not related to your original enquiry or search phrase, simply go to our accessible menu (alt+i) to find the information page topic you need.

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Describing the function of access keys

When you move your cursor over a "link", you can often learn things about it, even before you press the left mouse button. You can see the destination address of the link (or a page description) in the status bar. You can often see additional information in the little text box that often appears beside your cursor.

What would you do without your mouse?

You would certainly hope that somebody had designed and built websites that could be accessed and navigated in some other way! That is exactly what access keys do. Using the "Tab key" on your keyboard, you can quickly move from link to link, over the entire page. Stopping at each [content] (bypass this section link), you can Tab to enter that section (and then Tab from link to link) or press [ENTER] to skip to the Next Information Section. Pressing SHIFT+TAB will move back one link. Should you press enter, to follow a link, pressing the [BACKSPACE] key brings you back to the same place you jumped from.

Access keys (alt+?) make navigating directly to a specific link much faster. It may take a little practice, but its actually quicker and simpler than using a mouse.

Tabindex for Navigation Priority

Our website uses a Tabindex to set the priority Tab order for each important link. (The Tabindex sequence is the same on every page.)

We only have (1) tabindex priority. When a new web page loads, press the tab button until our first [ content ] link (in the upper left corner of the access key menu) is highlighted. If you press Enter, you will jump to the main and page Menu (Skip to Page Menu (p)) link. From any [content] link, pressing Enter allows you to move around the entire page. Pressing Tab at any [content] link, will take you into the menu or text section, to the first available link.

If you only remember alt+a, you can always come directly to this page and see the instructions again!

The [ content ] link allows users to by-pass the page section or menu and skip to the next information section on the page.

Browser Note: These instructions work well for Internet Explorer only. Mozilla and Opera web browsers operate differently and the user should be aware that there are limitations regarding access keys for these web browsers.

Mozilla requires shift+alt+accesskey and then will jump to the linked resource immediately (without pressing enter).

Opera - Due to Opera's many keyboard shortcuts you have to escape Opera's keyboard mode before using access keys. In order to do this, key in SHIFT+ESC preceding the ALT combination.

Before you try to design an award winning website:

Should you find our accessible web site information useful and wish to link directly to this web page, simply copy and paste the following link text onto any of your site's pages:

<a href="http://www.seowebsitesdesigners.com/accessible_web_pages/howtonavigate.html">How to navigate a website</a>

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