Tab order and tabindex: Crawl Audit check 185

Short answer: pressing Tab should move through a page in the order you read it. A tabindex of 1 or more forces an element to the front of that queue, which usually makes the order jump around. Check 185 warns when any element uses one.

What Crawl Audit checks

• Pass: no element has a tabindex above 0.
• Warning: some do. The report shows how many.

What the sources say

• MDN: "You are recommended to only use 0 and -1 as tabindex values."
• Lighthouse: "A value greater than 0 implies an explicit navigation ordering." "Although technically valid, this often creates frustrating experiences for users who rely on assistive technologies."
• WCAG 2.4.3 Focus Order, level A, asks that focus moves "in an order that preserves meaning and operability". W3C lists misuse of tabindex as a known failure (F44).

The safe values

• tabindex="0": puts something that isn't normally focusable, like a custom widget, into the natural order.
• tabindex="-1": lets a script move focus there (for example, to an error message) without adding it to the Tab order.
• To change the order, move the element in the HTML instead. Be careful with CSS that reorders things visually, which MDN also warns about.

On devmarde.com

No element on our homepage had a tabindex above 0 on 6 October. It passes.

Sources

• MDN, tabindex.
• W3C, Understanding 2.4.3 Focus Order, and Lighthouse, tabindex audit, checked 6 October 2026.