When several help pages belong to one set, people should find repeated navigation items in a familiar sequence. This is about the order in which items are encountered, not about keeping identical pixel positions on every screen. A responsive layout may wrap or stack links, provided their relative sequence remains understandable.
What the rule means
For repeated navigation across a set of pages, the same items should normally stay in the same relative order unless the user has deliberately changed that order. The relevant accessibility guidance is W3C guidance on consistent navigation. Extra, page-specific navigation can be inserted without disturbing the order of the repeated items.
For example, imagine three fictional help pages with this shared navigation: Guide, Glossary, and Contact. A reader opening each page should meet those links in that sequence.
Worked comparison
Hypothetical example: preserves the order. On one page, the sequence is Guide → Glossary → Terms → Contact. The additional Terms link sits between repeated items, but Guide still comes before Glossary, and Glossary still comes before Contact.
Hypothetical example: changes the order. Another page shows Contact → Guide → Glossary. Here, the repeated links no longer follow the earlier relative sequence. A reader who moves through the help navigation must adjust to a different pattern, even if all three links remain visible.
How to check it on a mobile screen
Compare the reading sequence rather than the coordinates. Check the link order in the page structure, keyboard movement, or another reading method available to the user. Do not treat a wrapped row, a narrow-screen stack, or a changed column layout as a problem by itself. The key comparison is whether the repeated items keep their relative order.
This principle does not require every page to look identical. It supports predictable help movement while leaving room for page-specific links and responsive presentation.