After much debate, you’ve started your own website. You’ve decided on your colors and basic layout, but now what? It’s time to add content! As they say, content is king and they are definitely right. It is the most important part of every website. Your content is what search engines will feature in their index and what your visitors will be coming to read.
So, what is the best way to display your content? If you’ve just answered this question with the phrase, “centered on the page”, you may want to continue reading. You could be in for a surprise.
It’s true, many new web designers center all or much of their content. In fact, this is one of the design flaws that separate beginner web designers from the professionals. Having a predominantly centered web page is a dead give-away that an amateur designer has created the website.
You might be asking yourself, “but why is centered text that big of an issue?” The answer is simple. It goes against our natural way of reading. Since childhood, we are taught to read from left to right, on pages that are left-aligned. Changing this format, even a little, won’t affect how search engines view your pages, but it can make your content more difficult to read for your actual visitors.
So, the next time you want to center-align the majority of your page’s content, remember that not only will you come across as a beginner web designer, but it will also make your content harder to read for your visitors. Making your content as easy to read as possible will please your visitors and help to encourage them to return to your website in the future.
