No matter how well you have written your content or how stunning your graphics may be your efforts will have been in vain if the webpage that you are designing lacks balance. By balance I am referring to the overall impression one gets when first viewing a webpage.

The human brain, when observing something like a webpage, seeks a sense of order to enable it to understand its content.

In this way we can quickly evaluate the contents of a document and decide if it is relevant to our interests. Therefore, in order to provide our visitors with a clear idea of what we are trying to say, it is necessary to balance the webpage layout.

Balancing a webpage

There are three main principles of composition to consider when balancing a webpage. They are;

Focal point: On a webpage this would be the center of interest or focal point. It should be the dominant area on any website document. Here is where your main subject is presented.
Unity: If nothing distracts your visitor from the main subject of your webpage you have unity. Unity is the tying together of all the elements of a page, during webpage construction, into a framework which supports your main theme.
Contrast: The visual impact of a webpage can be enhanced by the use of contrast. White space, colors and graphics are tools that can be used to create contrast.

Uniformly justified text

On this page all of the webpage elements are left-justified regardless of where they are positioned. This gives a clean professional appearance, it is not cluttered and is the style most commonly used for internet webpages.

fig.2 - Example of uniformly justified text

Consistency and website balance

Remember, no matter which alignment style you are using, keep it consistent. If you want your website to have a professional appearance all of your pages should use the same rules of alignment. This will enable your visitors to easily identify the main areas of each page at a glance.

Text is not the only element of a website that should remain consistent. Colors, headers, footers and styles of graphics should reflect a uniformity to your visitors as they navigate through your website. This is where the pros shine! Nothing gives that sense of quality to a website like balance.