• Layouts provide reusable features/page structures for sections of the site.
• You are able to associate portlets with layouts.
• When creating a page, you must select a layout.
• This allows for creation of reusable elements from page to page.  If 25 pages have the same portlet, a layout would be used.  Layout changes would be reflected on all 25 pages.
• Using layouts makes management of similar or shared resources much easier.

Below is an example of a Layout