How to center search results in Less, instead of moving matched line to top of terminal
You can use the -j option. From within less, type - then j then enter a number of lines below the top of the screen for the target line to be displayed (e.g. 12).
You can start less using this option:
less -j12
or set the LESS environment variable to include it:
export LESS=-j12
My $LESS is:
-iMFXRj4a#1
You can include setting the environment variable in your ~/.bashrc file to make it persistent.