Building Your First WordPress Website with Elementor
Learning to create a website has become a basic necessity in today’s world, digital or otherwise. To business owners, bloggers, or creative professional, having a presence online can be an instant magic wand to their accomplishment. WordPress has proven to be a rather revolutionary application for building websites for their flexibility and ease of processing from the user’s end. Elementor, an advanced page builder plugin for WordPress site, will take this a step further: giving you the ability to design amazing, fully-responsive websites without writing a single line of code.
In this post, we’re going to walk you through the step-by-step process of creating your first WordPress website, using Elementor. This is everything you will need to have your website up and running, whether you’re just getting started or already have some experience with WordPress.
Table of Contents
- What is Elementor?
- Why Choose Elementor for Building Your Website?
- How to Get Started with WordPress and Elementor
- Step 1: Setting Up Your WordPress Website
- Installing WordPress
- Choosing a Web Hosting Provider
- Selecting a Domain Name
- Step 2: Installing Elementor on WordPress
- Installing the Free Version of Elementor
- Upgrading to Elementor Pro (Optional)
- Step 3: Setting Up Your WordPress Theme
- Choosing a WordPress Theme
- Installing and Activating a Theme
- Step 4: Building Your First Page with Elementor
- Creating a New Page
- Exploring the Elementor Interface
- Using Pre-designed Templates
- Adding and Customizing Widgets
- Step 5: Designing the Homepage
- Designing with Sections and Columns
- Using Widgets for Layouts
- Adding a Hero Section
- Step 6: Customizing Your Website Design
- Styling Text and Fonts
- Customizing Colors and Backgrounds
- Using Global Settings for Consistency
- Step 7: Creating Additional Pages
- Adding an About Page
- Creating a Contact Page
- Setting Up a Blog Page
- Step 8: Optimizing Your Website for Mobile
- Responsive Design Basics
- Adjusting Mobile Layouts in Elementor
- Step 9: Publishing Your Website
- Previewing and Publishing Your Pages
- Making Your Website Live
- Step 10: Enhancing Your Website’s Functionality
- Installing Essential Plugins
- Improving Website Speed and SEO
- Conclusion
What is Elementor?
Elementor is an amazing page-builder plugin which is highly visual in WordPress and works on drag-and-drop editor for making as well as designing websites in an easier manner. In fact, just because it is completely user friendly and builds websites without writing any coding, it takes off as one of the most downloaded plugins in WordPress. Elementor has the following features: • Drag & Drop Editor: Very simply drag the widgets and drop them onto any part of your page. • Pre-Designed Templates: Have libraries with fully pre-made templates that can be used and personalized. • Responsive Design: The website appears beautiful on desktops, tablets, and mobile phones. • Widgets: Design elements for adding to your page include text boxes, images, videos, buttons, and more. • Advanced Design Possibilities: These are for the more pampered user, who can gain access to custom CSS, motion effects, and other advanced design.
Elementor is a visual page builder plugin for WordPress that lets you design and build a website using a drag and drop editor. Launching in 2016, Elementor quickly turned out to be one of the most-used WordPress plugins as it introduced a user interface that helps any user create websites without requiring coding skills. Elementor has the following features:
Drag and Drop Editor: very simply drag the widgets and drop them onto a page. Pre-Designed Templates: Libraries having fully pre-made templates, which can be used and personalized. Responsive Design: Moreover, at any point in time, this looks fantastic-on-desktops, tablets, and cell phones. Widgets: design elements for adding to your page have text boxes, images, videos, buttons, etc. Advanced Design Possibilities: These are for the luxurious user who accesses custom CSS, motion effects, and others for advanced design.
Elementor is a popular drag and drop web page builder plugin for WordPress, allowing you to create websites while simply using an editor. Since it launched in 2016, Elementor has become one of the most used WordPress plugins because it introduced a user interface that allows anyone to design websites without requiring any coding background. Many important features of Elementor include the following:
Drag and Drop Editor: very simply drag the widgets and drop them onto any part of your page.
Pre-Designed Templates: have libraries containing fully pre-made templates that can be used and personalized.
Responsive Design: Wonderful to behold on desktops, tablets, and mobile phones. Widgets: design elements for adding to your page have text boxes, images, videos, buttons, etc.
Advanced Design Possibilities: These are for the more pampered user, who can gain access to custom CSS, motion effects and other advanced design features.
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Why Choose Elementor for Building Your Website?
Currently, Elementor has turned out to be one of the finest landing page builders for WordPress because of the following postulates:
- Usability: The drag and drop architecture of handling things in this application can even be used by non-technical beginners. Anyone can create stunning beautiful sites without being a web designer or developer.
- Customization: In another sense, this tool has so much deep customization and has an option to create a site that exactly fits the specific requirements and branding.
- Speedy Development: Building a site is much faster with Elementor since it has ready templates and already available widgets as opposed to the traditional methods.
- Beginner’s Guide and Professional Application: Whatever level of do-it-yourself you are, from novice beginning to good experience as a web designer, Elementor has features that fulfill all steps on your ladder.
- Cost: There is a powerful robust free version of Elementor; however, Elementor Pro offers additional premium features at very reasonably priced costs.
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How to Get Started with WordPress and Elementor
The first step before diving into website creation with Elementor is actually creating a WordPress site. Follow the remaining steps given below to get started.
Step 1: Set up your Budding WordPress Website
Actually, building a WordPress website is relatively straight forward. Let’s break the whole down into morsels and pack it into:
Install WordPress
- Choose a Hosting Provider: A majority of hosting companies offer a one-click installation of WordPress to make the setting so easy. Here are a few major hosting providers for WordPress: Bluehost, SiteGround, Kinsta…
- Install WordPress: After signing up with your hosting provider, you will now have to install WordPress directly from your hosting dashboard. Just follow the instructions to finish the installation.
Buy Domain Name:
Like any actual site, your site will have to have at the very least one domain name (e.g. www.yoursite.com). A domain can then be purchased through your hosting provider or a different outside/third-party site selling domains, such as GoDaddy or Name cheap. Keep it simple and very easy to remember and as much relevant to your site.
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Installing Elementor on WordPress
Now that you have set up the WordPress site, you can install Elementor. Elementor has a free version and also a premium version (Elementor Pro). So the first step in using Elementor is as follows:
Install the free version of Elementor
- Login to your WordPress Dashboard.
- Go to Plugins > Add New.
- Search for “Elementor” in the search bar and click Install so now next to the Elementor plugin.
- Click Activate after the installation is complete.
Now you are ready to start using Elementor!
Upgrading Elementor Pro (Optional) The free version of Elementor has so many features and functions, but the upgrading to Elementor Pro give so many advanced features, such as the theme builder, extra widgets, premium templates, and additional customization options.
- So buy Elementor Pro from the Elementor Website.
- And after purchasing, download the Elementor Pro plugin.
- In your dashboard WordPress navigate through Plugins > Add New and click Upload Plugin.
- So upload the Elementor Pro Plugin file and Install Now.
- After installation, click Activate.
- Connect Elementor Pro to your account through the license key you found in your Elementor account.
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Setting Up Your WordPress Theme
Elementor integrates with practically every WordPress theme, although to maximize performance; it would be most appropriate to select a theme that is lightweight and fully compatible with Elementor. An excellent theme to use is the Hello Elementor theme, as it is designed specifically for use with Elementor.
Choosing a WordPress Theme
- Go to Appearance > Themes in your WordPress dashboard.
- Click Add New, then search for a theme like Hello Elementor.
- Click Install and then Activate.
Build Your First Page with Elementor
Let’s get to the meat of it now: building your site using Elementor!
Creating a New Page
- Go to Pages > Add New in your WordPress dashboard.
- Title your page (for example, “Home” becomes the homepage).
- Press the button Edit with Elementor to open the Elementor editor.
The Elementor Interface
Elementor’s interface has two parts in its main population:
~ Left Panel: It is the area where you may choose widgets and tailor their settings.
~ Right Panel: This is the area where you drag widgets, edit content, and watch it all in real-time.
Using pre-designed templates:
Elementor has hundreds of ready-to-use templates that are able to open the door within creating your page. So here’s how to use a template:
- And open the template library by clicking the folder icon at the center of the page.
- So browse the templates and pick one that catches your eye.
- Click Insert to add it to page and modify its contents.
Adding and customising widgets
Widgets in Elementor are the building blocks of your website. So basics are headings, images, buttons, videos, and much more. To add a widget:
- Simply drag the widget from the left panel onto your page.
- Click once on the widget so that it opens and customize according to your needs.
- Designing the Homepage
When it comes to visitors, the first page they see is usually the homepage, and this is the one that deserves careful designing. So designing With Sections, Columns and Elements for Control In Elementor, the layout is created with sections and columns. You will want to structure your home page in the following way:
- So click on the + sign to add your new section.
- And columns can be added. On the section, you can choose the amount of columns you wish (1, 2, 3, etc.).
- Because drag and Drop Widgets to Column: Add headings, texts, images, buttons, etc. into such columns. Adding a Hero Section the Hero section is the big space on the top of the homepage, often with a background image and a call-to-action (CTA). thus, for hero section:
- So one column for the New Section add.
- And section background image by clicking the section and going into Style, then Background.
- Add heading widget and button widget for CTA.
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8. Customizing Your Website Design
Elementor fully serves as the platform wherein all the modifications to be done are performed to the website.
Styling Text and Fonts
- And choose the widget you would like to edit.
- So changes in font size, color, and typography should be made from the Style tab located in the left panel.
Customizing Colors and Backgrounds
- From the Style tab, content options can be created for any section, column, and widget-adding them to colors and backgrounds.
- Add solid Color, Gradient or Image Background.
Using Global Settings for Consistency
“Global Settings” is a unique feature of Elementor Pro. So it allows you to set global typography, colors and layout styles which give your consistency throughout the website.
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Creating Additional Pages
Besides your homepage, there are other significant pages you can add, such as About or Contact pages.
- Go to Pages > Add new.
- Using Elementor, design that page just like you did for the homepage.
- Optimizing Your Website for Mobile
With responsive design, your website will look stunning on every device, whether it be a smartphone, a tablet, or a desktop computer. So elementor makes it easy to modify site views across various devices.
Modifying Element Mobile Layouts
- At the bottom of the Elementor panel, So there are icons related to device categories. Click on the one representing mobile and preview your website.
- So for individualized adjustments in terms of layout, font size, and spacing, consider the mobile layouts.
- Publishing Your Website
Once you’ve completed the design of your Website, it’s time for action.
- Click the Publish button in the bottom-left corner of the Elementor panel.
- Your website is now live with all the visitors!
- Expanding Your Ever-Growing Website
Now that you’ve conquered the design phase, you can literally plug in some plugins that accelerate performance, secure it more, and optimize it for search engines.
Essential Plugin Installation
There are tons of plugins one should have on its WordPress Site, including:
- Yoast SEO: So to optimize searches into search engines.
- WPForms: And for contact forms.
- W3 Total Cache: Accelerate the website.
Speeding up Your Site and Making It SEO-Friendly
To make sure that your website does good business, put it to test with Google Page Speed Insights and rectify it. So get the SEO Plugins Yoast SEO to add your content to search engines.
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Last Words
Creating your first WordPress website using Elementor is a really interesting and gratifying experience. So you can create a fully functional, professional-looking website, but absolutely without any coding skill with Elementor’s drag-and-drop editor, pre-designed templates, and powerful customization features. And From setting up WordPress to designing your homepage and optimizing your site for mobile, this step-by-step guide has everything you’ll need to get started. Have fun building!