As a website designer, I’m kind of expected to use the most high-end and often the most complicated methods to build my site. That’s why I wanted to give you an insight into WHY I started using Elementor for my website design and how it has improved my site. It’s all gathered in 8 reasons to start using Elementor + additional hacks on how to make it happen.
It’s been a few years since I become a WordPress website creator. What I do is rather simple – I set up and update existing themes so they’d align with my client branding and needs. I don’t code, I don’t create sites from zero. But it’s still a lot of work that many can’t or don’t want to do on their own.
Along with that, comes a very time-consuming WordPress theme research which I enjoy tons. You can read several related articles, for example, things to keep in mind when choosing a WordPress theme and the best theme review for bloggers.
All of which creates the expectation that I’ll have chosen the top-notch themes and frameworks for my own site.
Instead of making a $100+ purchases and picking from the so-called high-end professional options, I’ve chosen a FREE Drag & Drop editor for my site – Elementor.
It’s an editor that professionals might frown upon but I had my reasons to start using Elementor and it all worked out for the best.
What is Elementor?
A short intro before we dive into it!
Elementor is “the worlds leading WordPress page builder”, as it says on their site.
Let’s say, you’ve started a WordPress site, installed a free theme and most of your site looks like crap.
You have no idea how to make your pages pretty, like other bloggers and content creators have.
The theme is limiting, it’s not offering you enough options to work with. You get easily frustrated. I’ve been there!
That’s when you go and install free Elementor plugin. Proceed to section Pages. Create a new Page and choose Edit with Elementor. And, may I say, VOILA! This simplicity is just one of the reasons to start using Elementor.
You have a chance to build your pages using a Drag & Drop editor with a variety of features: add the background image or color, update text size, color, font, add images, add recent blog posts, create a full-width or boxed page, choose one or five columns, add spacing…
Do you see where I’m going with this?
Elementor is a page builder. Just like it. Build – your – pages.
8 reasons to start using Elementor
Let me say this. At first, I didn’t like it. Although the system to use was rather simple, I found it a bit hard to work with.
But just like it is with anything – it just took a bit of time and practice.
After around the third try over the year, I finally decided to redesign my site based on Elementor. You can now see it on my Homepage, Pinterest graphics offer as well as elsewhere around the site.
Here are my 8 reasons to start using Elementor:
REASON #1 Drag & Drop editor
As already mentioned, Elementor is a Drag & Drop editor. Which means you have a chance to edit your pages in real time. Resize, update, change, delete. Open your site and edit the details.
It has a variety of features you can put on your page and use as you like.
REASON #2 It’s FREE
It is one of the rare plugins and website creators that is fully functional and absolutely free. There is NO NEED to upgrade unless you want even more options (like additional Widgets and Templates).
However, I really have managed to create all of the pages without upgrading – and I never felt the slightest need of it.
REASON #3 Almost unlimited options
I won’t say “absolutely unlimited” because… well… unless you’re a developer, most of the Drag & Drop editors WILL limit your options at least a bit.
Anyhow, Elementor really has ALL the functions one might need. If you’re a blogger, coach, online business owner, writer, trainer, cook… Elementor will give you a chance to build a site you need.
REASON #4 Mobile friendly
Having a responsive and mobile friendly website is crucial these days. Some have noticed that even more than 80% of their site visitors come from mobile platforms!
With Elementor, you can easily adjust all of the details both for desktop and mobile. For example, when you’d like to have more spacing on the desktop while having none of it on mobile – it’s absolutely possible!
It also gives an easy to use preview where you can see how your site will look like, in real time.
REASON #5 The option to save your designs as a template
Instead of duplicating existing pages with yet another plugin or struggling to find a way HOW exactly you did “that one thing” in the other page, one of the best features is the option to save your design as a template.
Once done, you can start any new page with your template and just work on the updates. A huge time saver!
REASON #6 Many themes are based on it
If you decide to purchase a WordPress theme, after all, I have some good news – there actually are several Elementor WordPress theme creators out there that give you great theme choices to work with.
Elementor as the base of such a theme means only one thing – that it will be easy to update and edit, based on your specific preferences!
REASON #7 It’s light and SEO friendly
Recently I did more in-depth research on why my SEO strategy is failing and found out that many page editors are interfering with your site’s weight and SEO.
The loading speed of your website is one of the most important parts of a successful SEO, and Elementor has many great functions that make your site load faster.
Besides that, Elementor is a very light plugin and it has A SIMPLE CODE. If you look into professional SEO hacks, you’ll find out that other page editor codes (including popular samples like Divi) have way heavier plugin and complicated codes that make site’s optimization harder.
How to build your own site with Elementor
There are three ways to go: either choose one of the templates to get started with, create a design from zero or purchase a theme based on Elementor.
[!] Keep in mind before getting started! The basic Elementor plugin gives you an option to build pages but not customize your site’s Menu, Footer and similar elements. Therefore, I’d suggest finding a free theme that you like and setting it up before getting started with Elementor. That way, you’d have Theme’s Menu, Sidebar, Footer while Elementor would be your page designer.
Elementor Templates
I’d suggest starting out with a template to understand what Elementor can actually do. While some of the templates are for Pro upgraders only, most of what you need you’ll also be able to find in the Free version.
Pick a template and play around with it – understand the basics of this editor, what’s hidden under each section like Style, Advanced, etc.
It’s one of the best reasons to start using Elementor for your site – you actually have the chance to try things out without paying for them. You can figure out the functionality of Elementor’s elements and decide what you want to create, well before your site is made.
Once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to easily put together a page that you’ll like and that can be used for your site!
Build your own site
Just like with anything, it takes a bit of practice and time to understand all of the features and how to use them, but Elementor really is a simple option for starters!
If you want to build your own site but can’t decide HOW to make it look like, take a sneak a peek at what others have done. Inspire yourself from Bluchic themes or stalk some bloggers who’ve used Elementor. This will give you an idea about the result you can achieve.
Then, hack the features and build a similar site!
Here’s a secret confession: while I’m a website designer myself, it’s usually extremely hard to choose how my own site will look like. I have redesigned it at least (!) five times in three years.
When starting to work with Elementor, stalking is exactly what I did. I checked how other of my favorite sites look like and which of the features could I redesign in my own site.
Elementor Themes
You can also purchase a theme that is based on Elementor from Bluchic. That way, you’d already have a ready look and feel of the site, you’d just need to update the details like text and images.
At the end of the day, Elementor has made my life a lot easier. While I’d have no problem to redesign my site with other editors as well, Elementor is really straight-forward and gives no headache (once practiced properly).
It is also possible to upgrade to Elementor Pro. That’s something I’d suggest doing once you’ve practiced it and know how it works. A Pro version would give you Pro Templates, Pro Widgets, as well as additional support and WooCommerce builder, in case you’re going for an e-commerce shop.
