How to build a website with Elementor on WordPress, step by step

If you want to know how to build a website with Elementor, the good news is that you do not need to write any code. Elementor is a visual builder for WordPress: you drag blocks onto the screen, type your text on top and see the result right away, exactly as your visitor will see it.

The full path has six steps: hosting and domain, WordPress, Elementor, global settings, building the pages and adjusting for mobile. Let's go through each one.

What you need before you start

Three things, and that is it:

• A domain: your site's address, like yourbusiness.com.
• Hosting: where the site is stored. Most hosting companies install WordPress in a few clicks.
• A site plan: which pages it will have and what each one needs to say. It sounds silly, but it saves the most time.

For a local business, a good start is: home page, one page per service, about page and contact.

Step 1: install Elementor on WordPress

With WordPress installed, go to the dashboard, open Plugins, Add New, search for Elementor, install and activate it. That is it: from now on, every page gets an Edit with Elementor button.

It also pays to choose a lightweight theme made to work with page builders. The theme handles the basics, and Elementor handles the design.

Step 2: set global colors and fonts

Before building any page, define the global colors and global fonts in Elementor's site settings. That way every heading uses the same font and every button the same color, without setting them one by one.

This step is what separates a professional-looking site from one that looks assembled from random parts. And if you ever change your brand color, you change it in one place.

Step 3: understand containers and widgets

Every layout in Elementor is made of two pieces:

• Containers: the boxes that organize the page. A container can be a row (side by side) or a column (stacked), and you can nest containers inside containers.
• Widgets: the content that goes inside the boxes. Heading, text, image, button, icon, video, map.

In practice, you think like this: "this section has text on the left and a photo on the right". That is a row container with two containers inside, one with the heading, text and button widgets, and the other with the image widget.

Step 4: build the home page section by section

Build from top to bottom, one section at a time. An order that works for a local business:

1. Hero: what you do, who you serve, and a contact button.
2. Services: one block per service, linking to its page.
3. Proof: photos of your work, testimonials, numbers.
4. How it works: three simple steps.
5. Frequently asked questions.
6. Final call to action to your contact channel.

Finished a good section? Save it as a template. On the next page you reuse it instead of starting from scratch.

Step 5: make the site look good on mobile

Most visits come from phones. At the bottom of the editor, switch to the mobile view and review each section: heading sizes, spacing, images that became too big, columns that need to stack.

Elementor lets you adjust these things for mobile only, without touching the desktop version.

Step 6: publish and take care of speed

Once everything is reviewed, click Publish. After that, the most important thing is speed: heavy images and too many fonts make the site slow. See how to speed up WordPress.

Common beginner mistakes

• Installing lots of plugins "just in case". Each plugin adds weight.
• Setting color and font widget by widget instead of using the globals.
• Uploading photos straight from the phone, several megabytes each.
• Forgetting the mobile version.

Want someone to guide you?

Reading helps you understand the path, but websites are learned by building them. In the Elementor course for beginners you install, configure and build, together with me, a complete barbershop website, from hero to footer, plus a landing page assignment to practice on your own. The course is taught in Portuguese. And if you are still unsure this is the right path, read whether learning WordPress is worth it.

Frequently asked questions