I found Elementor through one of Ferdy’s YouTube tutorials.
But to explain why Elementor mattered to me, I probably have to go back a little further.
For years, I used Wix.
When I first started fiddling around with websites, WordPress was intimidating.
This was before I understood page builders and drag-and-drop editors. WordPress looked like code, settings and menus everywhere.
I had no idea what any of the buttons did and I was pretty sure touching the wrong one was going to be a problem.
So I found Wix.
Wix made sense.
Drag something over here.
Move something over there.
Change the picture.
Change the words.
Now I’m building a website.
I also tried Squarespace. I looked at Google Sites. GoDaddy. I spent some time with Duda, which I actually liked because it was pretty straightforward.
But WordPress kept coming back into the picture.
In the website world, WordPress was always presented to me as the platform you eventually wanted to understand.
Someone once explained the difference to me like this:
Wix is like renting your house. WordPress is like owning it.
Whether that comparison is perfect or not, I understood what they meant.
I wanted more control.
So eventually I said:
All right. Let’s do this.
And I went all in on WordPress.
I’m glad I did.
Then Ferdy Introduced Me To Elementor
The thing that made WordPress finally feel possible was Elementor.
I found it while following Ferdy’s tutorials, and suddenly WordPress stopped looking so intimidating.
Elementor gave me something familiar:
Drag and drop.
I could see the page.
I could move things.
I could change things.
I could actually understand the relationship between what I was doing in the editor and what somebody was going to see on the website.
That was a big deal.
And once I got comfortable with the editor, Elementor Pro became pretty easy to work with.
Not because I suddenly became some expert web designer.
I didn’t.
I just started understanding how to put content into a website without fighting the website every five minutes.
I Tried To Get Too Fancy
One of the biggest problems I had while learning web design was trying to make the website do everything I imagined.
I knew I could design something cool.
The problem was making that cool thing work everywhere.
Desktop?
Looks great.
Then I’d open the mobile version.
What the happened here?
Something that looked beautiful on a giant monitor now looks like a complete mess on the phone.
Things moved.
Text wrapped.
Images cropped.
Spacing changed.
The big idea I had in my head didn’t always survive being squeezed onto a screen somebody could hold in one hand.
That was frustrating.
And that frustration taught me something that has probably helped me more than any individual Elementor setting:
K.I.S.S.
Keep It Simple Stupid
If you’re not a website designer who has spent years learning code, CSS, responsive design and everything else that goes into this stuff, you have a couple of choices.
You can spend years going down the rabbit hole.
You can pay somebody who already knows how to do it.
Or you can keep it simple enough that you can actually build the thing.
I chose option three.
My approach to web design is basically:
Color inside the lines.
Find a template that already feels close to the style you want.
Then don’t fight it.
Use the structure.
Use the spacing.
Use the containers.
Use the layout somebody who knows more about this than you already figured out.
Then get creative with what actually matters:
The words.
The ideas.
The pictures.
The videos.
The advertising.
That’s where I want to spend my time.
The Template Is There For A Reason
When you first discover Elementor, it’s tempting to think:
I can move everything.
I can resize everything.
I can build anything.
And technically, you probably can.
That doesn’t mean you should.
I have a basic understanding of containers, margins, padding, widths and responsive settings.
But I’m not pretending I’m Rino de Boer.
I know enough to make the changes I need.
And when I stay reasonably close to the framework of a good template, that has been more than enough.
That was a big realization for me.
I don’t need to reinvent web design every time I create a page.
I need to communicate an idea clearly.
Most People Are Looking At Your Website On A Phone
This changed the way I think about design too.
I might be sitting in front of a big monitor building this beautiful wide section with all kinds of room.
The person visiting Boofkay might be standing in a parking lot looking at it on a phone.
That phone changes everything.
There’s only so much room.
And their attention span is probably even smaller than the screen.
So now when something isn’t working on mobile, I don’t immediately think:
How can I make Elementor force this giant idea onto the screen?
Sometimes the answer is:
Make it smaller.
Make it simpler.
Change the layout.
Cut something.
Or get rid of it completely.
That lesson has spilled directly into the advertising too.
Can You Say It In One Sentence?
The longer I’ve worked on Boofkay, the more web design and advertising have started teaching me the same lesson.
Keep it simple.
If a section takes forever to explain, maybe I’m trying to say too much.
If the layout is complicated, maybe the idea is complicated.
If something refuses to fit on mobile, maybe everything doesn’t need to be there.
I find myself asking:
Can I say this in one sentence?
Because at the end of the day, the most important part of the website isn’t Elementor.
It isn’t WordPress.
And it definitely isn’t me showing somebody how clever I can make a container.
It’s the person looking at the screen.
They’re busy.
They’re distracted.
They probably didn’t wake up thinking:
I really hope somebody shows me a beautifully constructed website today.
You have a moment to get their attention.
So say something worth reading.
Make it direct.
Make it funny if you can.
Make it different.
Then get out of the way.
Would I Choose Elementor Pro Again?
Absoluttely.
Knowing what I know now, I would still choose Elementor Pro to build Boofkay.
I don’t feel dramatically more skilled than I did when I was building websites with Wix.
What changed is that I understand the process better.
I understand how to work within a structure.
I understand why responsive design matters.
I understand that something doesn’t need to be complicated to look professional.
And most importantly, I’ve learned when to stop adding things.
I still get frustrated.
There are still times when something won’t fit correctly and I can’t figure out why.
I still occasionally sit there wondering what setting I changed three hours ago that is now screwing everything up.
But eventually I figure it out.
Or I simplify it.
Or I fine-tune it.
Or I cut it completely.
Then I move on.
That’s probably the biggest thing Elementor has given me.
Not the ability to make a website infinitely complicated.
The ability to build the website I need without making it more complicated than it needs to be.
Color inside the lines.
Keep the message simple.
And save the clever stuff for the advertising.
Learn More About Elementor Pro
If you’re thinking about building a WordPress website with Elementor, I’d start the same way I did: learn the basics, pick a good template and build along with somebody who knows what they’re doing.
Here are a few places I’d start:
Elementor Pro
Learn about Elementor Pro, its drag-and-drop editor, Theme Builder, templates, forms and other Pro features directly from Elementor.
Elementor Help Center
When I can’t remember what a setting does or something isn’t behaving the way I expect, Elementor’s documentation is a good place to go back to the basics.
Visit the Elementor Help Center
Responsive Design With Containers
If desktop looks great and mobile looks like somebody threw your website down a flight of stairs, start here. Elementor explains how containers, widths, direction and breakpoints work together across different screen sizes.
Learn About Responsive Containers
Ferdy’s Elementor Pro Tutorial
Ferdy was the person who helped me get comfortable enough with Elementor to actually start building. If you learn the way I do, put the tutorial on one side of your screen, Elementor on the other, pause after each step and do it yourself.
Watch Ferdy’s Elementor Pro Tutorial
Elementor can do a lot more than what I’ve covered here. This article is simply how I use it, what I’ve learned from it and why it became one of the tools that makes Boofkay run.
What do you use to build your website?
If you’ve used Elementor, I’d love to hear your experience.
