At CRIMSON, we strive to build websites for our clients that not only provide a great experience for the end-user, but also for the site’s content creators.
All websites evolve and change over time. Providing content creators with the adequate tools they need to create compelling content — easily and quickly — while ensuring the site doesn’t turn into a patchwork of differently-styled content can be difficult.
Because we also believe website owners should be knowledgeable about the backbones of any site they own and post content to, today we want to walk you through the benefits of a particular page-builder tool, Elementor. If you appreciate great results and time efficiency with your website content management, read on!
What is a page builder?
WordPress page builders were developed to enhance the experience and workflow of creating content on WordPress. Builders make it easier for non-technical users to create complex layouts without having to write any code. These builders provide an intuitive drag-and-drop interface for building page content and customizing styling. These results were once only achievable with custom coding.
What is Elementor?
Elementor is a state-of-the-art page builder for WordPress. Elementor made a name for itself by being the first page-builder software that provided front-end page editing. Front-end page editing allows content creators to see exactly what the page will look like for end users as it’s created. This drastically cuts down the time it takes to construct and test a new page, it eliminates the need to save and reload the page, and see what effects your changes make on the page as a whole.
Why do we use Elementor?
You might be saying – if you have a team of developers, why are you using a page builder? Why not use your amazing web development and coding skills to customize the site? Again, it’s all about the end-user experience. Below are 5 reasons why we use Elementor to build all of our sites.
#1 Eliminate website bloat
CRIMSON uses the Hello Elementor theme which is a barebones theme. We use the Hello Theme because it’s lightweight and provides clean integration with WordPress. In addition, it comes with empty styling so most of the design is done using Elementor, making it easily customizable in the future. The Elementor team is also constantly rolling out performance updates to the platform to enhance the performance of sites. This includes detail items such as in-lining CSS (conditional asset loading), and reductions in HTML tags. Elementor’s focus on eliminating code bloat and decreasing load times has increased, as Google’s core web vitals have become a standard for website performance benchmarking.
#2 Our clients can easily control their websites
It’s important to create sites that clients can easily edit. By using Elementor to build sites, clients without any coding knowledge are empowered to edit pages and posts without the need of a developer. This means clients can effortlessly control their website content without having to worry about having to make adjustments to code. Site admins and content creators are equipped with a suite of tools that provide the ability to edit almost any area of the site easily. The entire interface is accessible via the WordPress admin. There is no need to connect via SFTP, or edit HTML CSS, or Javascript. This saves time for clients who update their sites on a regular basis. It also reduces the initial development time, and future site updates.
#3 Re-usable Custom Widgets
Elementor comes out of the box with a large number of pre-built widgets. Widgets are single instances of content or content layouts. Along with widgets for things like headlines, basic copy, buttons, image galleries, and sliders. Elementor also provides structural elements, such as rows and columns, that provide the ability to easily create complex layouts.
Taking things a step further, our development team creates additional custom-branded widgets. Elementor’s widget API allows our development team to create complex, project-specific widgets that content creators can use to create additional pages. By taking this modular approach to web development, we’re able to create custom, reusable widgets that can be customized for each instance on the site. Customization options are set so that the widgets will always look good, and on brand, no matter who is creating the content. This creates an effortless experience for content creators looking to create more intricate layouts while ensuring that the site maintains a consistent look and feel. Clients can comfortably allow multiple different content creators, with varying levels of web skills, to create high-impact content layouts without the site turning into a patchwork of styles by rogue site admins.
#4 Mobile responsive
It’s 2022. Most people rely on using their mobile devices to browse the internet. But you’d be surprised how many websites out there are not 100% mobile-friendly. With Elementor page editor you can apply and make any changes on the page to fit in mobile-view, tablet-view, and desktop-view. Using Elementor, you get the pixel-perfect website to fit on any device, from phones to tablets to desktops. By using Elementor’s responsive mode, content creators can customize widget settings for multiple device breakpoints right within the editor. This gives client content creators the ability to ensure the site will look great on all devices without the need for a developer to write custom media queries to target various screen widths.
Top Elementor features your non-tech-savvy clients like the most are:
- Easy drag-and-drop live interface
- Easy-to-change element styles
- The revision history of the page
- Live preview
- Responsive editing mode (desktop, tablet, mobile)
To learn more about all Elementor’s features, check out their features page.
Summary
If your goal is to build websites that are high-performing, accessible, and easy to edit for your clients, Elementor is the tool for you. By utilizing Elementor as part of CRIMSON’s custom web development workflow, we are able to create performant and easy to manage websites for our clients so that they can spend less time editing their sites and more time doing what they do best.
