Building a WordPress website with Elementor is one of the most popular ways to create a professional website without writing a single line of code. Elementor’s drag-and-drop editor, live preview, and thousands of templates have made it the go-to page builder for freelancers, small businesses, and designers across South Africa and beyond. This step-by-step guide walks you through the entire process from a blank WordPress install to a live, well-optimised website.
What You Need Before You Start
A domain name and hosting. Register a domain (ideally a .co.za for South African businesses) and purchase a hosting plan that offers one-click WordPress installation. Reliable South African providers include Afrihost, Hetzner, and Xneelo. Hosting plans suitable for small sites start at around R70–R150 per month.
A fresh WordPress installation. Most hosting providers offer a one-click WordPress installer through cPanel. Run it, set your admin username and password, and log in to your WordPress dashboard at yourdomain.co.za/wp-admin.
Installing Elementor on WordPress
- Go to Plugins → Add New
- Search for Elementor Website Builder
- Click Install Now and then Activate
Elementor Free gives you access to the visual editor and a solid set of widgets. Elementor Pro (approximately R560/year) adds the Theme Builder, WooCommerce Builder, popup builder, and a much larger widget library.
Choosing and Installing a Theme
- Hello Elementor — The official lightweight theme built by the Elementor team. Fast, minimal, and designed specifically for Elementor. Recommended for most projects.
- Astra — A lightweight, fast theme with extensive customisation options and excellent Elementor compatibility.
- Kadence — Very popular among professional WordPress developers for its performance and flexibility.
Planning Your Site Structure
A basic small business website typically needs: Home, About, Services, Contact, and an optional Blog. Create these pages first under Pages → Add New as drafts, then build the content in Elementor.
Building Your First Page with Elementor
Open any page and click Edit with Elementor. The editor opens with a blank canvas on the right and a widget panel on the left.
Understanding the structure. Elementor pages are built from sections, columns, and widgets. A section spans the full page width. Inside each section you add columns, and inside columns you place widgets (text, images, buttons, videos, icons, and more).
Using templates. Click the folder icon at the top of the panel to browse the template library. You can insert a complete page template or a single section and customise it with your own content.
Key Elements to Include on Every Site
Hero section. The top section of your homepage should clearly state what you do, who you serve, and include a prominent call-to-action button.
Navigation menu. Every page should have clear navigation to your other main pages.
Footer. Include your contact details, Privacy Policy and Terms links, and social media profiles.
Contact form. Add a form using the Elementor Form widget (Pro) or the free WPForms Lite plugin. Submit a test message to confirm it delivers email correctly.
Optimising Your Elementor Site for Speed and SEO
- Compress all images before uploading using TinyPNG or Squoosh.
- Use a caching plugin like LiteSpeed Cache or WP Super Cache.
- Install Rank Math or Yoast SEO to manage meta titles, meta descriptions, and your sitemap.
- Remove any plugins you are not actively using.
- Complete the SEO settings for every page: focus keyword, meta title, and meta description.
Publishing and Launching Your Site
When you are happy with a page, click Publish in the bottom-left corner of the Elementor editor. Go to Settings → Reading in WordPress and set your homepage to your built home page.
Before announcing your launch, test the site on mobile using Elementor’s responsive preview, check all links and forms, and submit your sitemap to Google Search Console.
Building a WordPress website with Elementor is a skill that gets easier with every project. Your first site might take a week. Your fifth might take two days. The investment in learning this tool pays dividends for years.
