In this comprehensive guide, we will walk you through the process of building and designing a landing page in WordPress using Elementor. You’ll learn the essential steps and guidelines necessary to create an effective and engaging design that meets your marketing goals.
You might be wondering, “Why should I follow this particular tutorial?” Here are several key reasons why our step-by-step guide stands out:
- Free Landing Page Builder: This tutorial utilizes Elementor, a leading free WordPress landing page builder. You won’t need to install any additional WordPress plugins, keeping your setup simple and cost-effective.
- No Coding Required: One of the major benefits of using Elementor is that you won’t have to write a single line of CSS or PHP code. There’s no need to deal with child themes or any technical details. This tutorial is designed for users of all skill levels.
- Focus on High Conversions: Our guide emphasizes creating a landing page that is not only visually appealing but also optimized for high conversions. We share best practices and tips to help you design a landing page that effectively converts visitors into customers.
Before we dive into the step-by-step instructions, it’s important to understand what a landing page is and how it differs from a homepage.
What is a Landing Page?
A landing page is a dedicated page on your website created specifically for a targeted marketing campaign. Unlike other pages on your site, a landing page is designed with a singular purpose: to convert visitors into leads or customers through a clear and focused call to action (CTA). This singular focus often results in higher conversion rates compared to regular blog posts or standard site pages.
The Purpose and Benefits of Landing Pages
Landing pages serve multiple purposes and offer several benefits:
- Higher Conversion Rates: Due to their targeted nature and clear CTAs, landing pages typically achieve better conversion rates than other types of web pages.
- Lead Generation: By offering valuable content or incentives, landing pages can effectively capture visitor information, helping you build an email list for future marketing efforts.
- Enhanced Social Media Presence: Landing pages can drive social media engagement by providing shareable content and clear messages that resonate with your audience.
Key Differentiators of Landing Pages
Landing pages are distinct from other pages on your website, such as the homepage, in several ways:
- Minimal Navigation: Landing pages usually have fewer or no header and footer menu links. This reduces distractions and keeps visitors focused on the primary goal of the page.
- Visual Appeal: They are often more visually appealing, using images, videos, and graphics to attract and retain visitor attention.
- Clear Messaging: The messaging on landing pages is concise and direct, designed to quickly convey the value proposition and encourage visitors to take action.
Types of Landing Pages
Landing pages can generally be categorized into two main types:
- Lead Generation Pages: These pages aim to collect visitor information, such as names and email addresses, typically through a form. They often offer something of value in return, like an ebook, webinar registration, or a free trial.
- Click-Through Pages: These pages aim to “warm up” visitors by providing them with enough information about a product or service to encourage them to click through to another page where they can complete a purchase or sign-up process.
In summary, landing pages are a crucial component of any effective online marketing strategy. Their focused design and purpose-driven structure make them powerful tools for achieving higher conversion rates, generating leads, and enhancing your overall marketing efforts. By understanding and utilizing the key differentiators and types of landing pages, you can create more effective campaigns that drive results and grow your business.
What Is The Difference Between The Homepage And The Landing Page?
While visitors might arrive at your homepage, it’s crucial to understand that your homepage is not the same as a landing page. The homepage serves as the welcome area for your brand, acting as a gateway to the rest of your website. It introduces visitors to what your brand offers, outlines the target audience, provides contact information and encourages the exploration of other sections such as blog posts, product pages, and about pages. This comprehensive approach is excellent for providing a broad introduction to your brand and prompting visitors to explore more about what you offer.
In contrast, landing pages serve a different purpose. Unlike the homepage’s broad and informative nature, a landing page is focused on achieving a single, specific goal. This goal could be getting visitors to buy a product, fill out a form, join an email list, or another specific action. Landing pages are designed to convert visitors by guiding them toward completing this one action, minimizing distractions, and maintaining a clear focus on the desired outcome.
A key strategy for enhancing the effectiveness of landing pages is the removal of distractions. Your homepage typically includes numerous links to various sections of your site, which is beneficial for users who want to explore and learn more about your brand. However, a landing page will have minimal or no additional links to ensure that visitors remain focused on the main call to action without diverting their attention to other areas of the site. By eliminating extraneous links and navigation options, landing pages increase the likelihood that visitors will perform the specific action you want them to take.
How To Create a Landing Page in WordPress
Now that you understand what landing pages are and their benefits, let’s dive into how you can create a dedicated landing page for your WordPress website. One of the best tools for this task is Elementor, a powerful visual drag-and-drop design interface.
There are several compelling reasons to use Elementor over the default WordPress block editor:
- Visual Drag-and-Drop Design: Elementor provides a more powerful visual drag-and-drop design editor. This enhanced control over your design ensures that every part of your landing page is perfect, allowing you to create highly customized and visually appealing pages without needing to write any code.
- Blank Canvas Template: Elementor allows you to build your landing pages using a blank canvas template that hides your header and footer, a feature not offered by the default block editor. As discussed earlier, hiding navigation links is a good practice for landing pages as it removes distractions and focuses the visitor’s attention on a specific action.
- Landing Page Management: Elementor offers a dedicated landing page management area. This feature helps you keep your landing pages separate from your regular content pages, making it easier to organize and manage your marketing campaigns effectively.
- Built-in Marketing Elements: Elementor includes a variety of built-in marketing elements that optimize your landing pages, eliminating the need for third-party plugins. For instance, you can add forms using the Form widget and easily integrate them with your CRM or email marketing service, streamlining your lead generation process.
- Landing Page Templates: While Elementor makes it easy to build great-looking landing pages from a blank canvas, it also provides the option to import professionally designed landing page templates. These templates can be customized to suit your specific needs, saving you time and ensuring a high-quality design.
Initial Setup
To create your own landing page using this guide, you will need the following tools:
- A WordPress Site (Required)
- The Free Elementor Plugin (Required)
- Elementor Pro (Optional, but Highly Beneficial for Landing Pages)
WordPress Site
WordPress serves as the foundation for your website and your landing pages. If you already have a WordPress site for your main website, you can then use the same installation for your landing pages. On the other hand, if you don’t have a WordPress site yet, you’ll need to set up a new WordPress installation.
Elementor Plugin
Once you have your WordPress site ready, you’ll need the Elementor plugin to add a visual, drag-and-drop design interface for creating your landing pages. Elementor is free and can be easily installed from the WordPress.org repository. Here’s how you can install it:
- Go to your WordPress dashboard.
- Navigate to Plugins → Add New.
- Search for “Elementor”.
- Click on Install Now.
- After installation, click on Activate.
Elementor Pro
Elementor Pro enhances the free Elementor plugin by adding a multitude of features and design options that can significantly improve your landing pages. Some of the key features include the Form widget, which allows you to create various opt-in or lead capture forms. To benefit from these advanced features, you will need to purchase Elementor Pro and install it alongside the free Elementor plugin.
Here’s how to get started with Elementor Pro:
- Purchase Elementor Pro from the Elementor website.
- Download the Elementor Pro plugin file.
- In your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins → Add New.
- Click on Upload Plugin and choose the Elementor Pro file you downloaded.
- Click Install Now and then Activate.
- Ensure both the free Elementor plugin and Elementor Pro are activated.
By following these steps, you’ll have all the necessary tools to create stunning and effective landing pages on your WordPress site.
The Landing Page You’ll Build
In this guide, you’ll learn how to create a detailed and engaging landing page that includes several key sections. Each section is designed to serve a specific purpose and enhance the overall user experience. Here’s a breakdown of the sections you’ll be creating:
Top Section
This section will take up most of the screen space when the page loads. It includes:
- Headline Title: A compelling title that grabs the user’s attention.
- Text: A brief, informative paragraph that introduces your business or service.
- Call to Action Button: A prominent button that directs users to the form section for further engagement.
Navigation Menu Section
This section helps visitors quickly navigate through different parts of your landing page. It includes:
- Navigation Links: Links to each major section of the page, allowing for easy access and improving user experience.
About Section
This section provides visitors with detailed information about your business or service. It includes:
- Introduction Text: A concise description of who you are and what you offer.
- Background Information: More in-depth details about your mission, values, and history.
Features Section
This section highlights the key features of your product or service. It includes:
- Feature List: A bullet-point list of features.
- Big Image on the Left: A visually appealing image that complements the feature list and draws attention.
Gallery Section
This section showcases a unique gallery layout using a combination of widgets. It includes:
- Images: High-quality images that represent your business or service.
- Text: Captions or descriptions for each image.
- Social Icons: Icons linking to your social media profiles.
- Video Background: A dynamic video background that enhances the visual appeal.
Form Section
This section includes a contact form to facilitate easy communication with your visitors. It includes:
- Contact Form: A simple form for visitors to fill out and submit inquiries or feedback.
- Submission Button: A button for submitting the form.
So that’s it — let’s start!
Step 1: Create a New Landing Page
One of the key benefits of using Elementor is its dedicated interface for managing landing pages, separate from your regular WordPress content pages. To create your first landing page, firstly, navigate to Templates → Landing Pages and click on the Add New Landing Page button. This action will open the Elementor editor, where you can either select a premade landing page template or close the template library to design your landing page from scratch.
Step 2: Set Up Colors, Fonts
Before diving into the actual design of your landing page, it is essential to set up the visual editor correctly. When a new landing page is created, Elementor automatically applies the Elementor Canvas page layout. This layout provides a “clean” page without a header, footer, or sidebar, which is ideal for building a focused landing page.
Then, start by setting the default global colours: primary as white, and secondary and text as black. These defaults will be automatically applied when adding new widgets, simplifying the design process. Next, configure the fonts. For instance, you might choose an Adobe Typekit font (like Restore) for primary and secondary headlines, but you can select any font that suits your style. Additionally, setting up the colour picker with your chosen colours will allow for quick access while building the page.
Step 3: The Landing Page’s Top Section
The top section of the landing page features a light blue background and includes a heading, text editor, and button widgets. What sets this section apart is the use of background image blend mode and overlapping headings. To achieve this, set the background colour to blue and apply a background overlay with an image. Additionally, the blend mode, a new feature in Elementor, mixes the overlay with the light blue background using options like Multiply or Darken. For the heading overlap effect, adjust the advanced settings of the first heading to add a negative bottom margin.
Step 4: Header & Navigation Area
The header and navigation area consist of three columns, incorporating an image widget, a nav menu widget, and a button. The unique feature here is the navigation links that allow visitors to scroll to specific points on the page. This is accomplished using the Anchor widget later in the process. The menu also includes three links: about, features, and gallery, each connected to the respective section via a hashtag.
Step 5: About Area
The About section is a straightforward one-column layout featuring an icon, heading, and text editor widget. The heading style matches the top heading, with a slight shadow adjustment. Besides, the distinctive aspect of this section is the icon appearing covered by the heading. To create this effect, reduce the icon size and set a negative bottom margin.
Step 6: Designing a Features Area
The features section includes a large Vespa image on the left and a list of three services on the right. This section repeats the background icon effect from the previous section. To achieve this, set the icon widget’s margin to 40px on the bottom and -20 on the left. Then, duplicate this setup for each service. As a tip, ensure any section or element is mobile-ready before duplicating it.
Step 7: Gallery Area
Then, add the gallery area, which features a large title and a grid composed of call-to-action and other widgets. This section’s unique aspect is the gallery grid created using various widgets. To build this grid, use the columns widget to create an inner section. Then, combine multiple widgets and a background video to achieve a distinct gallery style. Utilize the spacer widget to set a background colour for the left and centre columns. Additionally, add another Columns Widget section and set a background type of Video. With Elementor, you can specify start and end times for the video, perfect for creating a background loop.
Step 8: Contact Area & Contact Form
The contact area is a crucial part of the landing page, enabling visitors to communicate with the site owners. Using Elementor’s visual form builder, you can easily set up a contact form and style it to match the page’s design. Moreover, Elementor’s built-in form integrations allow seamless connection to email marketing services like MailChimp, enhancing the contact form’s functionality.
Step 9: Sticky Menu and Anchor
To enhance user experience, incorporating a sticky menu that stays at the top of the page as users scroll can be very effective. This ensures the menu is always visible and easily accessible. To implement this, start by editing the section where the menu resides. Navigate to the advanced settings, select the scrolling effect option, and enable the sticky top setting. You can customize this further by choosing which devices will feature the sticky menu and setting the desired spacing from the top.
In addition to the sticky menu, adding navigational links helps users move effortlessly through the page. This can be done by dragging an anchor widget into each section. These anchors will act as reference points, allowing visitors to quickly jump to specific parts of the page via the menu links.
Step 10: Hiding the Navigation
To create a more dynamic and less cluttered interface, you can hide the navigation bar when users scroll past a certain point on the page. This technique adds a sleek touch to the user experience. Start by selecting the navigation section and going to the advanced settings to set the z-index to 1. Next, move to the gallery section settings. Under the style tab, set the background to white, and in the advanced tab, set the z-index to 2.
This configuration ensures that as users scroll down, the gallery section will cover the navigation menu, effectively hiding it. Testing this setup involves scrolling down the page to confirm that the navigation bar disappears once the specified section is reached, providing a seamless and uncluttered browsing experience.
Use Landing Page Templates Instead of Building From Scratch
In this guide, we’ve explored how to construct a landing page step-by-step, detailing each component’s creation process. An alternative approach, which can significantly streamline your workflow, involves utilizing pre-designed landing page templates offered by Elementor.
Elementor provides a vast selection of over a hundred full-page templates, available both in its free and Pro template library. These templates cover various styles and purposes, allowing you to browse through and select the ones that best fit your project’s requirements. By starting with a template, you can save time on design and focus more on customizing the content to align with your branding and objectives.
Another efficient method within Elementor is utilizing its Blocks feature. These Blocks categorize commonly used elements such as hero sections, calls to action, FAQs, services, and more. By inserting Blocks, you can quickly build out different sections of your landing page without starting entirely from scratch.
When choosing a WordPress theme to complement Elementor, virtually any theme can be used effectively. However, if you’re utilizing Elementor’s Canvas blank template for your landing page, opting for a lightweight and simple theme is advisable. This choice ensures optimal performance and faster loading times for your landing page.
Here are some recommended free themes that work well with Elementor and include their own set of templates:
- GeneratePress
- Astra
- OceanWP
- Hestia
These themes not only integrate seamlessly with Elementor but also offer their own collection of templates that can be employed for creating stylish and functional landing pages. This combination of Elementor’s flexibility with these compatible themes provides you with a robust toolkit to efficiently design and deploy impactful landing pages for your projects.
Final Thoughts: How to Create a WordPress Landing Page With Elementor
Creating a WordPress landing page with Elementor is a powerful way to enhance your website’s functionality and aesthetic appeal. Elementor provides a user-friendly interface, making it accessible even for those without extensive web design experience. By leveraging its drag-and-drop editor, pre-designed templates, and extensive customization options, you can craft a landing page that not only looks professional but also effectively converts visitors into customers or leads.
Remember to focus on clarity and simplicity. A well-designed landing page should have a clear goal, a compelling call to action, and streamlined navigation to guide visitors toward that goal. Utilize Elementor’s features to create visually appealing, responsive, and fast-loading pages that deliver an excellent user experience across all devices.
As you continue to refine your landing page, keep an eye on analytics and user feedback to make data-driven improvements. With Elementor, the possibilities are endless. It allows you to iterate and optimize your landing page to achieve the best possible results. Whether you are promoting a product, capturing leads, or building your brand, Elementor equips you with the tools you need to succeed.
So, dive in, explore the vast capabilities of Elementor, and start building a landing page that truly stands out. Happy designing!
