In today’s digital-first world, having a responsive website isn’t just an option; it’s a necessity. Over 60% of users access websites from mobile devices, and the numbers are growing.
If your website doesn’t perform well on mobile, you could be losing potential customers. But here’s the good news: Elementor, one of the most popular website builders for WordPress, offers powerful tools to make creating responsive websites easier and more intuitive. In this blog post, we’ll cover 10 essential rules for building a fully responsive website using Elementor.
1. Start Mobile-First
One of the most effective approaches to responsive web design is to design “mobile-first.” This means creating layouts that work for smaller screens first and then enhancing them for larger screens. Why start with mobile? Simply put, it forces you to prioritize the most important content, streamline your design, and avoid clutter.
In Elementor, you can easily switch to mobile view by selecting the mobile icon in the editor’s responsive mode. From there, design the layout for mobile, tablet, and finally, desktop.
Why Mobile-First?
A mobile-first approach ensures your website provides a great experience for users on any device. It forces you to focus on the essentials, which improves user experience.You can expand the design as the screen size increases, rather than trying to shrink a desktop design.
2. Use Elementor’s Responsive-Ready Kits
Elementor provides a variety of responsive-ready kits and templates, designed with flexibility in mind. These kits are already optimized for different screen sizes, giving you a strong foundation and saving you hours of design time.
Responsive kits are a great choice if you want to speed up your design process without sacrificing quality. They provide a professional look and ensure that the key elements of your website work beautifully on every screen.
Benefits of Responsive Kits:
They’re pre-designed for optimal performance on all devices.You can still customize each element, but with a reliable starting point.
3. Add Breakpoints for Customization
Breakpoints are essential for responsive design, as they define the points at which your layout adapts to different screen sizes. Elementor’s default breakpoints cover desktop, tablet, and mobile, but Elementor Pro users can add custom breakpoints for even finer control.
To adjust breakpoints in Elementor:
Go to “Site Settings” and select the “Layout” tab.
Expand the “Breakpoints” section and add additional sizes or orientations as needed.
With custom breakpoints, you can tailor your layout for more specific devices, ensuring a better experience for every user.
Benefits of Additional Breakpoints:
Optimize layout for specific devices and orientations.
Gain control over how each element adapts to a variety of screen sizes.
4. Use Fluid Units for Flexibility
Responsive design isn’t just about pixels. Fluid layouts adapt to the size of the screen, making your website more flexible and scalable. Elementor lets you use various units besides pixels, including percentages (%), viewport height (vh), viewport width (vw), em, and rem.
Common Unit Options:
% (Percentage): Useful for flexible widths, such as containers that take up 90% of the viewport width, leaving space on either side.
vh/vw (Viewport Height/Width): Perfect for elements that need to take up a full screen, like hero sections.
em/rem (Relative Units): Great for text, where sizes can scale relative to the parent or root element, ensuring readability across devices.
Fluid units allow you to design layouts that look great on all screens without needing to tweak each device manually.
