How To Add Multiple Columns In Elementor in 4 Steps

Besides giving your website a fresh and modern look, columns are excellent for organizing and highlighting content. Don’t get me wrong, simple layouts and minimalist designs look stunning and are still going strong. However, simple arrangements aren’t always the answer to your design requirements.

One-layout pages may not allow you to arrange content in a way that leads visitors to engage with your content. This is particularly true if, for example, you are designing an e-commerce website. A single layout just won’t cut it.

If you are designing a website using Elementor WordPress, this website builder platform allows you to design layouts with multiple columns and sections. That will enable you to create designs that bind users’ attention to your content, making it easier for them to stay engaged and move forward on your buyer’s journey.

In this article, I’ll show you the method my Chicago web design agency uses to create multi-layout website designs that cater to excellent user experience. Plus, I’ll share everything you need to know about FlexBox Containers – Elementor’s unique feature to add columns and sections.

Table of Contents:

• Pros And Cons of Multiple Column Layouts: Is This Approach Right For Your Web Design?
• Elementor FlexBox Container: A New And Improved Way To Create Columns And Sections
• How To Add Multiple Columns In Elementor: The Most Efficient Method
• Extra Tips To Create Functional Multi-Column Layouts With Elementor
• Do You Want To Learn More Tricks To Create Innovative Websites That Attract Clients?

Pros And Cons of Multiple Column Layouts: Is This Approach Right For Your Web Design?

Columns allow designers to create separate sections on a website. That technique can serve different purposes, such as breaking up the to make it easier to consume or delivering diverse pieces of information side by side.

If you plan to add several widgets or features from essential addons for Elementor to your design, creating a multi-layout is the smart way to do so.

But a split-screen is not always the best decision; it’ll highly depend on your website requirements and goals. Let’s dive into the pros and cons of multi-column layouts for web design:

Pros of Multi-Column Layouts

• Improved Readability: When text content is divided into multiple short sections, it’s more convenient to read it and boosts reading speed. Google rewards content with high reliability that provides an enhanced user experience. If you want your readers to easily consume your content and improve your SEO rankings, learning how to add multiple columns in Elementor will help you achieve that.
• Focus On Two (Or More) Key Elements: Splitting the content into two sections enables designers to highlight and draw users’ attention to two key pieces of content or web page functionalities.  With that approach, you will easily lead users to focus on specific information or actions.
• Modern And Stylish Designs: When implemented well, multi-columns layouts give a stylish and sophisticated look to web designs that can leave a memorable impression on its visitors. This can be significantly helpful if you are working on a luxury website design.

Cons of Split-Screen Layouts

• Limited Space For Content: Dividing the page into sections will limit the amount of content you can display on the screen. That can be a significant con if you require a lot of information on a single page. In that case, a split-screen layout may not be the most suitable option.
• Mobile Responsive Design: Today, you can’t ignore responsive web design for multiple device types. It is crucial for crafting enjoyable user experiences and is a core SEO ranking factor. Multiple content columns would be almost impossible to read on a smartphone. Visitors may find it too confusing to find what they are looking for, ultimately leaving your site before engaging with your brand. A solution to this issue is developing a single-column layout version for mobile devices and maybe a two-column layout for tablets.
• Not suitable for all content: This design approach gives websites a modern feel but is not suitable for all content types. I would avoid using multi-columns layouts with complex or heavy-information sites.

Elementor FlexBox Container: A New And Improved Way To Create Columns And Sections

For professional web designers coming up with new and creative layouts is an exciting experience. However, when trying to transfer their designs from Figma to Elementor, the process can become a little tedious.

Luckily, there are tools you can use to streamline your work. FlexBox is one of those tools. It has been around for a long time and provides designers with greater control over column order, multiple-column sections, and other page element editing options.

Recently Elementor incorporated FlexBox Containers as a permanent feature of its page-building experience. So, if you weren’t acquainted with this tool before, the time is now.

How Do Containers Differ From Sections? – 5 Key Benefits Of Switching To Containers

Due to Elementor updates, columns and sections are now replaced with containers. Functionally, there is not too much difference between sections and containers. Developers or designers already familiar with FlexBox won’t find it difficult to adopt this new layout method.

In case you are working on an existing project. Elementor offers a quick way to transform columns into containers. Go to the Edit Section > Layout > Convert to Container > Convert.

When you switch to Elementor FlexBox containers, you reduce the dividers used with sections/columns/inner sections. That alone is enough to improve Elementor page speed. But this feature offers many other advantages to be professional.

5 key benefits of FlexBox containers over sections:

• Improved building speed for designers and developers
• Better page speed through leaner code
• An easy way to create complex layouts
• Containers allow you to create templates to use on other pages of your site
• Gain more control to build responsive designs

By eliminating the need for inner sections and columns, FlexBox containers allow for a more efficient workflow. That puts WordPress Elementor’s web page design ahead of many other page builders.

How To Add Multiple Columns In Elementor: The Most Efficient Method

FlexBox works similarly to the traditional section-based Elementor page builder. So even if this is your first time using this feature, learning how to add multiple columns in Elementor won’t take too much of your time.

in this section, I’ll show you the steps Alpha Efficiency takes to create modern and functional multi-layout web pages using Elemntor Flex containers:

Step 1: Make Sure FlexBox Container Is Active

FlexBox comes as the default editor in WordPress Elementor’s latest version. But if you still can’t see it, you can activate it by heading to the WordPress Dashboard > Elementor > Setting > Features > find the FlexBox Container options and select Active.

Step 2: Use Flex Containers On Your Web Pages

Open a new page in Elementor (Pages > Add New). If you take a look at the Elementor panel, you will see the FelxBox Container on top of all the widgets. Drag and drop it into the Elementor page canvas as you would with any other widget. You can also create a layout by clicking on the plus (+) button).

Step 3: Select The Container Structure

After creating a container, you will get two options – FlexBox and Grid. Choose FlexBox; it will give you a bunch of layout options to work with, with as many rows or columns as you please. Choose the one that better fits your website page requirements.

After choosing your preferred structured, the columns will show on the text area. From there, you can add content, photos, or widgets to your container column section.

You can modify the row or column length and height as you need. A huge pro of FlexBox Container is that it will automatically adjust elements’ width to fix the containers or blocks.

Step 4: Adding More Columns To The Container

To add extra columns, hover over an existing column, right-click on the field, and click Add New Column.

After that, you will see the new column on your container. You have successfully added more columns to your page layout design. You can repeat this step and add multiple rows or columns as many times as needed.

Extra Tips To Create Functional Multi-Column Layouts With Elementor

Now you know how to add multiple columns in Elementor, but you can still take your web design game a step further and create more engaging web pages. Here are two simple yet effective examples:

Make Sticky Columns On WordPress Elementor For Better UX

Sticky elements create better accessibility to important information or call-to-action buttons, which makes them excellent for user experience.

If you are using the Elementor Free version, you can make your sections sticky by getting the Elementor Pack Lite add-on.

1. Click on The Edit Section icon (the three dots above the container).
2. Go to the “Advanced” tab on the widget panel.
3. There you will see the “Section Sticky” feature; enable it to make your section sticky.

For further customization, you can use the options “Scroll Until” or “Sticky on Scroll Up.”

Create Clickable Columns Using FlexBox Elementor To Increase User Interactions

Making your Elementor page columns or sections clickable enhances website interactivity, creating a more intuitive navigation. That can lead to a better user experience and higher chances of users interacting with your content.

Here are the steps to follow to make sections clickable on Elementor for free:

1. Create a new page from the WordPress Dashboard > New Page or go to All Pages to edit an existing one.
2. Next, click on “Edit With Elementor.“
3. Now, you must add some elements to your container, such as text, images, or widgets.
4. Click on the Edit Section icon > Advanced > Plus Extras: Wrapper Link. 
5. Enable the Wrapper Link toggle and add the link you want your section to link to.

You can use those steps to make single columns or full sections clickable.

Do You Want To Learn More Tricks To Create Innovative Websites That Attract Clients?

Are you having a rough time creating engaging websites on WordPress Elementor?

This page builder gives designers plenty of room for creativity and flexibility, yet you still can’t bring your design ideas to life. That issue makes building visually stunning and revenue-generating websites seem like a far dream.

Luckily for you, the only thing standing between you and creating profitable websites using Elementor is your lack of knowledge about this platform. That’s why I want to help you overcome that roadblock by inviting you to my comprehensive Elementor course.

In the course, you’ll learn new tricks, such as how to add multiple columns in Elementor to better organize your content. But also other valuable knowledge, including:

• What addons are proficient web designers using
• Make your Elementor site rank high on Google result pages
• How to boost page speed with Elementor plugins
• Is Elementor Pro worth it? – Learn how the premium version can impact your websites
• Create digital experiences that land more clients

Whether you are a freelancer aiming to create a portfolio using Elementor or a web design agency wanting to enhance your design and developers’ skills, in this course, I’ll show you strategies I’ve learned in over a decade of developing money-making websites.

Take a look at my Elementor course and start gaining insight into how to create high-revenue digital experiences.