WordPress & Divi: a guide to getting started!

WordPress & Divi: a great love story?

The WordPress Divi theme is an intuitive and easy to learn theme. However, it is much easier to master when you already have experience with WordPress.

If you are completely new to website design and have chosen to go with this WordPress theme, the Divi Tips blog will walk you through the design process.

Today, this blog is starting to have a lot of articles, they can be tips, explanations or simple tutorials to achieve a high level of customization of your site or blog with Divi.

However, you may not know where to start. This is often the case when we are starting out, we read a lot of articles and we realise, often belatedly, that we should have done this or that before, if we had known about it...

This guide to getting started with WordPress and Divi is just that!

I propose a sort of hierarchical methodology to leave nothing to chance.

Here is the list of items in order of priority:

The essential articles for a good start:

1. Why choose the Divi theme? What are the advantages of using a premium theme when there are so many free themes?
2. How much does the Divi theme cost? Is it that expensive? I propose you a comparison of prices with other themes and page builders of this kind.
3. Do you already have this theme? Find out how to install Divi on your WordPress site.
4. Before going any further, if you are going to customise Divi with home-made code, it would be good to create a Divi child theme. Once you have done this, you will be ready for the next step. If you don't think you'll need to make extensive changes, then this step is optional.
5. Then you will see that this theme is updated several times a month. I propose you to discover quickly how to update Divi automatically or manually.
6. How to set up Divi ? We start with a series of articles to understand how to set up this theme: General tab | Navigation tab | Creator tab | Advertising tab | Layout tab | Integration tab and Updates tab | SEO tab. In these regularly updated articles, every option of the theme is scrutinised.

Articles to discover Divi 4.0.x

1. Version 4.0 of Divi offers a new feature: the ability to build the entire design using the Theme Builder. Read this article to Understanding what's new in Divi 4.0.
2. This new theme builder works a bit like the visual builder but is used from the back office in a visual version. Discover how the Divi Theme Builder works.
3. If you want to save time, you can simply import theme templates into your site. Discover how to import/export Divi Theme Templates.

The essential items for getting started with Divi :

1. First of all, it is essential to understand that Divi and the Divi Builder are two different things. I suggest you find out why they should not be confused.
2. How Divi and the Divi Builder work. It's not always easy to understand how to create a page with a page builder. This article is a complete guide for beginners. It is ideal to read it to better understand how it works.
3. Once you understand how a page builder works within your WordPress pages, I suggest you discover the full list of Divi modules. These modules are available within the page builder when you create your pages. It is good to know what the Divi Builder can offer in order to better plan your project.
4. Before you dive headlong into creating your pages, you might want to start by set the header of your Divi site. This is an essential design element and you should pay the utmost attention to it.
5. Also, you will need to choose a layout type. Divi allows you to create a "full width layout" or to create a "boxed layout. What will be your preference?
6. To save time, you can easily create a layout with just one click. To do this, find out how to import and export a layout with Divi.

Essential articles for inspiration:

1. Already have a WordPress site and just want to change your theme? Here are two case studies of a website redesign with Divi: from Hungry to Divi and from BeTheme to Divi.
2. Some examples of Coaching websites made with Divi.
3. Some examples of Restaurant sites made with Divi
4. Some examples of Web Agency sites made with Divi.
5. Some examples of websites for graphic and web designers made with Divi.
6. Or do you know that you can use ready-made layouts that will save you a lot of time? The Divi Builder offers downloadable layout packs in 1 click.

The essential articles for adding functionality to your Divi theme with :

1. Find out how open Divi footer icons in a new window of your browser. This is important if you don't want the user to leave your site at the first click!
2. You can also add new icons to the footer of your sitesuch as the Pinterest or Linkedin icon.
3. You may also need to add multiple images to the front page (highlight images) within your articles. This article explains how to do this.
4. And if each page of your site had a different colour ? This is possible with a simple CSS code. It is not very complicated. You can also do the same with background images.
5. Speaking of images, it is also possible toadd an image to each item in your main menu. This is what this tutorial proposes.
6. If you have added the WooCommerce plugin to turn your website into an e-commerce site and you realize that some of the buttons on your shop have a colour that doesn't suit you, read this article which will allow you toharmonise the colours of your shop with those of your visual identity.

The essential articles for adding functionality to your Divi theme with extensions:

1. Most of the plugins for Divi are not free, but I've done some digging and I'd like to suggest you discover a list of free plugins for Divi.
2. Do you want to make your website multilingual easily and quickly? Are you considering using Polylang or WPML? First read this article about Weglot. You'll see how I translated my Divi Tips blog in less than 15 minutes.
3. However, if it is a quality Divi translation you are looking for, you can get Divi in good French by installing this extension. Read the article to see what the differences are.
4. Discover Bloom, an optin that allows you to retrieve email addresses of your readers to store them in your mailing lists. You will also see how to make the Bloom extension compatible with the RGPD or how customise your popups.
5. You want to modify Divi so that the sidebar is fixed when the user scrolls down ? A simple extension allows you to do this and I explain how to use it.
6. Did you know that there is a plugin that allows you to make lots of changes within Divi without having to code anything? Divi Switch offers a lot of features in the form of options to be checked off. It's child's play.
7. If you wish to add a bio at the end of your articles because your blog is "multi-author". You can do it easily with this plugin.
8. If you are looking to enrich the Divi theme with new iconsThis is possible thanks to this free icon pack offered by this plugin.
9. If you want to add a breadcrumb trail to your pages and articles, you can! Follow this tutorial which will explain you how to add a breadcrumb to Divi and where you can place it.
10. Also remember that it is very important that your Divi site loads quickly. You can use a caching plugin to optimise the loading of your pages, but this is not the only solution. Discover how to improve the speed of Divi.

My list of essential resources for Divi :

First of all, don' t get Divi illegally, you could get into trouble later. Your site could be corrupted or infected. That would be a shame! There is only one place to get Divi: on the official website of ElegantThemes.

Secondly, there are lots of sites that offer tools or resources (free and paid) to enhance your site with Divi. I myself am a customer of these marketplaces:

• BeSuperfly
• Aspen Grove Studios
• Divi Space
• Divi Cake
• Divi Den
• Divi Theme Store
• Divi Extended
• Divi Gear
• Divi Professional
• Divi Booster
• Divi Life
• Divi Plugins

Finally, the official ElegantThemes blog has lots of great tutorials to help you improve or customize your Divi site. Don't hesitate to browse it, you'll find many nuggets. However, everything is in English.

If you are the type of person who only understands French, Divi Tips is there for that!

Moreover, you can find all the latest articles classified by theme:

• Getting started with Divi
• Customise Divi
• Plugins for Divi
• Resources for Divi

If you can't find what you want, you can browse the full list of my articles from the Site Map page or contact me to submit a tutorial idea. I will see if I can integrate it into my editorial line.