How to Launch a Fully Custom WordPress Site

Have you ever thought of launching your own WordPress site but held back due to a lack of technical knowledge, time, and professional expertise? 

With templates, e.g., ones from Responsive Plus or InstaWP Store, you can create a fully custom website in minutes, without writing a single line of code. These templates have everything that you need while developing a website. You can add more functionalities and customize them according to your needs. 

Responsive Plus offers a collection of 250+ ready-to-use, professional starter templates that are built using Elementor and Gutenberg. These two are the most user-friendly WordPress page builders available. 

Let’s explore how you can turn your vision into a live website. 

Why Use a Starter Template Instead of Building from Scratch? 

So we start with the basics and understand what starter templates are. Basically, you can consider them as a pre-designed website or as a page layout that can be imported to WordPress.

The templates offer ready-made designs for key pages such as homepages, about pages, contact forms, service pages, and more.

Instead of building from scratch, users can import a polished design and customize it using popular page builders like Elementor and Gutenberg.

These templates are easier to integrate with WordPress themes and offer a flexible layout and style to the site. Users can also mix and match different templates to build a unique website that fits their brand or business.

Now that you are clear about what starter templates are, let’s explore why they are fantastic. Here are the reasons.

No Need to Hire a Developer or Designer

Building a website from scratch usually means knowing how to code or paying someone else (like a developer or designer) to do it for you. That can get pricey and take a lot of time! Starter templates skip all that. 

Ideal for Non-Technical Users

The Responsive Plus plugin is perfect for beginners. You don’t need to know HTML, CSS, or any coding language. Everything is editable through a visual interface, either with Elementor or Gutenberg.

Consistency in Design and Layout

When you build a site from scratch, it’s tough to make sure every page looks consistent. With starter templates, that problem disappears. They come with a unified design, so all the colors, fonts, spacing, and other parts of your site are already set up to look great together.

Time-Saving

Starter templates are great time savers. With the starter template, you import the entire site and make only a few customizations to it. This helps in cutting down time, and you have enough time to focus on other crucial things on the site, just like how AI recruitment software automates repetitive hiring tasks, letting recruiters focus on strategy and decision-making.

Overview of Responsive Plus Starter Templates

Responsive Plus, developed by the Cyberchimps team, is a WordPress plugin that helps you create a professional, fully functional site in just minutes without the need for coding.

It offers access to 250+ starter templates that are ready to import and customize. 

If you’re building a blog, a business site, or an online store, Responsive Plus makes the process faster, smoother, and beginner-friendly. You can use it with either Elementor or Gutenberg, and it’s designed to work with any WordPress theme, though it works best with the Responsive Theme by Cyberchimps.

Let’s understand all the key features you get with it.   

1. Ready-to-use starter templates:

You get over 250 professionally designed templates right out of the box. These templates are built to work with either Elementor or Gutenberg, two popular tools for creating pages in WordPress. So, no matter which one you prefer, Responsive Plus has you covered. 

You can import an entire website design with just one click, typically in seconds. This saves you hours of work. 

If you don’t want the whole website? No problem! You can:

• Choose specific pages from a template.
• Mix and match pages from different templates to create a unique look.
• Even import individual design sections (like a pre-built “About Us” section or a contact form) into your existing pages.

Once you import a template, you can easily change the content, colors, fonts, and layout to match your brand. 

Responsive Plus works seamlessly with two free companion plugins by the same creators (Cyberchimps):

Responsive Addons for Elementor (RAE): If you’re using Elementor, RAE adds over 80+ widgets to help you create advanced features on your website without paying for premium versions.

Responsive Blocks: If you prefer Gutenberg, this plugin gives you over 50+ advanced “blocks” to build more complex and beautiful layouts right within the standard WordPress editor.

2. Easy Setup

Launch your website in minutes. With Responsive Plus, import a complete, professionally designed template in just one click. No technical skills are needed in this process. The setup is fast (usually under a minute) and beginner-friendly, so you can go live effortlessly.

3. Easy Customization

After importing a template, customization is simple. Easily update text, images, colors, fonts, and layouts using Elementor or Gutenberg. Responsive Plus puts complete creative control in your hands to reflect your brand perfectly.

While Responsive Plus works well with any WordPress theme, it truly shines when you use it with the Responsive Theme (also from Cyberchimps). This unlocks additional premium-like features: 

• White Label feature
• Custom Fonts feature
• WooCommerce Module
• Mega Menu

We’ll explore these features in detail as we build the site. But first, let’s launch the site and do some customization.

Step-by-Step Guide: Launching a Custom WordPress Website

Step 1: Install the Responsive Plus Starter Templates Plugin 

Before we start with installing the Responsive Plus Plugin, it is essential to install the Responsive Theme because that will add functionality to your template. 

So, to install that, navigate to WordPress Dashboard > Appearance > Themes.

In the search bar, type Responsive.

Click on install and activate it.

Once installed, you’ll see a prompt to install and activate Responsive Plus. Click on it to proceed.

You can browse various types of starter templates and easily search for the one that suits the website you want to create.

Step 2: Import the WordPress Template

For instance, I’m creating a Real estate website so that I can search for that.

Then you click on Import site.

It will ask you to connect your site with Cyberchimps Responsive. If you are a new user, create an account.

Click on Start Importing.

It will take a few seconds to import your site.

And just like that, you have installed your site with just a single click.

Step 3: Customizing The Template

Now that you have a website, let’s customize the site according to our needs. Click on Customize.

This is the Responsive theme customizer. It has all the options for website functionalities. Let’s use some of them and see how it works. 

Now I’m going to make some changes to my header. For that, click on the header.

Now, click on the site title and logo.

Upload your website’s logo and add a site tagline.

You can even add a button to the header.

Add the link you want to add to the button and customize it.

And just like that, you can customize the footer list and even add copyright.

Let’s see what this global settings option is there for.

The Global setting options include (you will get these options as long as the Responsive theme is activated):

1. Layout: This section typically allows you to control the overall structure and arrangement of your website. This could include container Width, sidebar layout, content spacing, or header and footer layouts. This setting makes your site look sleek.

2. Buttons: This section is where you would define the default styling for all buttons across your website. This ensures consistency and saves you from styling each button individually. Options here usually include background color (normal & hover), text color, border radius, and padding.

3. Form Fields: This controls the default appearance of input fields in forms (e.g., contact forms, search bars, comment sections) across your site. This helps keep all interactive elements looking consistent. You can change the border color, background color, text color, and more.

4. Colors & Backgrounds: This section is essential for setting your website’s main color scheme. It even provides color presets that make it easy for you to work, or you can even select the color that you want. Setting the primary color, accent, text, and background all at once, which can be controlled from one place.

5. Typography: This section allows you to control the fonts used across your entire website, ensuring a consistent and professional typographic hierarchy. In this, you also get the preset for fonts to choose from, or you can typically set: Base Font, Heading Fonts (H1, H2, H3…), and Font Size.

6. Social Links: This likely provides options to easily add and customize links to your social media profiles (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram). 

7. Embed Scripts: This is the advanced setting that allows you to add custom code to the header and footer. It is there for tracking, analytics, or third-party integrations. This could include Google Analytics tracking code, Facebook Pixel, and Custom JavaScript or CSS.

Step 4: Customizing The Template With Elementor 

Click on edit with Elementor to add widgets to your website.

 Search for the widget you want, or you can go through the list to select one.

And with that, you can create something like this. 

Although all the widgets are already there in the template, like this image gallery, to present all the properties. It is a good way to show all that in one place. 

Step 5: Add/Remove Pages or Sections 

To add a new page or post to your website, navigate to the Pages or Posts section in your WordPress dashboard and click on Add New.

To delete a page or post, select the checkbox next to the item you want to remove, choose Move to Trash from the Bulk Actions dropdown, and then click Apply.

Step 6: Additional Features of the Responsive Plus Plugin

The Responsive Plus plugin comes with additional features such as.

1. Mega Menu 

Perfect for websites with many categories or pages, the mega menu turns basic navigation into a clean, organized layout. Sites like Amazon and Flipkart use this style to show categories, subcategories, and deals in a single dropdown. With Responsive Plus, you can create a mega menu without coding.

2. White Labeling

With growing demand for custom branding, the White Label feature lets you remove Cyberchimps’ branding and rebrand the plugin as your own, ideal for promoting templates under your name.

3. Custom Fonts 

Typography is key to brand identity. Responsive Plus allows you to upload and use custom fonts with the Responsive theme, helping personalize the look and feel of your site.

4. Enhanced WooCommerce Customizer Options

Responsive Plus adds advanced WooCommerce customization for product pages, layouts, carts, and checkout. It helps match your store’s design with your brand and improves the shopping experience, no coding needed. Suitable for both small and large online stores.

Conclusion 

Responsive Plus offers a simple and intuitive experience, especially with its detailed documentation that makes getting started easy. The plugin provides excellent support for website building, and customization becomes even more seamless with its advanced features. 

When integrated with the Responsive theme and WordPress cloud development platform, Responsive Plus unlocks powerful options like the header and footer builder, blog layout controls, color presets, and typography presets, giving you complete control over your site’s design.

Overall, Responsive Plus is a highly efficient and user-friendly plugin, making it perfect for beginners. At the same time, its advanced capabilities, such as the mega menu and white labeling, also make it a valuable tool for experienced developers and agencies.

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