If you’ve used Elementor for a while, you’ve probably used the Template Library. If you’re a little more advanced, you might have created custom post loops for blogs, articles, custom post types, or other repeating content via plugins like Dynamic or the now-defunct Elementor Extras.
What is the best template to select in the Template Library when creating these loops?
Should you use the Section or Page template type? While it may seem obvious from the names, users sometimes mistakenly use the Page template for this type of content. You might think, “what is the difference between the two, when I load them they look identical?”
But the true story is under the hood. The HTML code that Elementor produces is a bit different for each.
To test, I created identical posts with one row/section and the exact text in a text widget on each page. When I ended up analyzing the pages, here is what I found:
- The Page template had 23 more lines of code
- It was 120 bytes larger
- Resulting in a 22ms longer load
Some of the extra HTML is missing when a Page called as a Post Loop, but it still results in different size pages with slightly more data for the Page template.
Not a huge deal on its own, but if you are calling that into a page 25x, it starts to add up! You don’t want your pages to end up with a ton of extra data to load with no apparent benefit.
If you are looking for the difference between Page and Section templates in Elementor, I hope this helps you choose. Use the Section template when you need a section for another page or post loop. When you have multiple sections, use a Page. And if you need help navigating any of this, use The Sky Floor. 😉
