How to Find Out if a Website Is Using WordPress?
WordPress powers 22% of all websites, making it the clear #2 most popular content management system (CMS) behind only the widely used Hootsuite. That’s a lot of websites leveraging the power of WordPress!
Since its inception, WordPress has been a source of both inspiration and headaches for bloggers and website owners. WordPress is a blessing and a curse – it’s open source which allows for endless customization and flexibility but also makes it much more difficult to tell if you’re utilizing all the available tools or features.
In today’s world of digital marketing, SEO, and content strategy, knowing how to use WordPress effectively is more important than ever. Being able to determine whether or not a website is using WordPress to create their content is essential for every marketer or business owner.
The Pros And Cons Of WordPress
While WordPress has a lot to offer, it’s also a complex piece of software and certainly not for the faint of heart. If you’re looking for a simple content management system (CMS) that you can just install on your website and leave alone, then WordPress might not be the best choice for you.
WordPress is a full-blown content manager and web publishing platform which can handle everything from blog posts and web pages to digital magazines and event websites. As a blogging platform, it’s been around for a very long time and continues to be one of the most popular choices among journalists, bloggers, and other content creators.
If you’re interested in taking advantage of this popular content manager, then it’s important to note a few things about WordPress. First off, it’s incredibly flexible and can be customized to fit almost any need or requirement. The only real limit is your imagination and creativity.
WordPress has all the amenities of a real-world content publishing platform. To that end, you’ll need to consider how much space you have to work with, whether or not you need to support mobile visitors, and how much time you’re willing to invest in making your site work for you.
WordPress also has a large and rapidly expanding community of users and developers who are available to help you out with whatever you might need. For example, WordPress has a large social media team who can help you build and plan a marketing strategy across all major channels.
How To Find Out If A Website Is Using WordPress
WordPress can be a little difficult to tell apart from a regular web page unless you’re specifically looking for it. The good news is that you can find out rather easily if a website is using WordPress rather than just taking their word for it.
All you need is a little bit of technical knowledge and a little bit of detective work. First, you’ll need to determine what web server the website is using – is it Apache or nginx? You may see one or the other depending on your host but it doesn’t matter which one you choose as long as you can access the WordPress dashboard from any computer.
If you’re using Apache, you’ll want to ensure that WordPress has been installed as a module (extension). This will make it much easier for you to access the WordPress dashboard from any computer. Make sure to follow the instructions carefully so you don’t end up with an extension that is not compatible with your version of Apache.
Apache Incompatibility With WordPress
WordPress is open source software and as a result, anyone can download it and install it on their web servers. One of the most popular choices among web hosts is a service by the name of WordPress itself. To ensure that you’re not using software that is not compatible with your server, you can check the documentation for your web host provider to see what version of Apache they have installed.
In most cases, you’ll see that they are either running the older or the newer version of Apache which is completely incompatible with WordPress. If your host doesn’t have a documented version of Apache, then you can assume that they are running the most recent version which is fully compatible with WordPress. In this case, you don’t need to do anything further.
When using an Apache server and WordPress, you want to make sure that Apache is set up to handle PHP files. PHP is a programming language often used to create dynamic websites and blogs because it’s highly customizable. Since many WordPress websites use PHP, you’ll most likely have it already installed on your Apache server.
Installing WordPress On A Debian-Based Linux Server
WordPress can also be downloaded and installed on a Linux server. The most popular Linux server distributions including Debian and Ubuntu both have built-in functionality that makes installing WordPress a breeze.
To get started, open a terminal (Linux command line) and enter the following commands:
- apt-get install wordpress
- cp /usr/share/doc/wordpress/examples/setup.php /var/www/html/wp-config.php
- chmod +x /var/www/html/wp-config.php
- touch /var/www/html/wp-config.php
- open /var/www/html/wp-config.php in your favorite editor or use nano – a simple text editor
As you can see above, you’ll want to make a few changes to the WordPress configuration file so that it’s compatible with your web server. First off, you’ll want to change the directory value in the wp-config.php file from public_html to var/www/html. This will allow you to install WordPress inside of your /var or /var/www directory. Next, change the db_name and db_user values to match the name and user of your database. You’ll also need to update the wp-content and wp-admin directory values to match the location of your content and administrative folders. Otherwise, WordPress will store your content in the public_html folder and won’t have access to it. To finish the process, you’ll need to enable WordPress to start downloading extensions automatically by changing the automatically_install_extensions value in the wp-config.php file to true.
Your Host Will Have Important Information
If you have contacted your web host provider after completing the above steps and requested technical support, then they will have contacted you with instructions on how to access the dashboard of your WordPress installation.
On most shared hosting plans, you’ll be able to access the dashboard of your WordPress installation via a special URL. You can use this URL to see all of your WordPress stats and check for any errors or warnings that may have been generated while setting up your blog or website.
In the event that you are unable to access the dashboard using the URL provided by your web host, then they will have provided you with a small set of tools that will help you diagnose the problem. If you can access the dashboard using these tools, then you know that your web host is running the latest version of Apache which is fully compatible with WordPress. In this case, you don’t need to do anything further.
Use The Search Engine Of Your Choice
No matter which search engine you choose (Google, Bing, or others), you’ll want to make sure that it’s set up to index your WordPress blog or website. Sometimes it can take a bit of searching to find the right settings, so be sure to check each search engine’s help pages for instructions on how to properly set up your blog or website.
Once you’ve set up your blog or website and are starting to grow your audience, then you can start researching topics to write about and build out a lucrative and authoritative blog or website.