How to Check if a Website is Using WordPress?
WordPress is surely one of the most popular Content Management Systems (CMS) available, and for good reason. The software is incredibly flexible, and it’s very easy to use. The platform also comes with some really useful features for website owners who want to grow their blogs and websites. In this guide we will tell you about some of these features, and how you can use them to your advantage.
The Basics
First of all, let’s discuss some of the basics. What is WordPress?
WordPress is a free and open-source CMS that allows users to build websites according to a predefined set of templates. These templates are known as “themes”, and they give the website a uniform look and feel. Themes also contain the basic functionalities that a blog or website needs, such as a header, footer, and sidebar. Themes are easily downloadable, which means that if you’ve ever used a simple text editor to tweak a website’s design, you can do the same with WordPress.
Another basic concept to understand is that of a “plugin”. Simply put, plugins are third-party add-ons that can enhance the functionality of WordPress. There are several helpful plugins for WordPress that can help you build a successful blog or website. Let’s take a look at them.
The Premium Versus The Free Version Of WordPress
It’s important to understand that WordPress comes in two distinct versions: the premium and the free version. The free version of WordPress is extremely limited in terms of features and functionalities. It doesn’t even have a search engine optimizer (SEO) built-in, which is vital if you want your website to appear in search results. The premium version, on the other hand, gives you access to all the features and functionalities of the software, including the SEO tools.
If you’re running a free version of WordPress, you shouldn’t expect much from it. The best way to have a successful blog or website is to invest in the premium version. Why? Well, as we’ve mentioned above: the premium version allows you to access all the features and functionalities of the software. If you look at the features list for WordPress, you’ll quickly realize that it’s a very versatile and powerful piece of software.
How Do You Find Out Whether or Not A Website Uses WordPress?
Whether or not a website uses WordPress is easily identifiable by looking at its URL. If you go to the website, and if you don’t see a “.com” or a “.net” at the end of the domain name, chances are the website is not powered by WordPress.
Also, if you Google the website, and you don’t see any results that come up under the “Search Engine Results” section (SERP) for “wordpress”, “blogger”, or “plentyoffish”, WordPress is probably not powering the site.
Why Should You Use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) For Your Blog Or Website?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is all about making your website easier to find when Googlers or other website visitors search for something using keywords or search terms. Let’s say you’re running a blog about fashion. You could create blogs that contain words like “fashion”, “clothes”, “accessories”, and so on. When a user searches for something related to fashion, your blog could show up in the SERPs.
However, if your fashion blog posts all have the same name (e.g., “Is Red Deadlier Than White? Comparison of the Fashion Blahs”), your blog won’t show up when someone searches for “fashion”. That’s because search engines can’t “see” inside your blog’s posts to find relevant content. If your website looks like it’s been thrown together in a hurry, with very little thought put into the design and functionality, search engines may have a hard time finding your content. That’s why it’s important to implement a bit of SEO on your blog or website.
There are several SEO tools that bloggers and website owners can use to easily optimize their content for search engines. Some of the most popular ones are WordPress’s own SEO plugin and Google’s (formerly known as “Yahoo’) Search Console. However, these are just tools. To get the best results from your SEO efforts, you need to put in the time to learn how to use them effectively.
WordPress’s Own SEO Plugin
One of the simplest and most popular SEO plugins for WordPress is the All-in-One SEO Pack from WordPress. This plugin bundles several other reputable SEO tools into one convenient package. For example, the SEO plugin includes the built-in search engine optimizer of WordPress, as well as other tools like the Google Analytics for WordPress plugin. The latter provides website owners with detailed statistics about their visitors’ behavior on their websites.
Why is Google’s Search Console (formerly known as “Yahoo Search Console”) so important? Because it enables you to see how Google (and other search engines) perceive your website, and it gives you the ability to fix any problems that might arise. What’s more, you can submit your website to multiple search engines at once, through Google’s Search Console. This, in turn, can help your website show up in the search results of multiple search engines simultaneously.
Features Of WordPress
Before we move on, it’s important to point out a few important features of WordPress that you need to know about. These features are invaluable if you want to have a successful blog or website.
First of all, WordPress is extremely flexible. This means that the platform has a large number of plugins that you can use to expand its functionality. For example, the WordPress SEO plugin we mentioned above can help with all sorts of SEO-related issues. However, there are several other popular plugins that can be used to analyze traffic, track visitors, and even allow you to take payments online (e.g., via Stripe).
When it comes to features, WordPress is fairly advanced, given its audience and status as a popular CMS. The best part about this is that, unlike most other CMSs, changes to the underlying structure of a WordPress-powered website do not require a redesign. Meaning, if you want to add or remove content from a website, you can do so with relative ease. Even more impressively, if you’re technically inclined, you can customise the appearance of your website completely, through the use of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
What we mean by this is that if you’re running a free version of WordPress, you might very well have all the functionalities you need to build and grow a successful blog or website. However, if you’re looking for advanced features, you might have to upgrade to the premium version.
Upgrading To The Premium Version Of WordPress
If you’re already using a free version of WordPress, the best thing for you to do is to upgrade to the premium version. Why? Simply put, the best feature of the premium version is the search engine optimisation (SEO) functionality that we mentioned above. However, there are other perks that you’ll discover once you’re using the premium version. Here’s a short list:
- Custom domains
- Free SSL certificates
- Full-featured blog
- Take payments via Stripe
- Built-in offline mode
- Advanced security measures
- …and more!
If you’re running a free version of WordPress, you’ll discover that it’s actually very easy to use. The best thing is that you don’t need any previous experience to get started. Also, you don’t need to have a lot of money to invest in the premium version. Simply download and install the software as often as you need to, to keep your website updated.
Even for beginners, WordPress is an incredibly easy platform to use. This is mainly thanks to its visual editor, which allows users to easily and quickly build a website. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll wonder why you didn’t use WordPress sooner.