The StackOptic Blog
Practical guides on identifying website technologies, SEO and GEO, web performance and lead generation — from the team behind StackOptic.
How to Tell if a Website Is Built with WooCommerce
WooCommerce is WordPress plus Woo: woocommerce-* body classes, a /wp-content/plugins/woocommerce/ path and wc-* cart scripts. Here is how to detect it.
How to Create a security.txt File
A practical guide to security.txt: the RFC 9116 file that tells security researchers how to report vulnerabilities. Fields, an example, and validation.
How Do Design Choices Affect Website Energy Use?
Designers decide most of a page's energy use. Here is how imagery, video, fonts, animation, infinite scroll and dark mode drive energy — and what to do instead.
How to Tell if a Website Uses Bootstrap (and Which Version)
Bootstrap leaves clear fingerprints: container/row/col-md-6 classes, bootstrap.min.css and data-bs-* attributes. Here is how to detect it and pin the version.
What Is Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and How to Prevent It
A defensive guide to cross-site scripting: the three types explained, plus the layered prevention that stops it — output encoding, CSP and framework escaping.
How to Tell if a Website Uses Google reCAPTCHA
Google reCAPTCHA leaves signals: a recaptcha/api.js script, a grecaptcha global and a g-recaptcha data-sitekey. Here is how to detect it and tell v2 from v3.
How to Tell if a Website Is Built with Ruby on Rails
Rails runs server-side, but it leaves tells: a _session cookie, a csrf-token meta tag, fingerprinted /assets/ files and an X-Request-Id header. Here is how.
How to Check a Website for Malware
A practical guide to checking any website for malware: the free external scanners to use, the signs of infection, server-side checks, and what to do next.
How to Tell if a Website Is Built with Magento (Adobe Commerce)
Magento leaves clear fingerprints: /static/version*/ and /media/ paths, X-Magento cache headers and Magento_* RequireJS modules. Here is how to detect it.
How to Segment Your Prospect List
Segmenting your prospect list makes every message relevant: the dimensions that matter, building segments, mapping a message to each, and tech-stack segments.
What Is an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and How to Define It
An ICP describes the companies you should sell to: how it differs from a buyer persona, the criteria that define it, and how to build one from your customers.
What Is Account-Based Marketing (ABM) and How to Start
Account-based marketing explained: flip the funnel to target named accounts, the three ABM tiers, sales-marketing alignment, account selection, and measurement.
What Is an Accessibility Statement and How to Write One
An accessibility statement declares your commitment, conformance level and known issues, and gives users a way to get help. Here is how to write a good one.
What Is Local Link Building and How to Do It
Local links build geographically relevant prominence. Here is what local link building is, which tactics work, and how to earn quality links without spam.
How to Create Local Landing Pages That Rank
Local landing pages target a place or service — but only rank if they are genuinely useful. How to build them right, with NAP, schema and real content.
How to Build Accessible Forms
Forms are where accessibility most often breaks. Here is how to label, group, validate and manage focus so everyone can complete them, with a checklist.
What Is Render-Blocking and How to Eliminate It
Render-blocking CSS and synchronous JavaScript delay first paint. What it is, how to find it in Lighthouse, and how to eliminate it to improve FCP and LCP.
What Is Search Intent and How to Optimize for It
Search intent is the goal behind a query. The four types, how to read the results page to infer intent, and how to match your content to what searchers want.
How to Test Your Website Speed (Tools and Metrics)
Which tools to use, lab versus field data, and the metrics that matter. Test your site speed with PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, WebPageTest and DevTools.
What Is CORS and How Does It Work?
A clear guide to CORS and the same-origin policy: simple vs preflight requests, the Access-Control headers, credentials, the wildcard pitfall, and risks.
What Is Anchor Text and How to Optimize It
Anchor text is the clickable words of a link. The five types, why descriptive anchors help users and crawlers, over-optimization risk and internal vs external.
How to Reduce Server Response Time
Slow server response time delays everything and hurts LCP. The real causes, from unindexed queries to no caching to distant origins, and how to fix each one.
What Is Crawl Budget and How to Optimize It
Crawl budget is how much of your site Google will crawl. What crawl rate and demand mean, who needs to care, what wastes it, and how to optimize on big sites.
How to Tell if a Website Uses the Meta (Facebook) Pixel
The Meta Pixel leaves clear signals: an fbevents.js script, an fbq('init') call, a _fbp cookie and tr beacons to facebook.com. Here is how to detect it.