When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell blogs and websites apart.
Then WordPress came along and changed all this. Now, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to tell the difference between blogs and websites. Not so much in terms of what the sites are being used for, but in terms of website design and also being able to tell what’s “under the hood”.
(Can You Tell Which Application A Website Has Been Built With?)
For website owners, understanding the difference between a CMS application like WordPress and other website-building tools is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, in terms of the areas that the majority of website owners care most about, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the site up-to-date, managing web content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of the options below would you choose?
A) An eye-catching, professional-looking website that turns out to be quite expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking website, but at a much cheaper cost than the cost of getting option ”A”.
If you picked website “B”, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an eye-catching website that will probably turn out to be far less expensive to build than websites built using website-building software … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful CMS application suitable for all types of businesses.
Whether your reason for having a web site is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no technical skills to use and manage, yet it offers many helpful add-ons that make your web site extremely effective in terms of getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s functionality, scalability, etc.
With almost one in every five websites around the world currently being powered by WordPress, chances are that if you already own a website, your site is also driven by WordPress.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are thinking of getting a website built, then wouldn’t it be great to be able to show your web developer an existing website with the design and layout that you like, know that it was built with WordPress and that you can, therefore, get something similarly built for your business to a smaller budget if required?
Is It A WordPress Site?
Do you need to know if a website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard or read about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using the WordPress software, or some other CMS application.
Also, have you ever looked at a competitor’s website and wondered what they’re doing to try and get better results online?
Knowing if your competitor’s site is built with WordPress can tell you a few things about their strategies and methods, such as what themes or plugins they are using.
Here are some simple methods you can use to quickly tell if a website has been built using WordPress:
Check The Page’s Source Code For A WordPress Footprint
If you know how to access the source code of a web page (e.g. Firefox Menu > Web Developer > Page Source if using Firefox, or Google Menu > More Tools > View Source if using Google Chrome), you can look for tell-tale footprints …
(Viewing the web page source code in the Firefox web browser)
Suppose that you are browsing online and you visit a website that you like, and you would like to know if the site is built on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
After the source code of the site loads on your screen, you can search for the words “wp-content” either by scanning the code visually …
Or using the browser’s “Find” function …
(Use Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to find “wp-content” in the page source code, it does not mean that the website is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if the site runs on the WordPress software, as we will soon discuss.
As the focus of this post is to try and help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easier ways to check if your site is built with WordPress other than looking at the source code.
Simply Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, some website developers, for whatever reason, will build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you have an existing web site and you can’t tell what application was used to build it, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your web site if it has been built with WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your website developer, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while surfing online and you want to know if it was built using WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme and the website them template has not been modified, you can often find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice shown in the footer area …
(Powered by WordPress – footer area)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Sites That Tell You If A Website Has Been Built With WordPress
Here are a some sites that will tell you if the website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress? – WP Website Checker
(Is It WordPress?)
IsItWP.com is a free tool that lets you easily check if a website was built using WordPress or not.
Using this tool is very easy. Just paste the URL of the website into the search field and click the button next to it.
It will then go and search through the URL files and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the web site is not powered by WordPress, you will see a message similar to the one below …
To visit this site, go here:
Advanced WP Theme Checker by Satori
(WordPress Theme Detector)
WordPress Theme Detector by Satori Studio is a free tool that can help determine whether or not a website uses WordPress as its CMS engine; it will also tell you which theme the site is using and provide a link to the theme’s official page.
To use this tool, paste the URL of a web page (it doesn’t have to be the home page) into the ‘Enter website URL’ field and click on the ‘What WordPress theme is that?’ button …
(Enter website URL and click the button)
The Theme Detector will automatically scan the website and output its theme information …
(WordPress Theme Detector displays theme results)
If a website is built with WordPress but the theme is too customized to contain any traces of its origins, the Detector will still let you know it’s a WP site by outputting a message on the right.
(Modified WordPress theme message)
If the website is not using WordPress at all, the tool will also let you know …
(This website is not WordPress)
You can try the Detector yourself by visiting this link:
Wappalyzer
(Wappalyzer – Web Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome))
If you browse the net using either the Firefox or Chrome browsers and want to be able to tell if the sites that you are visiting are powered by WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful extension to install on your browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify what type of software is installed in the sites you are visiting.
According to their website …
“Wappalyzer is a browser extension that uncovers the technologies used on websites. It detects content management systems, eCommerce platforms, web servers, JavaScript frameworks, analytics tools and many more.”
Wappalyzer is also a very easy add-on to install and use.
After installing Wappalyzer on your browser, icons will appear in your web browser menu allowing you to see which technologies are installed on all the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon shows up on your browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(This is a WordPress site!)
Go here to download and install Wappalyzer:
SpyBar
(SpyBar – Browser Addon For WordPress)
SpyBar is a browser addon that lets you ‘reverse engineer’ any WordPress site you visit and see which WordPress plugins and themes are being used, right inside your web browser …
(SpyBar – Discover WordPress Plugins And Themes Used By Your Competitors)
SpyBar can be installed as a browser extension on Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox and is compatible with PC and Mac.
To download or learn more about SpyBar, visit the site below:
Plugin Sniper
(Plugin Sniper – Find out what plugins a WordPress site is using)
Plugin Sniper lets you find out what plugins a WordPress site is using. This is a useful tool if you want to know what WordPress plugins are being used by your competitors.
Plugin Sniper is also a useful tool for researching what kinds of plugins businesses in certain niches are using …
(Search WordPress sites by categories and location)
To download or learn more about Plugin Sniper, go here:
We hope that you have found the above information useful.
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