When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell blogs and websites apart.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and revolutionized online publishing and content management. Now, it’s becoming almost impossible 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 web design and also being able to tell what’s “under the hood”.
(Can You Tell Which Application Is Powering Your Website?)
For website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System 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 things that many website owners care about, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the site up-to-date, managing web content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of the following options would you choose?
A) An eye-catching, professional-looking website that is expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking website, but at a cost that is significantly less than the cost of getting option “A” above.
If you picked option ”B” above, then you need to know more about WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with a stunning website that will typically cost far less to build than websites which are built using web-building software … and how to tell the two apart!
WordPress is the world’s most used online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful content management system suitable for all types of businesses.
Whether your reason for having a website or blog is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no programming skills to use and manage, yet it offers many helpful add-ons that make your web site more effective when it comes to getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor engagement, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s functionality, etc.
With almost one in every five websites around the world being powered by WordPress, chances are that if you already own a website, yours is also a WordPress site.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are thinking of getting a website built, then wouldn’t it be great to show your web developer an existing site with the design and layout that you like, know that it was built with WordPress and that you can, therefore, get a similar site built for your business quite inexpensively?
Tell-Tale Signs It’s A WordPress Web Site And WordPress-Checking Tools
Do you need to know if a website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard or read about all of the great benefits and advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on WordPress, or some other website 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 a number of ways to tell if sites are running on WordPress:
View The Source Code
If you know how to bring up 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 a tell-tale footprint …
(View your web page source code in the Firefox browser)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you visit a web site that you like, and you’re wondering if the site runs on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
After the source code of the page loads on your screen, you can search for the words “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or use the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to see “wp-content” within the page source code, it does not mean that you are not looking at a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if the site was built using the WordPress software, as we will soon be discussing.
As the focus of this post is to try and help non “techies”, however, we have listed below a number of easier methods you can use to check if your web site is built with WordPress other than scanning the source code.
Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, many web development companies, for whatever reason, will build clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you used the services of a website developer or got somebody else to build your website, just ask your developer or whoever built your web site if your website runs on WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while surfing the net late at night and you need to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WP theme where the web theme templates have not been modified, you will often see a “Powered by WordPress” notice displayed at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – footer)
If the simple methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site uses WordPress or not …
Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a couple of online applications that can tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP – WordPress Site Checker
(Is It WP)
Is It WordPress? is a free online tool that can tell you very quickly if a site uses WordPress or not.
Using this site is super simple. Just add the address of the website into the search field and click the button.
It will go and search through the URL code and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the web site was not built using WordPress, you will see a message similar to the one shown below …
To use this tool, 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 – Add-On For Firefox & Chrome Browser
(Wappalyzer – Extension For Firefox & Chrome Web Browser)
If you use a web browser such as Firefox or Chrome and would like to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting are WP-driven, then Wappalyzer is a very useful extension for your browser.
Wappalyzer identifies what software is installed on 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.”
It’s also an easy to install and easy to use web browser extension.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer, icons will show up in your browser menu, next to the site URL identifying which technologies are being used by the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon shows up on your browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This site has been built with WordPress!)
Visit the site here:
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 you have found the above the information in this tutorial useful.
***
"I am beyond impressed with what you have put together. I can tell that you put a ton of hard work into building what you have. You have the absolute best content on WordPress I have ever seen!" - Robert T. Jillie