It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference between the two.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and changed all this. Now, it’s getting harder to tell if a website is being powered by a “blogging” content management system (CMS) like the WP publishing platform, or if it’s been developed using website-building software. 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 surface.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
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, regarding the areas that the majority of website owners care about, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the website up-to-date, managing 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 for a tiny fraction of the cost of getting option ”A”.
If you selected site ”B” above, then you need to know more about WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that could cost far less to build than websites which use traditional web editor tools … and how to tell these two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful CMS application suitable for businesses on a budget.
Whether your reason for having an online presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no technical knowledge to use, and offers a range of helpful extensions 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 probably powered by WordPress too.
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 quite inexpensively?
How To Check If Your Website Was Built With WordPress
Do you need to know if your website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard 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 ways to tell if sites are running on WordPress:
Search 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 tell-tale footprints …
(How to view page source code in Firefox)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you visit a web site that you like, and you’re wondering if the site uses WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
Once the source code of the page loads on your screen, search for words like “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or using your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot find “wp-content” within the page source code, it does not mean that it’s not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if the site was built using the WordPress software, as we will soon see.
As the point of this article is to help non “techies”, however, we have listed below a number of easy methods you can use to check if your web site is built with WordPress other than scanning the source code.
Simply Ask Your Website Developer
While this may seem like the obvious thing to do, a number of web development agencies, for whatever reason, may build clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you employed the services of a website developer or got somebody else to build your website, just ask your web developer or whoever built your website if it was built with WordPress.
That was easy, 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 the net late at night and want to know if it was built with WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WP theme where the website template has not been modified, you can typically find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice shown in the footer section …
(Powered by WordPress – site footer)
If the simple methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Online Tools That Tell You If A Website Uses WordPress
Here are a couple of tools that can tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP
(Is It WP – WP Checking Tool)
Is It WP is a free tool that lets you easily check if a site uses WordPress or not.
Using this site is very simple. Just enter the URL of the website into the URL field and click the button next to it.
It will then 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 the site is currently using …
If the web site was not built using WordPress, you will see a message like 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 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.com
(Wappalyzer – Web Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome))
If you use either the Firefox or Chrome browser and would like to be able to tell if the sites that you are visiting are WordPress sites, then Wappalyzer is a useful extension for your browser.
Wappalyzer identifies what type of software is installed on the sites while you are browsing.
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 add-on to install and use.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer, icons will display in your browser, next to the site URL allowing you to see which technologies are installed on all the sites you are visiting …
If you see the WordPress icon on your browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This website is built using WordPress!)
To learn more, go 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, go here:
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 this tutorial useful.
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group