When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and everything changed. Now, it’s becoming increasingly harder to tell if a website was built with “blogging” software like the WP platform, or if it’s been created using a web building software tooltool. 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 surface.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For many website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System tool like WordPress and other website-building software is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, in terms of the things that the majority of website owners care about, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the site up-to-date, managing content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of these options would you choose?
A) An eye-catching, professional-looking website that is expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but at a fraction of the cost of getting option ”A” built.
If you selected site ”B” above, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that could turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites built using a web building tool … 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 and easy-to-use content management system suitable for most types of business applications.
Whether your reason for having a website is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no knowledge of web coding to use, and offers many helpful features that make your web site more effective when it comes to getting your content published, promoting visitor engagement, generating business leads and sales, 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 considering getting one 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 quite inexpensively?
Is Your Website Built With WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve heard about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on the WordPress software, 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 methods you can use to quickly tell if a web site has been built using WordPress:
View Your Source Code
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 an obvious telltale footprint …
(How to view page source code using the Firefox browser)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you come across a 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.
In the source code, search for the words “wp-content” either manually …
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 find “wp-content” within the source code, it does not necessarily mean that this is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if the site runs on WordPress, as we will soon be discussing.
As the point of this post is to help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easy methods you can use to check if your site is built using WordPress other than looking at the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the obvious thing to do, some web developers, for whatever reason, will build clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you have an existing website and you’re not sure what application is driving it, just ask your web developer or whoever built your site if it was built with WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach the person who built your site, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while surfing the net and you would like to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the them template has not been edited, you will typically find a “Powered by WordPress” message showing in the footer area …
(Powered by WordPress)
If the simple methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Tools That Tell You If A Website Is Built With WordPress
Here are a some tools that can tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com – WordPress Checker
(Is It WP – WP Site Checker)
Is It WP? is a free online tool that tells you if a site uses WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really quite easy. Just enter the URL of the site into the search field and click the button.
The tool will then go through the URL pages 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 site is not a WP-powered website, you will see a message like the one 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 – Extension For Firefox & Chrome Web Browser
(Wappalyzer.com)
If you browse the net using either the Firefox or Chrome web browsers and want to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting are WordPress-powered, then Wappalyzer is a useful extension for your browser.
Wappalyzer identifies what type of software is installed in 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 browser extension to install and use.
After installing Wappalyzer on your web browser, icons will show up in your web browser, next to the site URL identifying which technologies are being used by the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon on the browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(This is a WordPress site!)
Visit the website 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, visit the site below:
I hope you have found the above tutorial useful.
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum