Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the difference between the two.
Then WordPress came along and everything changed. Now, it’s becoming almost impossible to tell if a site was built using a “blogging” content management system (CMS) like the WP publishing platform, or if it’s been developed using a website development 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 type of web application is actually powering the site.
(Can You Tell Which Application A Website Has Been Built With?)
For many 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 matter to most website owners, 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 turns out to be quite 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 decided to go with web site ”B” above, then you need to know more about WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create an eye-catching website that will typically cost far less to build than websites built using a web development application … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s preferred online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful CMS application suitable for ”non-techy” website owners.
Whether your reason for having an online presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no knowledge of HTML to use, and offers a range of helpful functions that make your web site more effective in terms of getting your content published, 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 being powered by WordPress, chances are that if you already own a website, your site is also driven by the WordPress CMS.
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 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 for a much smaller cost?
Is My Site WordPress?
Do you need to know if your website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve read about all of the great benefits of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using WordPress, 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 a number of ways to tell if a web site is running on WordPress:
Look At The Page Source Code
If you know how to view 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 that the site was built with WordPress …
(Viewing page source code using the Firefox web browser)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you come across a website 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 site loads on your screen, you can search for words like “wp-content” either manually …
Or using your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot see “wp-content” within the source code, it does not mean that this is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site runs on WordPress, as we will soon discuss.
As the focus of this article is to help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easy methods you can use to check if your website is powered by WordPress other than searching the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, many website development agencies, for whatever reason, may build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you employed 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 it runs on WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with your website developer, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while surfing online and would like to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme and the website them template has not been modified, you will often find a “Powered by WordPress” message displayed at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If the simple methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site uses WordPress or not …
Sites That Can Tell You If A Website Uses 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 …
Is It WP – WordPress Website Checker
(IsItWP.com)
Is It WP is a free online tool that can check very quickly if a website uses WordPress or not.
Using this tool is super easy. Just paste the address of the site into the search field and click the button next to it.
It will search through the URL pages and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you the version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the site is not a WordPress-powered site, you will get a message like the one shown in the screenshot 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 – Web Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer – Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome))
If you browse the net using either Firefox or Chrome and would like to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting are WordPress-powered, then Wappalyzer is a very useful add-on for your browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify what 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.”
Wappalyzer is also easy to install.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer on your browser, icons will display in your web browser allowing you to see which technologies are being used by all the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon on the browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(A WordPress site!)
To download and install the Wappalyzer extension, 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, 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, visit the site below:
We hope you have found the above the information in this tutorial useful.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now