Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell them apart.
Then WordPress came along and changed all this. Now, it’s becoming more and more difficult to tell if the website is running on a “blogging” content management system (CMS) like the WP CMS, 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 web design and also being able to tell what’s “under the hood”.
(Can You Tell Which Application Is Powering Your Website?)
For many website owners, understanding the difference between a CMS 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 areas that matter to most website owners, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the website 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 actually 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” built.
If you chose website “B”, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create an eye-catching website that will normally end up costing you far less to build than websites which use traditional website editor tools … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s preferred online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a budget-friendly content management software 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 web design skills to use, yet it offers many helpful functions that make your web presence more 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 capabilities, 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 WP CMS.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are thinking of getting one 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 to a smaller budget if required?
Is My Site WordPress?
Do you need to know if your website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve read about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on WordPress, or some other CMS.
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 sites are powered WordPress:
Search Your Page Source Code
If you know how to search 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 obvious tell-tale footprints that the site was built using WordPress …
(Viewing page source code in the Firefox web browser)
Suppose that you are surfing the web 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 “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or use the 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 see “wp-content” within the page source code, it does not necessarily mean that this is 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 try and help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easy ways to check if your website is built using WordPress other than scanning the source code.
Just Ask Your Website Developer
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, many web 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’re not sure what CMS application was used to build it, just ask your developer or whoever built your website if the website runs on WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your website developer, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while browsing the net and you really need to know if it was built using WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme where the them template has not been modified, you will typically see a “Proudly powered by WordPress” message shown at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a website uses WordPress or not …
Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Has Been Built With WordPress
Here are a couple of tools that can tell you if the website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress? – WordPress Website Checking Tool
(Is It WordPress? – WP Checking Tool)
Is It WP? is a free online tool that can check if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this tool is super simple. Just add the URL of the site into the search field and click the button next to it.
The tool will go 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 a WP site, you will get 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.com
(Wappalyzer – Extension For Firefox & Chrome Web Browser)
If you browse the net using either Firefox or Google Chrome and would like to be able to tell if the sites that you are visiting are WordPress sites, then Wappalyzer is a very useful add-on for your browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify 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.”
Wappalyzer is also a very easy web browser add-on to install and use.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer on your browser, icons will show up in your browser, in the URL field allowing you to see which technologies are being used by all the sites you are visiting …
If you see the WordPress icon showing on the browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(A WordPress site!)
Visit the Wappalyzer extension 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, 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:
I hope that you have found this information useful.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum