When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference.
Then WordPress came along and everything changed. Now, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to tell if a website is running on “blogging” tools like the WP CMS, or if it’s been created using web-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 type of web application is actually powering the site.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For many website owners, understanding the difference between a CMS tool 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 areas that matter to most website owners, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain 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 site, but at a cost that turns out to be significantly less than the cost of getting option ”A” above built.
If you picked site “B”, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create a professional-looking website that could cost far less to build than websites built using a website development application … and how to tell the two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s preferred online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful content management tool that is ideally suited for most types of business applications.
Whether your reason for having a web site is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no technical skills to use and manage, and offers many helpful tools that make your website more effective when it comes to getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s functionality, 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, yours is also a WordPress site.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are considering 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 a similar site built for a much smaller cost?
Is My Website Built With WordPress? Tell-Tale Signs & WordPress-Checking Tools
Do you need to know if your 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 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 a number of ways to tell if sites are built using WordPress:
Search Your 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 obvious telltale footprints that the site was built with WordPress …
(Viewing page source code using Firefox)
Let’s say that you are surfing the web and you visit a 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.
After the source code of the site loads on your screen, search for words like “wp-content” either by scanning the code with your eyes …
Or use the 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 are unable to find the words “wp-content” within the page source code, it doesn’t mean that this is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out 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 ways to check if your site is powered by WordPress other than searching the source code.
Simply Ask Your Webmaster
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 been built with WordPress.
If you have an existing web site and you’re not sure what CMS application is driving it, just ask your web developer or whoever built your web site if your website has been built with WordPress.
That was simple, 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 browsing the net late at night and would like to know if it was built using WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme where the templates have not been edited, you can typically see a “Powered by WordPress” notice showing at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If the methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site was built using WordPress or not …
Online Tools That Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a some sites that will 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)
IsItWP.com is a free online tool that lets you easily check if a site uses WordPress or not.
Using this site is very easy. Just add the address of the website into the URL field and click the button next to it.
The tool 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 web site is not a WordPress web site or blog, you will see a message similar to the one 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 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)
If you use either the Firefox or Google Chrome web browser and want to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting are WordPress sites, then Wappalyzer is a useful extension to install on your web 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 easy to install and very easy to use.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer on your browser, icons will show up in your browser identifying which technologies are being used by the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon shows up on the browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This website uses WordPress!)
To download and install the Wappalyzer browser add-on, 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, visit the site below:
We hope 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