It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the difference.
Then WordPress came along and everything changed. Now, it’s becoming more difficult to tell blogs and websites apart. 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 kind of web application is actually powering the site.
(Can You Tell Which Application Your Website Is Powered By?)
For 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 things that the majority of website owners are concerned with, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the site up-to-date, managing content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of the options below 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 site “A” above.
If you decided to go with website “B”, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an eye-catching website that will usually turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites which use web-building software … and how to tell the two apart!
WordPress is the world’s preferred online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful CMS suitable for ”non-techy” website owners.
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, yet it offers many helpful features that make your web site extremely effective when it comes to getting your content published, 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 thinking of getting a website built, then wouldn’t it be great to be able 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 for your business quite inexpensively?
Tell-Tale Signs It’s A WordPress Blog And WordPress-Checking Tools
Do you need to know if your website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve heard or read 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:
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 telltale footprints …
(Viewing your page source code using Firefox)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you visit a web site that you like, and you would like to know 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 “wp-content” either by scanning the code visually …
Or use the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot find the words “wp-content” in the page source code, it does not necessarily mean that the site you’re looking at is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site was built using WordPress, as we will soon see.
As the focus of this post is to try and help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easier ways to check if your website is built using WordPress other than looking at the source code.
Simply Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, some website development agencies, for whatever reason, may build their clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you hired a website developer or got somebody else to build your website, just ask your developer or whoever built your site if your website was 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 site that you really like while browsing online and want to know if it was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme where the web theme templates have not been edited, you can often 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 identifying WordPress sites …
Online Tools That Tell You If A Website Runs On WordPress
Here are a some sites that will tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress?
(IsItWP.com – WordPress Site Checker)
Is It WordPress? is a free online tool that can tell you if a website uses WordPress or not.
Using this site is super simple. Just add the URL of the website into the URL field and click the button next to it.
The tool will then go and search 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 web site has not been built with WordPress, you will get a message similar to 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 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 a web browser such as Firefox or Google Chrome and want to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting are WP sites, then Wappalyzer is a very useful add-on to install on 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.”
It’s also very easy to install.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer, icons will display in your browser identifying which software is being used by the sites you are visiting …
If you see the WordPress icon displayed on your browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(This is a WordPress site!)
To install Wappalyzer 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, go here:
We 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