Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the difference.
Then WordPress came along and revolutionized the web publishing world. Now, it’s getting increasingly harder to tell if a website is being powered by a “blogging” CMS software application like the WordPress CMS, or if it’s been developed using a website building software application. 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’s “under the hood”.
(Can You Tell Which Application Is Powering Your Website?)
For 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, regarding the things that matter to most website owners, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the website up-to-date, managing content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of the following 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 much cheaper cost than the cost of getting option ”A” above built.
If you selected website ”B” above, then you need to know more about WordPress, why WordPress can give you a professional-looking website that could turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites which use website-building software … and how to tell these two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s preferred online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful CMS platform that is ideally suited for all types of businesses.
Whether your reason for having a website is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no knowledge of web coding to use and manage, and offers a range of helpful extensions that make your website more effective in terms of getting your content published, promoting visitor engagement, 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 could probably be powered by WordPress too.
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 site 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 very little cost?
How Can I Tell If A Website Was Built Using WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve heard or read wonderful things 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:
Check The Source Code For WordPress Footprints
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 tell-tale footprints …
(Viewing the page source code using Firefox)
Let’s say that you are surfing the web and you come across a website that you like, and you’re wondering if the site is built 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 are unable to locate “wp-content” in the page source code, it does not mean that it’s not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site runs on WordPress, as we will soon be discussing.
As the focus of this post is to try and help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easy methods you can use to check if your web site is powered by WordPress other than scanning the source code.
Just Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the obvious thing to do, a number of website developers, for whatever reason, will build 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 website if it has been built with WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while browsing online and you really would like to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Check Below Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme where the theme templates have not been customized, you will typically find a “Powered by WordPress” message displayed at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – site footer section)
If these simple methods haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a website uses WordPress or not …
Sites That Can Tell You If A Website Uses WordPress
Here are a some tools that will tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP – WordPress Site Checking Tool
(IsItWP.com – WP Site Checking Tool)
Is It WP? is a free tool that lets you quickly check if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this site is really quite easy. Just paste the address of the website into the URL field and click the button.
The tool will then go through the page code on the URL 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 site, you will get a message similar to the one shown 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 – Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer.com)
If you use either the Firefox or Google Chrome browser and would like to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting were built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a great extension to install on your browser.
Wappalyzer tells you what 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.”
It’s also a very easy extension to install and use.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer on your browser, icons will appear in your web browser, in the URL field identifying which software is being used by all the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon shows up on the browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(It’s a WordPress site!)
Go here to visit the Wappalyzer extension website:
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 you have found this information 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