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 the WordPress CMS came along and changed all this. Now, it’s becoming more and 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 Is Powering A Website?)
For website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System application 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 care about, 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 is significantly less than the cost of getting option ”A” above built.
If you decided to go with web site “B”, then you need to know more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can give you an attractive, professional-looking and fully functional website that will normally end up costing you far less to build than websites which use a web development application … and how to tell the two apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a budget-friendly content management application that is ideally suited for most types of business applications.
Whether your reason for having a website or blog is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no web design skills to use and manage, yet it offers many helpful features that make your web site highly effective when it comes to getting your content published and indexed by search engines, 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 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 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 a similar site built for a much smaller cost?
Tell-Tale Signs It’s A WordPress Site And WP-Checking Tools
Do you need to know if a website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve read or heard wonderful things about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using 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 some simple ways to tell if a web site has been built with WordPress:
Look At The Source Code
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 a telltale footprint that the site was built using WordPress …
(View the page source code in Firefox)
Let’s say that you are surfing the web and you visit a web 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.
In the source code, you can search for words like “wp-content” either by scanning the code visually …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot locate “wp-content” within the source code, it does not necessarily mean that the website 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 be discussing.
As the focus of this post is to try and help non “techies”, however, we have listed below a number of easy ways to check if your site is built using WordPress other than scanning the source code.
Just Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the obvious thing to do, many website development companies, for whatever reason, may build clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you used the services of a website developer or got somebody else to build your website, just ask your developer or whoever built your site if the site has been built with 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 site that you really like while surfing the net late at night and would like to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme where the website template has not been edited, you can often find a “Powered by WordPress” notice displayed in the footer area …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – footer)
If the simple methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a website was built with WordPress or not …
Tools That Tell You If A Website Runs On WordPress
Here are a couple of online applications that can tell you if the website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress?
(Is It WordPress?)
Is It WordPress? is a free online tool that can check very quickly if a site was built with WordPress or not.
Using this site is super simple. Just enter the URL of the website into the URL field and click the button.
It will search through the URL files and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress the site is currently using …
If the web site is not powered by WordPress, you will see 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 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
(Wappalyzer)
If you use either the Firefox or Chrome web browser and would like to be able to tell if the sites that you are visiting use WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful add-on to install on your browser.
Wappalyzer tells you 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 very easy to install and very easy to use.
Once you have installed the Wappalyzer extension on your browser, icons will display in your web browser, in the URL field allowing you to see which technologies are installed on the sites you are visiting …
If you see the WordPress icon on your browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This is a WordPress site!)
Go here to learn more:
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, go here:
I hope 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