It used to be that 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 almost impossible to tell if a website is being powered by a “blogging” CMS application like the WP platform, or if it’s been built 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”.
(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, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the website up-to-date, managing web content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of these options would you choose?
A) An eye-catching, professional-looking website that turns out to be quite 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 site “A” above.
If you decided to go with website “B”, then you need to know more about WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that will typically cost far less to build than websites built with traditional web development tools … and how to tell these two types 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 all types of businesses.
Whether your reason for having an online presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no technical skills to use, yet it offers an array of helpful features that make your website extremely 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 capabilities, 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, your website could also be powered by WordPress.
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 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 a much smaller cost?
Is Your Web Site Powered By WordPress?
Do you need to know if your website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve read wonderful things about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using the WordPress software, 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 ways to tell if sites are running on 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 tell-tale footprints …
(How to view page source code in Firefox)
Suppose that you are browsing online and you visit a website that you like, and you would like to know if the site runs on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the page’s source code, search for “wp-content” either manually …
Or using your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot find the words “wp-content” in the source code, it doesn’t mean that the website is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if the site runs on WordPress, as we will soon discuss.
As the point of this article is to help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easier methods you can use to check if your website is built with WordPress other than searching the source code.
Just Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, a number of website developers, for whatever reason, may build clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you employed the services of a website developer or got somebody else to build you a website, just ask your web developer or whoever built your website if your website was built using WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with the person who looks after your website, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while surfing online and you want to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Check Below Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme where the website template has not been modified, you can typically see a “Powered by WordPress” message shown at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – footer)
If the simple methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Online Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Is Built With WordPress
Here are a some sites that will tell you if a website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com
(Is It WP – WordPress Site Checking Tool)
Is It WordPress? is a free tool that lets you quickly check if a website uses WordPress or not.
Using this site is really quite easy. Just paste the address of the website into the search field and click the button next to it.
It will then go and search through the site code and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you the version of WordPress the site is currently using …
If the web site is not a WP-powered website, 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
(Wappalyzer – Web Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome))
If you use a browser such as Firefox or Google Chrome and want to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting use WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a great extension to add to your web browser.
Wappalyzer identifies what software is installed on the sites you are visiting.
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.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer on your browser, icons will appear in your web browser menu, in the URL field allowing you to see which software is installed on all the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon displays on your browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This website uses WordPress!)
To learn more, 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 that 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