Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the two apart.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and changed all this. Now, it’s becoming more and more difficult to tell if a site was built with a “blogging” CMS software application like WordPress, or if it’s been created using a web editor tool. 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 surface.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For many website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System 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 keep the website up-to-date, managing web content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of the options below 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 tiny fraction of the cost of getting site ”A”.
If you decided to go with option “B”, then you need to know more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with a beautiful website that could cost far less to build than websites which are built using website-building software … and how to tell these two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful CMS application that is ideally suited for ”non-techy” website owners.
Whether your reason for having a digital presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no web design skills to use, and offers a range of helpful extensions that make your web presence more effective in terms of getting your content published, 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, 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 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 very little cost?
How Can I Tell If A Web Site Was Built With WordPress?
Do you need to know if your website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard or read about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using WordPress, or some other content management system.
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 methods you can use to quickly tell if sites are powered WordPress:
View Your Page 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 obvious telltale footprints …
(How to view your web page source code in the Firefox web browser)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you visit a site 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 by scanning the code …
Or using the browser’s “Find” function …
(Use the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to find “wp-content” in the source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site was built using WordPress, as we will soon discuss.
As the focus of this article is to try and help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easier methods you can use to check if your website is powered by WordPress other than searching through the source code.
Simply Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, some web developers, for whatever reason, will build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you have an existing web site and you’re not sure what CMS application was used to build it, just ask your web developer or whoever built your site if your web site was built with WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach the person who looks after your site, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while browsing the net late at night and you really need to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme where the theme templates have not been edited, you will typically find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” message showing in the footer area …
(Powered by WordPress)
If the methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site uses WordPress or not …
Online Tools That Tell You If A Website Runs On WordPress
Here are a couple of tools that can tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP – WordPress Checking Tool
(Is It WP)
Is It WP? is a free online tool that lets you easily check if a site was built with WordPress or not.
Using this tool is super simple. Just paste the address of the site into the search field and click the button next to it.
It will then go and search 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 the site is currently using …
If the site is not a WordPress site, you will get a message like the one shown 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 – Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer – Web Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome))
If you use a web browser like Firefox or Chrome and want to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting were built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a great extension to install on your web browser.
Wappalyzer identifies 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.”
Wappalyzer is also a very easy to install and very easy to use web browser extension.
After installing Wappalyzer on your web browser, icons will show up in your web browser identifying which software is being used by the sites you are visiting …
If you see the WordPress icon showing on the browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(It’s a WordPress site!)
Visit the Wappalyzer extension site 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, go here:
We hope you have found this the information in this tutorial useful.
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