It used to be that 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 difficult to tell if a site was built using a “blogging” CMS application like the WP CMS, or if it’s been developed using a website development 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.
(Can You Tell Which Application Websites Are Built With?)
For many 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, in terms of the things that many website owners care about, such as 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 site, but at a cost that turns out to be significantly less than the cost of getting option ”A” built.
If you picked website ”B” above, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that could end up costing you far less to build than websites which use website-building software … and how to tell the two apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful CMS application that is ideally suited for local businesses.
Whether your reason for having a website or blog is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no technical skills to use and manage, yet it offers a range of helpful features that make your website extremely effective in terms of getting your content published and indexed by search engines, 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, your site could probably be powered by WordPress too.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are thinking of getting one 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 a similar site built for your business for very little cost?
Is My Website Built With WordPress? How To Tell
Do you need to know if your website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve heard or read about all of the great advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using the WordPress software, 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 a number of methods you can use to quickly tell if a web site has been built using WordPress:
View 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 an obvious tell-tale footprint …
(Viewing web page source code using the Firefox web browser)
Suppose that you are browsing online and you come across 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.
Once the source code of the page loads on your screen, search for “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site was built using WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to locate “wp-content” within the page source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that this is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site was built using the WordPress software, as we will soon see.
As the focus of this article is to help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easy ways to check if your site is built using WordPress other than scanning the source code.
Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, a number of web development agencies, for whatever reason, may build clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you have an existing website and you can’t tell what CMS application is driving it, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your site if the web site has been built using WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with the person who built your website, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while surfing the net late at night and you would like to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme where the site them template has not been modified, you can often find a “Powered by WordPress” message showing at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – footer section)
If these simple methods haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site runs on WordPress or not …
Online Tools That Tell You If A Website Uses WordPress
Here are a couple of sites that will tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com
(Is It WordPress?)
Is It WP is a free online tool that can tell you very quickly if a website uses WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really easy. Just enter the URL of the site into the search field and click the button next to it.
It will then search through the URL code and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the web site is not powered by WordPress, you will get a message like the one shown in the screen shot 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.com
(Wappalyzer)
If you browse the net using either Firefox or Chrome and want to be able to tell if the sites that you are visiting are WP sites, then Wappalyzer is a useful add-on to install on your browser.
Wappalyzer identifies what type of 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 easy to use web browser extension.
After installing Wappalyzer, icons will display in your web browser, next to the site URL identifying which software is installed on all the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon showing on your browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(It’s a WordPress site!)
Go here to visit the Wappalyzer browser 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:
I hope that you have found the above the information in this tutorial useful.
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group