Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference between the two.
Then WordPress came along and everything changed. Now, it’s becoming 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’s under the surface.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For 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 things that many website owners care about, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the site 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 turns out to be significantly less than the cost of getting site ”A” built.
If you decided to go with site ”B” above, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create an eye-catching website that will normally end up costing you far less to build than websites built using website-building software … and how to tell the two apart!
WordPress is the world’s preferred online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful and easy-to-use content management application suitable for most business needs.
Whether your reason for having a digital presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no technical knowledge to use and manage, and offers an array of helpful extensions that make your web presence more effective when it comes to getting your content published, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s capabilities, 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 website could probably be powered by WordPress too.
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 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 your business quite inexpensively?
Is My Website Built Using WordPress? How To Tell
Do you need to know if a website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on WordPress, or some other website application.
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 site is running on WordPress:
Look At Your Source Code
If you know how to check 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 telltale footprints …
(Viewing the web page source code in the Firefox web browser)
Let’s say that you are browsing online 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 page’s source code, search for words like “wp-content” either by scanning the code …
Or using your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site was built using WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not locate “wp-content” within the source code, it does not mean that this is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site runs on WordPress, as we will soon be discussing.
As the point of this article is to help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easy methods you can use to check if your website is built using WordPress other than searching the source code.
Just Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, some web development agencies, for whatever reason, may build clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you paid a website developer or got somebody else to build your website, just ask your developer or whoever built your site if the website has been built using WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your website developer, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while browsing the net late at night 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 them template has not been modified, you can often see a “Proudly powered by WordPress” message displayed below the footer section …
(Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Runs On WordPress
Here are a couple of tools that will tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com
(IsItWP.com)
Is It WP is a free online tool that can check very quickly if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this tool is super simple. Just add the URL of the site into the search field and click the button.
It will then go through the page code on the URL and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the site is not a WordPress web site or blog, you will see a message like the one 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 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 – Add-On For Firefox / Chrome Web Browser
(Wappalyzer – Web Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome))
If you use either the Firefox or Chrome web browser and would like to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting have been built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful add-on for your browser.
Wappalyzer tells you 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.”
It’s also an easy browser add-on to install.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer, icons will display in your web browser, in the URL field allowing you to see which technologies are being used by the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon displays on the browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(A WordPress site!)
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, 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, visit the site below:
I hope you have found the above information useful.
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