When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell them apart.
Then WordPress came along and everything changed. Now, it’s becoming increasingly harder to tell the difference between what applications are being used to build the two. 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 website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System tool like WordPress and other website-building tools is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, regarding the things that the majority of website owners care most about, like 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 website, but at a cost that is significantly less than the cost of getting option “A” above.
If you went with web site “B”, then you need to know more about WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with a stunning website that could turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites which use traditional web editing applications … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a budget-friendly content management system that is ideally suited for all businesses and non-technical users.
Whether your reason for having an online presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no programming skills to use and manage, yet it offers many helpful functions that make your website more 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, 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 website with the design and layout that you like, know that it was built with WordPress and that you can, therefore, get something similarly built quite inexpensively?
Was My Website Built With WordPress? How To Tell
Do you need to know if a website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve heard or read about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on 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 a number of methods you can use to quickly tell if sites are built with 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 telltale footprints …
(Viewing your page source code using 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 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 site loads on your screen, you can search for words like “wp-content” either manually …
Or use the browser’s “Find” function …
(Use the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to see “wp-content” within the page source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that this is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if the site runs on the WordPress software, as we will soon see.
As the focus of this post is to try and help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easier ways to check if your site is powered by WordPress other than searching the source code.
Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, many website developers, for whatever reason, will build their clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you used the services of a website developer or got somebody else to build you a website, just ask your developer or whoever built your website if your website runs on WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while browsing the net late at night and would like to know if it was built using WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme where the templates have not been modified, you will typically see a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice shown below the footer section of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – site footer section)
If the 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 Uses WordPress
Here are a some tools that will tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP – WP Checker
(IsItWP.com)
Is It WP is a free online tool that can tell you if a website uses WordPress or not.
Using this tool is very easy. Just type in or paste in the URL of the website into the search field and click the button.
It will 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 web site is not powered by WordPress, 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 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.com)
If you use either the Firefox or Chrome browser and want to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting are WordPress sites, then Wappalyzer is a great add-on to install on your web browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify what 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 add-on on your browser, icons will appear in your browser menu allowing you to see which software is installed on the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon shows up on your browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This is a WordPress site!)
Visit the Wappalyzer extension website 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:
We hope that you have found the above information useful.
***
"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com