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 revolutionized web publishing. Now, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to tell if the website is being powered by a “blogging” content management system (CMS) like WordPress, or if it’s been developed using a web development 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 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 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 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 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 website, but at a much cheaper price than the cost of getting site “A” above.
If you picked web site “B”, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an expensive-looking website that will normally turn out to be far less expensive to build than websites which are built using other web editing applications … and how to tell these two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s preferred online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful CMS that is ideally suited for businesses on a budget.
Whether your reason for having a website is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no web design skills to use and manage, yet it offers many helpful tools 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, 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 site is also driven by the WordPress CMS.
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 to a smaller budget if required?
The Easy Way To Tell If Your Blog Was Built Using WordPress
Do you need to know if your website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve heard 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 built using WordPress:
Check Your Page 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 obvious tell-tale footprints …
(View the web page source code using Firefox)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you come across a website that you like, and you would like to know if the site uses WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the page’s source code, you can search for the words “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or using your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot see “wp-content” in the source code, it does not necessarily mean that you are not looking at a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site was built using WordPress, as we will soon be discussing.
As the point of this article is to help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easy methods you can use to check if your website is powered by WordPress other than searching through the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the obvious thing to do, a number of web developers, for whatever reason, will build clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you have an existing website and you can’t tell what CMS application was used to build it, just ask your developer or whoever built your web site if it 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 online and you really want to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WP theme and the site theme templates have not been modified, you will often see a “Proudly powered by WordPress” message displayed below the footer section …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – footer)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Sites That Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a couple of online applications that can tell you if a website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com – WP Site Checking Tool
(Is It WordPress? – WP Site Checking Tool)
Is It WP is a free online tool that can tell you very quickly if a site was built using WordPress or not.
Using this site is super easy. Just paste the URL of the website into the URL field and click the button.
The tool will then search through the site code and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you which version of WordPress the site is currently using …
If the site is not a WordPress-powered 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 Browser
(Wappalyzer – Web Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome))
If you browse the net using either the Firefox or Chrome browsers and want to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting use WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a useful add-on for your 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 a very easy extension to install and use.
Once you have installed the Wappalyzer extension on your browser, icons will show up in your browser menu, next to the site URL allowing you to see which software is being used by all the sites you are visiting …
If you see the WordPress icon showing on your browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site has been built with 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:
We hope that you have found the above the information in this tutorial useful.
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