When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference between the two.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and everything changed. Now, it’s getting almost impossible to tell the difference between what tools 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 kind of web application is actually powering the site.
(Can You Tell Which Application Is Powering Your Website?)
For many website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System application like WordPress and other website-building tools is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, regarding the areas that the majority of website owners are mostly concerned with, 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 fraction of the cost of getting site ”A”.
If you picked web site “B”, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an eye-catching website that will probably end up costing you far less to build than websites which use a web building tool … and how to tell the two apart!
WordPress is the world’s preferred online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a budget-friendly content management software that is ideally suited for local businesses.
Whether your reason for having a website is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no technical knowledge to use, and offers a range of helpful functions that make your web site extremely effective in terms of getting your content published, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, 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, your site is also driven by the WordPress CMS.
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 something similarly built for your business to a smaller budget if required?
How To 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 to our site because you’ve heard or read wonderful things about all of the great advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on the WordPress software, 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 powered by WordPress:
Check Your Page’s Source Code For WordPress Footprints
If you know how to view 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 tell-tale footprints that the site was built with WordPress …
(How to view your web page source code using the Firefox browser)
Let’s say that you are surfing the web 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.
Once the source code of the page loads on your screen, search for “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or using the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site was built using WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot see “wp-content” within the source code, it does not 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 point of this post is to help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easy methods you can use to check if your site is built with WordPress other than viewing the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, many website developers, for whatever reason, will 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 web developer or whoever built your site if the site was built with WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach the person who built your site, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while surfing the net and you want to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme and the template has not been customized, you will typically see a “Powered by WordPress” message shown at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If the methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Tools That Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a some tools that can tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP – WP Site Checking Tool
(Is It WordPress?)
IsItWP.com is a free tool that can check very quickly if a website was built with WordPress or not.
Using this tool is very easy. Just enter the address of the site into the URL field and click the button.
The tool will then go through the URL and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you the version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the web site is not a WP web site or blog, you will get a message similar to the one below …
To use this tool, 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 – Web Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer – Add-On For Firefox / Chrome Web Browser)
If you use a browser such as Firefox or Chrome and would like to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting are powered by WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful add-on to add to your 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.”
It’s also a very easy to install and very easy to use browser add-on.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer, icons will display in your browser, in the URL field allowing you to see which software is being used by the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon displays on the browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(It’s a WordPress site!)
Go here to learn more and install Wappalyzer:
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, visit the site below:
I hope that you have found the above information useful.
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