When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the two apart.
Then WordPress came along and everything changed. Now, it’s getting increasingly harder to tell the difference between what software is being used to build the two. Not so much in terms of what the sites are being used for, but in terms of web 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 software is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, regarding the areas that matter to most website owners, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain 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 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 chose web site “B”, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create an expensive-looking website that could turn out to be far less expensive to build than websites built using a website development application … and how to tell the two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s most used online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful CMS that is ideally suited for businesses on a budget.
Whether your reason for having an online presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no programming skills to use, yet it offers a range of helpful features that make your web site extremely effective in terms of getting your content published and indexed by search engines, 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 website could also be powered by WordPress.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are thinking of getting one built, then wouldn’t it be great to be able 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?
Does My Site Run On WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve heard or read about all of the great benefits and advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on WordPress, 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 running on WordPress:
Check Your Page’s Source Code For TellTale The Tell-Tale WordPress Footprint
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 a telltale footprint that the site was built with WordPress …
(Viewing web page source code in the Firefox web browser)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you come across a site that you like, and you wonder 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 source code, search for the words “wp-content” either manually …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site was built using WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to find “wp-content” in the source code, it doesn’t mean that the website is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site was built using WordPress, as we will soon be discussing.
As the focus of this article is to try and help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easy methods you can use to check if your site is powered by WordPress other than looking at the source code.
Just Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, a number of web developers, for whatever reason, may build their clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you used a website developer or got somebody else to build your website, just ask your web developer or whoever built your site if your web site has been built with WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with the person who built your site, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while browsing online and you need to know if it was built using WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme where the website theme templates have not been edited, you can typically see a “Powered by WordPress” notice showing in the footer section …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If the methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Tools That Tell You If A Website Is Built With WordPress
Here are a couple of sites that will tell you if the website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com – WP Website Checker
(Is It WP)
IsItWP.com is a free online tool that lets you quickly check if a website was built using WordPress or not.
Using this tool is super easy. Just type the address of the website into the search field and click the button.
The tool will then search through the URL and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress the site is currently using …
If the site is not a WordPress site, you will see a message similar to 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 – Web Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer – Extension For Firefox & Chrome Browser)
If you use a browser such as Firefox or Chrome and would like to be able to tell if the sites that you are visiting are powered by WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful extension to install on 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 very easy to install.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer, icons will appear in your browser identifying which technologies are being used by the sites you are visiting …
If you see the WordPress icon on the browser menu (as the above screen shot shows), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This is a WordPress site!)
Visit the 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, go here:
I hope you have found the above information useful.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)