When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the difference.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and everything changed. Now, it’s getting almost impossible to tell if the site was built using a “blogging” CMS software application like the WordPress platform, or if it’s been built using a traditional website building 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 kind of web application is actually powering the site.
(Can You Tell Which Application Is Powering Your Website?)
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, in terms of the things that the majority of website owners care about, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the site up-to-date, managing 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 much cheaper cost than the cost of getting option ”A” built.
If you went with site “B”, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that could cost far less to build than websites built with web-building software … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s preferred online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful CMS application suitable for small, medium and even large businesses.
Whether your reason for having a web site is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no programming skills to use and manage, and offers a range of helpful tools that make your web presence extremely effective in terms of getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor engagement, generating business leads and sales, 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, yours is also a WordPress site.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are considering 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 something similarly built for your business for very little cost?
Is Your Website Powered By WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve read or heard wonderful things about all of the great benefits and advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using 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 sites are powered WordPress:
Look At The Source Code
If you know how to search 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 page source code in the Firefox web browser)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you visit a site that you like, and you would like to know if the site is built with 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 scanning the code with your eyes …
Or use 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 are unable to find “wp-content” in the source code, it does not mean that you are not looking at a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site runs on WordPress, as we will soon see.
As the point of this post is to try and help non “techies”, however, we have listed below a number of easier methods you can use to check if your website is built using WordPress other than looking at the source code.
Simply Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, some web developers, for whatever reason, will build clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you used a website developer or got somebody else to build your website, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your site if your website has been built using WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your website developer, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while browsing the net and you really would like to know if it was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme and the templates have not been edited, you can often see a “Powered by WordPress” notice displayed in the footer section of the site …
(Powered by WordPress – footer area)
If these simple methods haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Sites That Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a some sites that can tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP
(Is It WP)
Is It WP? is a free online tool that can check if a website was built with WordPress or not.
Using this site is really simple. Just add the address of the website into the search field and click the button next to it.
The tool will then go through the URL files 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 does not run on WordPress, 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 – Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer – Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome))
If you use either the Firefox or Chrome web browser and would like to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting use WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful extension to install on 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 to install and very easy to use web browser extension.
Once you have installed the Wappalyzer extension on your browser, icons will show up in your web browser menu allowing you to see which software is being used by all the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon shows up on your browser menu (as the above screen shot shows), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(A WordPress site!)
Visit the Wappalyzer browser 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 this tutorial useful.
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