It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference.
Then WordPress came along and changed everything. Now, it’s getting increasingly more difficult to tell if the website is being powered by “blogging” tools like WordPress, or if it’s been developed using a traditional website editing 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 hood”.
(Can You Tell Which Application A Website Has Been Built With?)
For many 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 matter to most website owners, like 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 turns out to be quite 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 built.
If you chose web site ”B” above, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an eye-catching website that will usually turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites which use other web development tools … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a budget-friendly content management software suitable for businesses on a budget.
Whether your reason for having a website or blog is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no web design skills to use and manage, and offers a range of helpful tools that make your web site highly 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 thinking of getting a website built, then wouldn’t it be great 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 for very little cost?
Is It A WP Blog?
Do you need to know if your website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve read wonderful things about all of the great benefits and advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using WordPress, or some other CMS 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 ways to tell if a site is running on WordPress:
Look At 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 an obvious tell-tale footprint that the site was built with WordPress …
(Viewing web page source code in Firefox)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you come across a website that you like, and you wonder if the site runs on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the page’s source code, search for the words “wp-content” either manually …
Or using your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to find “wp-content” in the page source code, it does not necessarily mean that the site you’re looking at is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site was built using WordPress, as we will soon see.
As the focus of this post is to help non “techies”, however, we have listed below a number of easy ways to check if your web site is built using WordPress other than viewing the source code.
Simply Ask Your Website Developer
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, some website developers, for whatever reason, will build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you paid a website developer or got somebody else to build you a website, just ask your developer or whoever built your site if your 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 site that you really like while surfing the net and you really want to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme where the web theme templates have not been customized, you can often find a “Powered by WordPress” notice shown at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress – footer)
If the simple methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a website runs on WordPress or not …
Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Uses WordPress
Here are a some online applications that can tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress? – WP Site Checker
(Is It WordPress? – WordPress Checking Tool)
Is It WP? is a free tool that can check if a site uses WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really quite easy. Just type the URL of the website into the URL field and click the button.
The tool will 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 the site is currently using …
If the web site is not a WordPress web site or blog, you will get a message like the one shown 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.com)
If you browse the net using either the Firefox or Chrome web browsers and want to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting are WordPress sites, then Wappalyzer is a useful extension for your web browser.
Wappalyzer tells you 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.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer on your browser, icons will display in your browser menu identifying which technologies are being used by the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon shows up on your browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(This website is built using WordPress!)
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 information useful.
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum