Does Your Website Run On WordPress? How To Tell

Does your website run on WordPress? Here are some tell-tale signs that a website was built with WordPress …

WordPress TutorialWhen the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the two apart.

Then WordPress came along and revolutionized web publishing. Now, it’s getting harder to tell if a site is being powered by a “blogging” CMS tool like the WP CMS, or if it’s been developed using a web building software tooltool. 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 type of web application is actually powering the site.

Is Your Web Site Built With WordPress?

(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, such as 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 turns out to be quite expensive to build, or

B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but at a cost that turns out to be significantly less than the cost of getting site ”A”.

If you selected website “B”, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with a beautiful website that could cost far less to build than websites built using traditional website development tools … and how to tell these two types apart!

WordPress is the world’s most used online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful and easy-to-use content management application suitable for small, medium and even large 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, yet it offers a range of helpful features that make your website extremely effective when it comes to getting your content published, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s capabilities, 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 is also powered by WordPress.

And if you don’t have a website yet, or are thinking of 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 for a much smaller cost?

Is My Website Built Using WordPress? How To Tell

Do you need to know if a website was built using 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 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 some simple ways to tell if a website has been built using 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 telltale footprint that the site was built using WordPress …

Viewing page source code in Firefox

(View your web page source code using the Firefox browser)

Let’s say that you are surfing the web and you visit a site that you like, and you’re wondering if the site uses WordPress …

View The Page Source Code In Firefox

First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.

In the page’s source code, search for words like “wp-content” either by scanning the code with your eyes …

The Easy Way To Tell If Your Website Was Built Using The WP CMS Platform

Or use your browser’s “Find” function …

Using Firefox's 'Find' function

(Using Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)

This will tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.

Note: If you do not locate the words “wp-content” within the source code, it doesn’t mean that the site you’re looking at is not a WordPress site.

View The Page Source Code In Firefox

There are other ways to find out if the site runs on the WordPress software, as we will soon see.

As the point of this post is to help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easier methods you can use to check if your site is built with WordPress other than scanning the source code.

Just Ask Your Website Developer

While this may seem like the logical thing to do, some 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 web site and you can’t tell what CMS application is driving it, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your site if it runs on WordPress.

That was simple, 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 surfing online and you need to know if the site was built using WordPress?

Powered By WordPress

If the site uses a WP theme where the them template has not been customized, you can often find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice shown at the bottom of the site …

Proudly Powered by WordPress - site footer

(Proudly Powered by WordPress – site footer)

If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …

Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Uses WordPress

Here are a some tools that will tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …

Is It WP

IsItWP.com - WordPress Site Checking Tool

(Is It WP)

Is It WP? is a free tool that can tell you if a site uses WordPress or not.

Using this tool is super simple. Just add the URL of the site into the search field and click the button next to it.

It will then go and search 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 it is currently using …

IsItWP.com

If the site was not built using WordPress, you will get a message similar to the one shown below …

Is It WP

To use this tool, go here:

Advanced WP Theme Checker by Satori

WordPress Theme Detector

(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

(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

(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

(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

(This website is not WordPress)

You can try the Detector yourself by visiting this link:

WordPress Theme Detector

Wappalyzer.com

Wappalyzer - Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome)

(Wappalyzer – Add-On For Firefox & Chrome Browser)

If you browse the net using either Firefox or Google Chrome and would like to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting are WP sites, then Wappalyzer is a useful extension for your 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 an easy extension to install and use.

Wappalyzer

After installing Wappalyzer, icons will show up in your web browser allowing you to see which software is being used by all the sites you are visiting …

Wappalyzer

If the WordPress icon displays on your browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site uses WordPress.

This is a WordPress site!

(This website uses WordPress!)

To visit the Wappalyzer web browser extension website, go here:

SpyBar

SpyBar - Browser Addon For WordPress

(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 – 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 – 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

(Search WordPress sites by categories and location)

To download or learn more about Plugin Sniper, go here:

We hope you have found this information useful.

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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now