When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell blogs and websites apart.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and changed everything. Now, it’s getting almost impossible to tell the difference between what applications are 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 type of web application is actually powering the site.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For many website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System application 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 areas that many website owners are mostly concerned with, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the site up-to-date, managing web content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of these options 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 cost that turns out to be significantly less than the cost of getting site ”A” above built.
If you went with website ”B” above, then you need to know more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an eye-catching website that will usually end up costing you far less to build than websites which use a website building application … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a budget-friendly content management system suitable for ”non-techy” website owners.
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 and manage, and offers a range of helpful tools that make your website more effective in terms of getting your content published, promoting visitor engagement, 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 probably be powered by WordPress too.
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 something similarly built for a much smaller cost?
How To Tell If Your Web Site Was Built Using WordPress
Do you need to know if a website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve read or heard wonderful things about all of the great advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on WordPress, 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 ways to tell if sites are powered WordPress:
Search The 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 an obvious tell-tale footprint …
(Viewing the page source code in the Firefox browser)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you come across a website that you like, and you wonder if the site was built using WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
After the source code of the site loads on your screen, you can search for “wp-content” either manually …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site was built using WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot see “wp-content” within the page source code, it doesn’t mean that the site you’re looking at is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if the site was built using the WordPress software, as we will soon be discussing.
As the focus of this post is to help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easy ways to check if your site is built using WordPress other than searching the source code.
Simply Ask Your Website Developer
While this may seem like the obvious thing to do, a number of web development companies, for whatever reason, will build their clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you employed the services of a website developer or got somebody else to build you a website, just ask your web developer or whoever built your site if your website runs on 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 surfing the net late at night and would like to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme where the them template has not been edited, you can typically find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice showing at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress)
If the simple methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site uses WordPress or not …
Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Has Been Built With WordPress
Here are a couple of tools that can tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com – WP Checking Tool
(Is It WordPress? – WordPress Site Checking Tool)
Is It WP is a free tool that can tell you very quickly if a website uses WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really quite easy. Just add the URL of the website into the search field and click the button next to it.
It will then go and search through the URL code and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the site was not built using WordPress, you will see a message like 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
(Wappalyzer)
If you browse the net using either the Firefox or Chrome browsers and would like to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting have been built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a great extension for your web browser.
Wappalyzer identifies what software is installed in 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 a very easy to install and very easy to use web browser add-on.
After installing Wappalyzer, icons will display in your web browser, next to the site URL identifying which software is installed on all the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon shows up on your browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(It’s a WordPress site!)
Go here to download and install the Wappalyzer web browser add-on:
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:
I hope you have found the above tutorial useful.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum