It used to be that 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 becoming more difficult to tell blogs and websites apart. 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.
(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, 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 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 website, but at a cost that turns out to be significantly less than the cost of getting option “A” above.
If you chose option “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 much less expensive to build than websites which use other website editing applications … and how to tell these two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful content management application that is ideally suited for most types of business applications.
Whether your reason for having a digital presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no technical knowledge to use and manage, yet it offers many helpful features that make your web presence highly effective in terms of getting your content published, promoting visitor engagement, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s functionality, 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 a similar site built for very little cost?
How To Check If A Site Was Built Using WordPress
Do you need to know if your website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard 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.
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 Page Source Code
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 tell-tale footprints that the site was built using WordPress …
(How to view web page source code using Firefox)
Let’s say that you are surfing the web and you visit a website that you like, and you’re wondering if the site uses WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the source code, you can search for “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or using your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not locate “wp-content” in the source code, it does not mean that this is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site runs on the WordPress software, as we will soon see.
As the focus of this post is to help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easy ways to check if your web site is built using WordPress other than searching through the source code.
Simply Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, a number of website development companies, for whatever reason, may 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 was used to build it, just ask your web developer or whoever built your website if the site was built with WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach the person who looks after your site, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while browsing the net and you would like to know if it was built using WordPress?
Check Below Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme where the theme templates have not been edited, you will often see a “Powered by WordPress” message shown in the footer section …
(Powered by WordPress – site footer)
If the methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site runs on WordPress or not …
Online Tools That Tell You If A Website Uses 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 …
Is It WP – WP Checker
(Is It WP)
IsItWP.com is a free tool that can tell you if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really easy. Just paste the URL of the website into the search field and click the button next to it.
The tool will go and search through the URL code and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you the version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the site is not a WordPress-driven site, you will see a message like the one shown 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
(Wappalyzer)
If you use either the Firefox or Google 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 great add-on to add to your browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify 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 easy to install.
Once you have installed the Wappalyzer extension on your browser, icons will display in your web browser menu, in the URL field allowing you to see which technologies are installed on the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon displays on the browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(A WordPress site!)
Go here to learn more:
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, go here:
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 this 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