Once upon a time and not so long ago, 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 the difference between what tools are being used to build the two. 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 Websites Are Built With?)
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, regarding the areas that many website owners care about, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the website 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 is expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but at a much cheaper price than the cost of getting option “A” above.
If you picked site ”B” above, then you need to know 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 a web building tool … and how to tell the two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful content management tool suitable for businesses on a budget.
Whether your reason for having an online presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no web design skills to use, and offers a range of helpful features that make your web presence extremely effective when it comes to getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor engagement, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s capabilities, 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, yours is also a WordPress site.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are considering getting a website built, then wouldn’t it be great 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 quite inexpensively?
Is It A WordPress Web Site?
Do you need to know if your website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard or read about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on the WordPress software, 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 running on WordPress:
View Your Source Code
If you know how to check 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 with WordPress …
(Viewing web page source code using the Firefox browser)
Let’s say that you are surfing the web and you come across a website that you like, and you would like to know 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, search for the words “wp-content” either manually …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not locate “wp-content” in the source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the website is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site was built using WordPress, as we will soon discuss.
As the point of this article is to help non “techies”, however, we have listed below a number of easier ways to check if your website is powered by WordPress other than looking through the source code.
Simply Ask Your Website Developer
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, many website development companies, for whatever reason, will build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you used the services of a website developer or got somebody else to build you a website, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your site if your website runs on WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with your website developer, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while browsing online and you would like to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WP theme where the site them template has not been customized, you will often see a “Powered by WordPress” message displayed below the footer area …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – footer)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Sites That Can Tell You If A Website Has Been Built With 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 Site Checker
(Is It WP – WordPress Site Checker)
Is It WP? is a free tool that can tell you very quickly if a website runs on WordPress or not.
Using this site is really easy. Just paste the URL of the site into the URL field and click the button next to it.
The tool will search through the URL files and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the web site is not a WordPress-driven site, you will see a message like the one shown in the screen shot 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
(Wappalyzer.com)
If you browse the net using either Firefox or Google Chrome and want to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting use WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a useful add-on to install on your web browser.
Wappalyzer identifies what type of 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.”
Wappalyzer is also a very easy to install and easy to use browser add-on.
After installing Wappalyzer on your web browser, icons will display in your web browser menu allowing you to see which technologies are being used by all the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon shows up on the browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(This website is built using WordPress!)
To visit the site, 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, go here:
We hope you have found this information useful.
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