Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the two apart.
Then WordPress came along and everything changed. Now, it’s getting almost impossible to tell if a website is running on “blogging” software like the WordPress CMS, or if it’s been created using web-building software. 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 surface.
(Can You Tell Which Application A Website Has Been Built With?)
For website owners, understanding the difference between a CMS 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 the majority of website owners care most about, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep 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 much cheaper cost 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 be used to create a stunning website that could cost far less to build than websites built using traditional website editing applications … 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 budget-friendly CMS application suitable for local businesses.
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 offers many helpful extensions that make your website more effective when it comes to 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, yours is also a WordPress site.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are thinking of 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 something similarly built for a much smaller cost?
Is Your Web Site Powered By WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve heard wonderful things about 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 methods you can use to quickly tell if a web site is running on WordPress:
Check 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 a tell-tale footprint that the site was built with WordPress …
(How to view page source code using the Firefox web browser)
Let’s say that you are surfing the web and you come across a website that you like, and you wonder if the site uses 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 by visually scanning the code …
Or using the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not locate the words “wp-content” within the source code, it does not mean that you are not looking at a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if the site runs on WordPress, as we will soon discuss.
As the point of this article is to try and help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easy ways to check if your web site is built with WordPress other than searching through the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, a number of website development agencies, for whatever reason, will build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you employed the services of a website developer or got somebody else to build your website, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your website if the web site was built using WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while browsing the net and need to know if it was built using WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WP theme and the templates have not been modified, you can typically find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” message shown at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a website was built with WordPress or not …
Sites That Tell You If A Website Was Built Using 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
(Is It WP – WordPress Website Checking Tool)
Is It WP is a free online tool that can tell you if a site uses WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really quite simple. Just add the address of the site into the search field and click the button.
The tool will then go and search through the page code on the URL 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 web site is not powered by WordPress, you will see a message similar to 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 – Web Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer – Add-On For Firefox & Chrome Browser)
If you use a browser such as Firefox or Chrome and want to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting are powered by WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a useful extension to install on your browser.
Wappalyzer tells you 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.”
It’s also a very easy to install and very easy to use web browser add-on.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer on your browser, icons will show up in your browser allowing you to see which software is 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.
(This website is built using WordPress!)
Visit the Wappalyzer web browser add-on site 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, 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, go here:
I hope you have found the above tutorial useful.
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