It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell blogs and websites apart.
Then WordPress came along and changed all this. Now, it’s becoming harder to tell if the site was built with a “blogging” content management system (CMS) like the WP CMS, or if it’s been developed using a traditional website editing application. 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’s “under the hood”.
(Can You Tell Which Application Your Website Is Powered By?)
For 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 things that matter to most website owners, such as 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 turns out to be fairly expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking website, but at a cost that is significantly less than the cost of getting option “A” above.
If you chose site “B”, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with a beautiful website that could turn out to be far less expensive to build than websites built using a web building application … and how to tell these two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful and easy-to-use CMS suitable for ”non-techy” website owners.
Whether your reason for having a website is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no technical skills to use and manage, yet it offers a range of helpful extensions that make your web presence more effective in terms of getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor engagement, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s functionality, 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 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 your business quite inexpensively?
Is It A WP Blog?
Do you need to know if your website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve heard about all of the great advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using the WordPress software, 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 some simple ways to tell if sites are built using 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 obvious tell-tale footprints that the site was built with WordPress …
(Viewing web page source code in Firefox)
Suppose that you are browsing online and you visit a site 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.
After the source code of the page loads on your screen, you can search for “wp-content” either manually …
Or using your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot locate the words “wp-content” within the page source code, it does not necessarily mean that you are not looking at a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site was built using the WordPress software, as we will soon be discussing.
As the focus of this article is to try and help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easier methods you can use to check if your website is powered by WordPress other than searching the source code.
Simply Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, many website developers, for whatever reason, may build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you have an existing web site and you’re not sure what application was used to build it, just ask your developer or whoever built your web site if your website was built with WordPress.
That was easy, 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 browsing online and you want to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WP theme and the site theme templates have not been edited, you can often see a “Powered by WordPress” notice shown in the footer section of the site …
(Powered by WordPress – footer)
If these simple methods haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Online Tools That Tell You If A Website Uses WordPress
Here are a some tools that will tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com – WordPress Website Checker
(IsItWP.com)
Is It WP is a free online tool that can check very quickly if a website uses WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really simple. Just add the URL of the site into the search field and click the button.
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 the site is currently using …
If the web site was not built using WordPress, 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 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 – Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer)
If you use either the Firefox or Google Chrome web browser and want to be able to tell if the sites that you are visiting use WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a useful extension for your web browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify what type of software is installed on 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 easy to install and easy to use.
After installing the Wappalyzer add-on on your browser, icons will display in your web browser menu allowing you to see which technologies are being used by all the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon on the browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(A WordPress site!)
To visit the Wappalyzer extension website, 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, visit the site below:
I hope that you have found this information useful.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)