When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the difference.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and revolutionized the online publishing world. Now, it’s becoming increasingly harder to tell blogs and websites apart. 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 the majority of website owners care about, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain 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 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 site ”A”.
If you went with web site “B”, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that could turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites built using other web editor tools … 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 budget-friendly content management system suitable for most types of business applications.
Whether your reason for having a website is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no programming skills to use, yet it offers an array of helpful functions that make your web presence 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 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 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 WordPress Website?
Do you need to know if your website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve heard about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on 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 a site is powered by WordPress:
Look At Your Page Source Code
If you know how to bring up 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)
Let’s say that you are surfing the web and you come across 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, search for “wp-content” either manually …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to locate “wp-content” in the source code, it doesn’t mean that it’s not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site runs on WordPress, as we will soon discuss.
As the point of this post is to help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easier methods you can use to check if your site is built with WordPress other than scanning the source code.
Simply Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, many website development agencies, for whatever reason, may 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 web developer or whoever built your website if it was built with WordPress.
That was simple, 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 late at night and would like to know if it was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the theme templates have not been edited, you can often find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice displayed in the footer section …
(Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Sites That Tell You If A Website Is Built With WordPress
Here are a some online applications that can 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)
Is It WordPress? is a free online tool that can tell you very quickly if a website was built with WordPress or not.
Using this tool is very simple. Just add the URL of the website into the URL field and click the button.
It will go 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 which version of WordPress the site is currently using …
If the site is not powered by WordPress, you will get a message similar to the one 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 Extension (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer – Web Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome))
If you use either the Firefox or Chrome browser and would like to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting have been built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a useful extension to install on your web browser.
Wappalyzer tells you what type of software is installed in 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.”
It’s also a very easy web browser add-on to install and use.
Once you have installed the Wappalyzer add-on on your web browser, icons will appear in your browser, in the URL field identifying which technologies are installed on the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon shows up on your browser menu (as the above screen shot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(This is a WordPress site!)
Visit the website 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:
We hope you have found the above information 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