When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the two apart.
Then WordPress came along and changed all this. Now, it’s getting increasingly harder to tell if a website is running on a “blogging” CMS software application like WordPress, or if it’s been created using a web editor tool. 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 type of web application is actually powering the site.
(Can You Tell Which Application Your Website Is Powered By?)
For website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System tool like WordPress and other website-building tools is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, in terms of the areas that matter to most website owners, 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 for a fraction of the cost of getting option ”A” above built.
If you chose web site ”B” above, then you need to know more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an eye-catching website that will normally turn out to be far less expensive to build than websites which use web-building software … 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 CMS application suitable for small, medium and even large businesses.
Whether your reason for having a web site is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no knowledge of coding to use and manage, yet it offers a range of helpful features that make your web site more effective when it comes to getting your content published, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s capabilities, 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 thinking of getting one 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 a similar site built quite inexpensively?
Is Your Site Built With WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve read about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on 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 a web site is running on WordPress:
Check The Source Code For WordPress Footprints
If you know how to search 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 telltale footprints that the site was built using WordPress …
(How to view page source code using the Firefox browser)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you come across a site that you like, and you wonder if the site is built on 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 scanning the code …
Or use the 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 find “wp-content” within the source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if the site runs on WordPress, as we will soon be discussing.
As the point of this article is to try and help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easy ways to check if your web site is built using WordPress other than scanning the source code.
Simply Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, many web development companies, for whatever reason, will build their clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you have an existing website and you’re not sure what CMS application is driving it, just ask your web developer or whoever built your web site if your web site runs on WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while surfing the net late at night and would like to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Check Below Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme where the template has not been customized, you will typically see a “Powered by WordPress” notice showing at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If the simple methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a website uses WordPress or not …
Sites That Can Tell You If A Website Runs On WordPress
Here are a some sites that will tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress? – WP Site Checking Tool
(Is It WordPress? – WordPress Checker)
IsItWP.com is a free online tool that tells you if a site uses WordPress or not.
Using this tool is super simple. Just paste the URL of the site 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, which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the web site is not a WordPress-powered website, you will see a message similar to 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 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.com
(Wappalyzer)
If you use either the Firefox or Google Chrome web browser and want to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting were built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a useful add-on to install on your browser.
Wappalyzer tells you what type of 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 a very easy to install and very easy to use browser extension.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer on your browser, icons will show up in your browser menu identifying which technologies are being used by all the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon on your browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(A WordPress site!)
Go here to learn more and download Wappalyzer:
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:
We hope you have found the above tutorial useful.
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