Does Your Website Run On WordPress? How To Tell

Does your website run on WordPress? Here are some tell-tale signs that a website was built with WordPress …

WP For BeginnersIt used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference between the two.

Then WordPress came along and changed everything. Now, it’s getting more and more difficult 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’s under the surface.

Is Your Web Site Powered By WordPress?

(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)

For website owners, understanding the difference between a CMS tool like WordPress and other website-building tools is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, regarding the things that matter to most website owners, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the site 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 much cheaper price than the cost of getting site ”A”.

If you selected site “B”, then you need to know more about WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create a beautiful website that will normally end up costing you 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 preferred online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a budget-friendly CMS application suitable for ”non-techy” website owners.

Whether your reason for having an online presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no technical skills to use, yet it offers an array of helpful extensions that make your website more effective when it comes to getting your content published, promoting visitor engagement, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s functionality, 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 a similar site built for your business to a smaller budget if required?

Is My Web Site WordPress?

Do you need to know if your website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve heard or read about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on the WordPress software, or some other content management system.

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 website is running on WordPress:

Check 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 obvious telltale footprints that the site was built with WordPress …

Viewing page source code in Firefox

(View the web page source code using the Firefox browser)

Let’s say that you are browsing online and you visit a site that you like, and you’re wondering if the site is built using WordPress …

Viewing The Page Source Code In Firefox

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 …

Tell-Tale Signs It's A WordPress Site And WP-Checking Tools

Or using the browser’s “Find” function …

Using Firefox's 'Find' function

(Using the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)

This will tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.

Note: If you do not see “wp-content” within the source code, it does not mean that this is not a WordPress site.

Viewing The Page Source Code In Firefox

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 help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easier ways to check if your website is powered by WordPress other than searching the source code.

Ask Your Webmaster

While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, many website development agencies, for whatever reason, will build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.

If you used a website developer or got somebody else to build your website, just ask your developer or whoever built your website if the website runs on WordPress.

That was simple, huh?

Okay … what if you can’t reach the person who looks after your website, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while browsing online and want to know if it was built using WordPress?

Check Below Footer

If the site uses a WordPress theme and the website them template has not been modified, you can often find a “Powered by WordPress” message displayed below the footer section of the site …

Powered by WordPress - footer

(Proudly Powered by WordPress)

If the simple methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site was built using WordPress or not …

Online Tools That Tell You If A Website Is Built With WordPress

Here are a couple of tools that will tell you if the website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …

IsItWP.com

Is It WP - WP Website Checker

(IsItWP.com – WordPress Checking Tool)

Is It WordPress? is a free online tool that can tell you if a site uses WordPress or not.

Using this tool is really quite simple. Just enter the address of the website into the URL field and click the button next to it.

The tool will go through the URL pages and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you which version of WordPress it is currently using …

Is It WP

If the site was not built using WordPress, you will see a message like the one below …

Is It WordPress?

To visit this site, go here:

Advanced WP Theme Checker by Satori

WordPress Theme Detector

(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

(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

(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

(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

(This website is not WordPress)

You can try the Detector yourself by visiting this link:

WordPress Theme Detector

Wappalyzer – Extension For Firefox & Chrome Web Browser

Wappalyzer - Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome)

(Wappalyzer)

If you browse the net using either the Firefox or Chrome browsers and would like to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting have been built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a useful add-on to add to your web browser.

Wappalyzer identifies 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.”

Wappalyzer is also easy to install.

Wappalyzer.com

After installing Wappalyzer, icons will appear in your browser menu allowing you to see which software is being used by all the sites you visit …

Wappalyzer

If you see the WordPress icon on your browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site has been built with WordPress.

It's a WordPress site!

(A WordPress site!)

Go here to learn more:

SpyBar

SpyBar - Browser Addon For WordPress

(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 – 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 – 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

(Search WordPress sites by categories and location)

To download or learn more about Plugin Sniper, go here:

I hope that you have found the above tutorial useful.

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