Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the two apart.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and revolutionized online publishing. Now, it’s becoming 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’s under the surface.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For many 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, regarding 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 is actually expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but at a cost that turns out to be significantly less than the cost of getting option ”A” built.
If you picked option “B”, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create an attractive, professional-looking and fully functional website that will normally end up costing you far less to build than websites which use traditional web editor tools … and how to tell these two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s most used online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a budget-friendly CMS that is ideally suited for businesses on a budget.
Whether your reason for having a digital presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no technical skills to use, yet it offers an array of helpful tools that make your website more effective in terms of 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 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 a much smaller cost?
Tell-Tale Signs It’s A WordPress Site And WP-Checking Tools
Do you need to know if your website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve read 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 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 some simple methods you can use to quickly tell if sites are running on WordPress:
Search The Page’s Source Code For TellTale The WordPress Footprint
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 a telltale footprint that the site was built using WordPress …
(Viewing page source code using the Firefox browser)
Suppose that you are browsing online and you come across a web site that you like, and you would like to know if the site runs on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the page’s source code, you can search for the words “wp-content” either by scanning the code with your eyes …
Or using the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot locate “wp-content” in the page source code, it does not necessarily mean that the website is 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 focus of this article is to help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easier ways to check if your web site is powered by WordPress other than looking through the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the obvious thing to do, some website developers, for whatever reason, may build their clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you have an existing website and you can’t tell what CMS application was used to build it, just ask your developer or whoever built your site if your website has been built using WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with your website developer, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while browsing the net and you need to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WP theme and the templates have not been customized, you can often see a “Powered by WordPress” message displayed at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress – footer)
If the simple methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a website runs on WordPress or not …
Online Tools That Tell You If A Website Is Built With WordPress
Here are a some online applications that will tell you if the website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com
(Is It WP)
Is It WordPress? is a free online tool that can check if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this tool is super simple. Just enter the address of the site into the search field and click the button next to it.
The tool will search 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 powered by WordPress, you will get 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 – Web Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome))
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 are WP-powered, then Wappalyzer is a great extension for your browser.
Wappalyzer identifies 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 easy to install.
After installing Wappalyzer on your browser, icons will appear in your web browser menu, in the URL field allowing you to see which technologies are installed on all the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon on your browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(This site uses WordPress!)
Visit the Wappalyzer browser add-on 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, 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 this the information in this tutorial useful.
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