Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the difference.
Then WordPress came along and everything changed. Now, it’s becoming harder to tell the difference between blogs and websites. 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 kind of web application is actually powering the site.
(Can You Tell Which Application A Website Has Been Built With?)
For website owners, understanding the difference between a CMS application like WordPress and other website-building tools 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 site up-to-date, managing web content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of these options would you choose?
A) An eye-catching, professional-looking website that is expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking website, but for a fraction of the cost of getting site “A” above.
If you selected option “B”, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create an eye-catching website that could turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites which use web-building software … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful CMS platform that is ideally suited for all businesses and non-technical users.
Whether your reason for having an online presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no programming skills to use and manage, and offers a range of helpful functions 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, your site could probably be powered by WordPress too.
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?
The Easy Way To Tell If Your Website Runs On The WP CMS Platform
Do you need to know if your website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard or read about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using 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 some simple methods you can use to quickly tell if sites are running on WordPress:
Check The Page’s Source Code For Obvious TellTale The WordPress Footprint
If you know how to access 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 …
(View the web page source code in the Firefox web browser)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you come across a web site that you like, and you wonder if the site runs on 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 words like “wp-content” either manually …
Or use the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using Firefox’s ‘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 necessarily mean that you are not looking at a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if the site was built using the WordPress software, as we will soon see.
As the focus of this post is to help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easier methods you can use to check if your site is powered by WordPress other than looking through the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, a number of website development companies, for whatever reason, will build their clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you hired a website developer or got somebody else to build you a website, just ask your developer or whoever built your site if your website has been built with WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with 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 it was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the them template has not been modified, you will often see a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice displayed at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress – footer section)
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 Has Been Built With WordPress
Here are a couple of sites that will tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP – WordPress Checking Tool
(Is It WP – WP Checking Tool)
Is It WordPress? is a free tool that tells you if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this site is super easy. Just type in or paste in the address of the website into the search field and click the button.
It will then go and search through 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 a WP-powered web site or blog, you will see a message similar to the one 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 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.com
(Wappalyzer)
If you browse the net using either the Firefox or Chrome web browsers and want to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting are WP-driven, then Wappalyzer is a great extension to add to your web browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify what 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.”
It’s also a very easy extension to install.
Once you have installed the Wappalyzer add-on on your browser, icons will display in your browser menu identifying which technologies are being used by the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon shows up on the browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This website has been built with WordPress!)
To install Wappalyzer 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, 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:
I hope that you have found the above tutorial useful.
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum