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 changed everything. Now, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to tell if the site is being powered by “blogging” tools like WordPress, or if it’s been built 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’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 tool 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 things that the majority of website owners care about, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the website 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 is actually expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but at a much cheaper cost than the cost of getting site “A” above.
If you chose option “B”, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create an eye-catching website that could cost far less to build than websites built with website-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 and easy-to-use CMS suitable for most business needs.
Whether your reason for having a digital presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no web design skills to use and manage, yet it offers many helpful tools that make your web presence highly effective in terms of 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 currently being powered by WordPress, chances are that if you already own a website, your website is also powered by WordPress.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are considering getting one 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 your business to a smaller budget if required?
The Easy Way To Tell If Your Web Site Was Built Using WordPress
Do you need to know if your website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard or read about all of the great benefits of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using 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 methods you can use to quickly tell if a website is running on WordPress:
Search The Source Code For Obvious Tell-Tale WordPress Footprints
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 tell-tale footprint …
(Viewing page source code in Firefox)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you visit a site that you like, and you wonder 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 the words “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot locate “wp-content” in the page source code, it does not necessarily mean that you are not looking at a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site runs on WordPress, as we will soon discuss.
As the point of this post is to help non “techies”, however, we have listed below a number of easy ways to check if your site is built using WordPress other than scanning the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the obvious thing to do, a number of web development companies, for whatever reason, may build clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you have an existing website and you’re not sure what CMS application is driving it, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your web site if your website was 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 surfing the net late at night and need to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the website templates have not been customized, you can typically find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice showing in the footer section of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – site footer)
If the methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Sites That Tell You If A Website Uses WordPress
Here are a couple of sites that will tell you if the website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress?
(IsItWP.com – WP Website Checking Tool)
IsItWP.com is a free online tool that tells you if a website uses WordPress or not.
Using this tool is very easy. Just paste the URL of the site into the search field and click the button.
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 the site is currently using …
If the site is not powered by WordPress, you will get 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
(Wappalyzer – Extension For Firefox / Chrome Web Browser)
If you use a browser like Firefox or Google Chrome and want to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting use WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful extension to install on your browser.
Wappalyzer tells you what 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 an easy to install and easy to use browser add-on.
After installing Wappalyzer, icons will display in your web browser menu allowing you to see which technologies are being used by all the sites you are visiting …
If you see the WordPress icon showing on the browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This website is powered by WordPress!)
To download and 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, go here:
We hope you have found this the information in this tutorial useful.
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