It 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 everything changed. Now, it’s becoming more difficult 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 website design and also being able to tell what’s “under the hood”.
(Can You Tell Which Application A Website Has Been Built With?)
For many website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System application 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 maintain the site 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.
If you decided to go with option “B”, then you need to know more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that could turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites which use a web building tool … and how to tell the two apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a budget-friendly CMS platform suitable for most business needs.
Whether your reason for having a web site is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no web design skills to use, yet it offers a range of helpful tools that make your website highly effective in terms of getting your content published, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, 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 site is also driven by the WP CMS.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are thinking of getting a website 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 quite inexpensively?
How Can I Tell If My Site Was Built With WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve read wonderful things about all of the great benefits and advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using WordPress, or some other CMS 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 sites are powered WordPress:
Search Your Page Source Code
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 using the Firefox web browser)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you come across 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 page’s source code, you can search for words like “wp-content” either by scanning the code with your eyes …
Or use the browser’s “Find” function …
(Use the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not see “wp-content” in the source code, it doesn’t mean that you are not looking at a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if the site runs on the WordPress software, as we will soon see.
As the point of this post is to help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easier ways to check if your site is powered by WordPress other than searching the source code.
Just Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, some website development agencies, for whatever reason, may build clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you used the services of a website developer or got somebody else to build your website, just ask your developer or whoever built your website if it runs on WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with the person who built your site, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while surfing the net late at night and would like to know if it was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the templates have not been customized, you will typically find a “Powered by WordPress” message displayed at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress – site footer area)
If the methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site runs on WordPress or not …
Sites That Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a couple of sites that can tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com – WordPress Checking Tool
(IsItWP.com)
Is It WP is a free online tool that lets you check if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this tool is super simple. Just type in or paste in the address of the site into the search field and click the button.
The tool will then search through the URL files and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress the site is currently using …
If the site is not powered by WordPress, you will get a message like 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 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.com)
If you use a web browser such as Firefox or Google Chrome and want to be able to tell if the sites that you are visiting are powered by WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful extension for your browser.
Wappalyzer identifies 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 easy to install and very easy to use.
After installing the Wappalyzer extension on your browser, icons will show up in your web browser, in the URL field allowing you to see which software is installed on all the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon shows up on the browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(A WordPress site!)
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, visit the site below:
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 that you have found the above tutorial useful.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)