Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference.
Then WordPress came along and revolutionized the web publishing world. Now, it’s getting more difficult to tell the difference between what applications are being used to build the two. 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 type of web application is actually powering the site.
(Can You Tell Which Application Your Website Is Powered By?)
For many website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System application 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 matter to most website owners, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain 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 turns out to be quite 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” above built.
If you chose site ”B” above, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that could turn out to be far less expensive to build than websites built using web-building software … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s most used online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful content management system suitable for all types of businesses.
Whether your reason for having an online presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no technical knowledge to use, yet it offers a range of helpful functions that make your website highly effective when it comes to getting your content published, promoting visitor interaction, 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, your site is also driven by WordPress.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are thinking of getting one built, then wouldn’t it be great 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 a similar site built for a much smaller cost?
The Easy Way To Tell If Your Website Was Built Using WordPress Software
Do you need to know if your website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard or read wonderful things about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on the WordPress software, 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 a number of methods you can use to quickly tell if a website is running on WordPress:
View Your Page Source Code
If you know how to search 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 telltale footprints that the site was built with WordPress …
(View your page source code using Firefox)
Suppose that you are browsing online and you come across a website 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.
Once the source code of the page loads on your screen, you can search for words like “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or using your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to locate the words “wp-content” within the page source code, it does not mean that the site you’re looking at is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site runs on the WordPress software, as we will soon be discussing.
As the focus of this article is to try and help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easy ways to check if your site is powered by WordPress other than searching through the source code.
Just Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, many web development companies, for whatever reason, may build clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you paid a website developer or got somebody else to build you a website, just ask your developer or whoever built your web site if your web site runs on 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 site that you really like while browsing online and you really want to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme where the theme templates have not been customized, you will typically see a “Proudly powered by WordPress” message displayed at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Online Tools That Tell You If A Website Runs On WordPress
Here are a couple of tools that can tell you if the website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com
(Is It WordPress?)
Is It WP is a free online tool that can check if a site was built using WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really simple. Just add the URL of the website into the search field and click the button next to it.
The tool will go through the URL and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you the version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the web site does not run on WordPress, you will get a message like the one shown below …
To use this tool, 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.com)
If you use either the Firefox or Google Chrome web browser and would like to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting have been built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful add-on for your 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 a very easy to install and very easy to use web browser add-on.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer, icons will appear in your web browser, in the URL field identifying which software is installed on the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon displays on your browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(It’s a WordPress site!)
Go here to visit the site:
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, visit the site below:
I hope that you have found this tutorial useful.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)