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 changed all this. Now, it’s getting increasingly 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 web design and also being able to tell what’s “under the hood”.
(Can You Tell Which Application A Website Has Been Built With?)
For website owners, understanding the difference between a CMS tool 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 content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of the following options would you choose?
A) An eye-catching, professional-looking website that is 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 built.
If you chose site ”B” above, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create an eye-catching website that will normally turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites which use traditional web editing applications … 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 content management software suitable for all businesses and non-technical users.
Whether your reason for having a digital presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no technical skills to use, yet it offers many helpful extensions that make your web presence more effective when it comes to getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s capabilities, 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 could probably be powered by WordPress too.
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 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 quite inexpensively?
How To Check If Your Web Site Was Built With WordPress
Do you need to know if a website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve 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 a website is powered by WordPress:
Look At The 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 a tell-tale footprint that the site was built with WordPress …
(How to view your web page source code in the Firefox browser)
Suppose that you are browsing online and you visit a website that you like, and you’re wondering 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, you can search for “wp-content” either by scanning the code visually …
Or using your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site was built using WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not see “wp-content” within the source code, it does not necessarily mean that it’s not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site was built using WordPress, as we will soon see.
As the point of this article is to try and help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easy methods you can use to check if your web site is built with WordPress other than looking through the source code.
Just Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, some web development agencies, for whatever reason, may build clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you have an existing web site and you’re not sure what CMS application is driving it, just ask your web developer or whoever built your website if the site runs on WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while surfing online and you really need to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the website templates have not been customized, you can typically see a “Proudly powered by WordPress” message shown below the footer section …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Online Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Has Been Built With WordPress
Here are a some sites that can tell you if the website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com – WP Site Checking Tool
(Is It WordPress?)
Is It WordPress? is a free tool that can tell you if a website uses WordPress or not.
Using this site is really quite easy. Just enter the URL of the site into the search field and click the button next to it.
The tool will then search through the URL pages 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 was not built using WordPress, you will see 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 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 a browser such as Firefox or Google Chrome and want to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting are WordPress-powered, then Wappalyzer is a useful add-on to install on 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.”
Wappalyzer is also a very easy to install and easy to use browser extension.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer on your browser, icons will show up in your browser identifying which software is being used by all the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon showing on the browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(This site is powered by WordPress!)
To learn more, 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, visit the site below:
I hope that you have found this information useful.
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"I am beyond impressed with what you have put together. I can tell that you put a ton of hard work into building what you have. You have the absolute best content on WordPress I have ever seen!" - Robert T. Jillie