It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the difference between the two.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and revolutionized web publishing. Now, it’s becoming more and 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 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 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, regarding the areas that many website owners care about, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the site 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 turns out to be quite expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but at a much cheaper price than the cost of getting option ”A”.
If you chose option “B”, then you need to know more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an eye-catching website that could cost far less to build than websites built using web-building software … and how to tell the two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s most used online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a budget-friendly content management system that is ideally suited for local businesses.
Whether your reason for having a website or blog is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no web design skills to use and manage, 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, enhancing your site’s capabilities, 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 the WordPress CMS.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are considering getting one 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 something similarly built quite inexpensively?
How Can I Tell If My Website Was Built With WordPress?
Do you need to know if your website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve heard wonderful things about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using the WordPress software, 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 a number of ways to tell if a site is running on WordPress:
Look At The Source Code
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 obvious tell-tale footprints …
(How to view page source code in the Firefox browser)
Suppose that you are browsing online and you come across a site that you like, and you would like to know if the site uses WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
After the source code of the site loads on your screen, you can search for words like “wp-content” either by scanning the code …
Or using the browser’s “Find” function …
(Use Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not find “wp-content” within the page source code, it doesn’t mean that the website is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if the site runs on the WordPress software, as we will soon see.
As the focus of this post is to help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easy methods you can use to check if your site is built using WordPress other than looking through the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, many website development companies, for whatever reason, will build their 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 webmaster or whoever built your website if it was built with WordPress.
That was simple, 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 and would like to know if it was built with WordPress?
Check Below Footer
If the site uses a WP theme where the them template has not been edited, you will often see a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice shown below the footer area …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Tools That Tell You If A Website Uses 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 …
Is It WordPress?
(IsItWP.com – WP Checker)
Is It WP is a free tool that can tell you if a site uses WordPress or not.
Using this site is really simple. Just type in or paste in the address of the site into the search field and click the button.
It will then search through the site code 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 is not a WordPress-powered site, 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.com)
If you browse the net using either the Firefox or Google Chrome browsers and would like to be able to tell if the sites that you are visiting are WordPress-powered, then Wappalyzer is a useful extension for 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 browser extension to install and use.
After installing Wappalyzer, icons will display in your browser identifying which technologies are installed on the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon shows up on your browser menu (as the above screen shot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(A WordPress site!)
Visit the site 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:
We hope you have found the above the information in this tutorial useful.
***
"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now