It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference between the two.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and revolutionized web publishing and online content management. Now, it’s getting more difficult to tell if a website is running on “blogging” applications like the WordPress CMS, or if it’s been created using a traditional web development software tooltool. 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 Websites Are Built With?)
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 many website owners are deeply concerned with, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain 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 fairly 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 site “B”, then you need to know more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that will normally end up costing you far less to build than websites which use a web building application … and how to tell the two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful content management software that is ideally suited for small, medium and even large businesses.
Whether your reason for having a web site is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no technical knowledge to use and manage, yet it offers a range of helpful functions that make your web site extremely effective in terms of getting your content published and indexed by search engines, 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, yours is also a WordPress site.
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?
Is Your Site Powered By WordPress?
Do you need to know if your website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve read 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 some simple methods you can use to quickly tell if a site is powered by WordPress:
Look At Your 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 that the site was built with WordPress …
(Viewing web page source code in Firefox)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you visit a web site 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 words like “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or using your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to find “wp-content” within the source code, it does not mean that the website is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site runs on WordPress, as we will soon see.
As the point of this article is to help non “techies”, however, we have listed below a number of easy methods you can use to check if your website is powered by WordPress other than looking through the source code.
Just Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, some website development companies, for whatever reason, may build their clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you used a website developer or got somebody else to build you a website, just ask your developer or whoever built your website if your web site runs on WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach the person who built your website, 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 it was built using WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme where the web them template has not been customized, you will typically see a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice shown at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress – footer area)
If the methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a some tools that can tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com – WordPress Site Checking Tool
(Is It WP)
Is It WordPress? is a free online tool that can check if a site uses WordPress or not.
Using this tool is very simple. Just type in or paste in the address of the website into the search field and click the button.
It 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 the site is currently using …
If the site is not a WordPress-driven site, you will see a message like the one shown 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
(Wappalyzer.com)
If you browse the net using either the Firefox or Google Chrome web browsers and want to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting are WordPress-driven, then Wappalyzer is a great add-on to install on your browser.
Wappalyzer tells you what software is installed on 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.”
It’s also easy to install and very easy to use.
Once you have installed the Wappalyzer extension on your web browser, icons will show up in your browser menu, in the URL field allowing you to see which software is installed on all the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon displayed on your browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(It’s a WordPress site!)
Go here to learn more:
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, visit the site below:
We hope you have found this information useful.
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"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