Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the difference.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and revolutionized online publishing. 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 web 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 website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System tool like WordPress and other website-building tools is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, regarding the things that the majority of website owners are deeply concerned with, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep 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 is actually expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking website, but at a much cheaper price than the cost of getting site ”A” above built.
If you picked web site “B”, then you need to know more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can give you an attractive, professional-looking and fully functional website that could cost far less to build than websites which use traditional web editing applications … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s preferred online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful CMS application that is ideally suited for small, medium and even large businesses.
Whether your reason for having a website or blog is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no programming skills to use, and offers many helpful extensions that make your web presence highly 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 functionality, 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 something similarly built for a much smaller cost?
How To Tell If Your Website Is A WordPress Website
Do you need to know if your website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard 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 some simple methods you can use to quickly tell if sites are powered WordPress:
Search Your Source Code For TellTale A WordPress Footprint
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 a telltale footprint that the site was built with WordPress …
(Viewing page source code using the Firefox browser)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you visit a web site that you like, and you would like to know if the site is built with WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the page’s source code, search for the words “wp-content” either by scanning the code …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not see “wp-content” within the source code, it doesn’t mean that it’s not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if the site was built using WordPress, as we will soon see.
As the focus of this article is to try and help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easier ways to check if your site is powered by WordPress other than looking at the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, many website development agencies, for whatever reason, will build clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you have an existing website and you’re not sure what application was used to build it, just ask your developer or whoever built your site if it was built using WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while browsing online and you need to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme where the templates have not been customized, you can typically see a “Powered by WordPress” message showing in the footer area …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If the methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Has Been Built With WordPress
Here are a some online applications that can tell you if a website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com – WP Checking Tool
(Is It WordPress?)
Is It WP? is a free online tool that can check very quickly if a website uses WordPress or not.
Using this tool is very simple. Just add the URL of the site into the URL field and click the button next to it.
It will go and search through the URL and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you which version of WordPress the site is currently using …
If the site is not a WP-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.com
(Wappalyzer)
If you use a browser such as Firefox or Chrome and want to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting were built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a useful add-on for your browser.
Wappalyzer tells you what 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 easy to use browser add-on.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer on your browser, icons will display in your web browser menu allowing you to see which software is installed on the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon shows up on your browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This website has been built with WordPress!)
Visit the website 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:
We hope that you have found this information 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