Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the difference between the two.
Then WordPress came along and everything changed. Now, it’s becoming more and more difficult to tell blogs and websites apart. 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 hood”.
(Can You Tell Which Application Websites Are Built With?)
For website owners, understanding the difference between a CMS application 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 matter to most website owners, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the website 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 is actually expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking website, but at a cost that is significantly less than the cost of getting option ”A” above built.
If you picked site “B”, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that will usually turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites built using website-building software … and how to tell the two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful CMS application that is ideally suited for all types of 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 knowledge of HTML to use and manage, yet it offers an array of helpful add-ons that make your website extremely 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 currently 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 considering 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 your business for very little cost?
Is My Blog WordPress?
Do you need to know if your website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve read wonderful things about all of the great benefits and advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on WordPress, or some other website 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 ways to tell if sites are powered 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 obvious tell-tale footprints that the site was built with WordPress …
(How to view web page source code using the Firefox browser)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you visit 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.
Once the source code of the site loads on your screen, search for words like “wp-content” either manually …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to locate “wp-content” within the page source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the site you’re looking at is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site runs on the WordPress software, as we will soon see.
As the focus of this post is to try and help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easier methods you can use to check if your web site is built using WordPress other than scanning the source code.
Simply Ask Your Website Developer
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, some web developers, 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 is driving it, just ask your web developer or whoever built your site if your website was built with WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while browsing the net and want to know if it was built using WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme where the templates have not been edited, you will often see a “Proudly powered by WordPress” message shown in the footer section …
(Powered by WordPress – site footer area)
If the methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site runs on WordPress or not …
Tools That Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a couple of sites that can tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP – WP Checker
(Is It WordPress?)
Is It WP is a free online tool that can check if a website was built with WordPress or not.
Using this tool is super easy. Just type in or paste in the address of the site into the URL field and click the button next to it.
The tool will search through the page code on the URL and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the web site has not been built with WordPress, you will see a message similar to the one 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.com
(Wappalyzer – Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome))
If you use either the Firefox or Chrome web browser and would like to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting are WordPress sites, then Wappalyzer is a useful add-on to install on your browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify 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.”
It’s also an easy web browser add-on to install and use.
Once you have installed the Wappalyzer add-on on your web browser, icons will show up in your web browser menu allowing you to see which software is installed on the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon on the browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site has been built with 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, 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, go here:
We hope you have found the above the information in this tutorial useful.
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group