Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell them apart.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and revolutionized web publishing. Now, it’s getting more and more difficult to tell if the website is running on a “blogging” content management system (CMS) like WordPress, or if it’s been created using a website building software tooltool. 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.
(Can You Tell Which Application Is Powering A Website?)
For many 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, in terms of the areas that many website owners care about, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the website 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 expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but at a much cheaper cost than the cost of getting option ”A”.
If you chose option “B”, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create an eye-catching website that could turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites which use traditional web development tools … 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 powerful CMS application suitable for all businesses and non-technical users.
Whether your reason for having an online presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no knowledge of HTML to use and manage, and offers many helpful tools that make your web presence extremely effective in terms of 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 probably powered by WordPress too.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are thinking of getting one 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 a similar site built for your business for a much smaller cost?
How To Check If A Web Site Was Built With WordPress
Do you need to know if a website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve read about all of the great benefits of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on the WordPress software, 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:
Check Your Source Code For The Tell-Tale WordPress Footprint
If you know how to access 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 web page source code using Firefox)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you come across a web site that you like, and you’re wondering if the site runs on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
Once the source code of the page loads on your screen, search for “wp-content” either by scanning the code …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot see the words “wp-content” within the source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the website is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if the site runs on WordPress, as we will soon discuss.
As the focus of this post is to help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easy methods you can use to check if your web site is powered by WordPress other than viewing the source code.
Simply Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, many website developers, for whatever reason, will build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you have an existing web site and you can’t tell what CMS application was used to build it, just ask your web developer or whoever built your web site if your site 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 surfing online and you would like to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme and the them template has not been edited, you can often find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice shown in the footer area …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – footer section)
If the methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Sites That Tell You If A Website Runs On WordPress
Here are a couple of tools that can tell you if a website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP
(Is It WordPress? – WP Site Checker)
Is It WordPress? is a free online tool that can tell you if a website runs on WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really quite easy. Just add the address of the website into the search field and click the button next to it.
The tool will go and search through the URL files and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the site is not a WordPress site, you will see a message like 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 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 web browsers and would like to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting are WordPress sites, then Wappalyzer is a very useful extension to install on your web browser.
Wappalyzer identifies 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.”
Wappalyzer is also an easy browser extension to install and use.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer on your web browser, icons will appear in your web browser identifying which technologies are installed on the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon showing on the browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(It’s a WordPress site!)
To visit the Wappalyzer browser add-on site, 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:
I hope you have found the above information useful.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)