When the “blogging revolution” first began, 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. Now, it’s becoming harder to tell the difference between what software is being used to build the two. 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 CMS 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 many website owners are concerned with, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain 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 website, but at a cost that is significantly less than the cost of getting site ”A” built.
If you selected option ”B” above, then you need to know more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can give you a beautiful website that will probably cost far less to build than websites built using web-building software … and how to tell these two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful and easy-to-use CMS that is ideally suited for all types of businesses.
Whether your reason for having an online presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no web design skills to use and manage, and offers a range of helpful tools that make your web site highly effective when it comes to 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 thinking of getting a website 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 for a much smaller cost?
Is It A WordPress Site?
Do you need to know if a website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve read about all of the great advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using 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 ways to tell if a web site has been built using WordPress:
Check Your Source Code
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 telltale footprints …
(Viewing web page source code in Firefox)
Let’s say that you are surfing the web and you come across a web site that you like, and you’re wondering if the site was built with WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the source code, search for “wp-content” either manually …
Or using the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot see “wp-content” in the page source code, it doesn’t mean that the website is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if the site runs on WordPress, as we will soon be discussing.
As the focus of this post is to help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easier methods you can use to check if your site is built with WordPress other than searching the source code.
Simply Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the obvious thing to do, many website developers, for whatever reason, may build their clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you paid a website developer or got somebody else to build you a website, just ask your web developer or whoever built your site if the web site has been built with WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with your website developer, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while surfing the net and would like to know if it was built with WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WP theme and the theme templates have not been edited, you can typically find a “Powered by WordPress” notice showing at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If the simple methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site was built with WordPress or not …
Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Uses WordPress
Here are a couple of sites that will tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP – WordPress Site Checking Tool
(Is It WP)
Is It WP? is a free online tool that lets you check if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really easy. Just enter the address of the website into the URL field and click the button.
It will then go and search through the URL pages and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the web site is not powered by WordPress, you will get a message like the one shown 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
(Wappalyzer – Extension For Firefox & Chrome Browser)
If you browse the net using either Firefox or Chrome and would like to be able to tell if the sites that you are visiting are WordPress sites, then Wappalyzer is a useful extension to add to your web browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify what type of 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, icons will display in your web browser menu, next to the site URL allowing you to see which software is installed on the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon shows up on your browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(It’s 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, 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 this the information in this tutorial useful.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum