When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell blogs and websites apart.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and changed everything. Now, it’s getting harder to tell the difference between what applications are being used to build the two. 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 kind of web application is actually powering the site.
(Can You Tell Which Application Your Website Is Powered By?)
For many website owners, understanding the difference between a CMS application like WordPress and other website-building software is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, regarding the things that matter to most website owners, like 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 site, but at a cost that turns out to be significantly less than the cost of getting option “A” above.
If you picked option ”B” above, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an eye-catching website that will typically turn out to be far less expensive to build than websites which use a website building application … and how to tell the two apart!
WordPress is the world’s most used online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a budget-friendly content management system that is ideally suited for local 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 technical skills to use, yet it offers a range of helpful features that make your web site highly effective when it comes to getting your content published, 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, 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 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 a similar site built quite inexpensively?
Is My Site WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using WordPress, 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 a number of methods you can use to quickly tell if sites are built using WordPress:
Check The Page’s Source Code For Tell-Tale 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 obvious tell-tale footprints …
(Viewing page source code using the Firefox web browser)
Let’s say that you are surfing the web and you visit a website that you like, and you would like to know if the site runs on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
After the source code of the site loads on your screen, you can search for “wp-content” either manually …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not see “wp-content” within the page source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that this is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if the site was built using WordPress, as we will soon be discussing.
As the focus of this article is to help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easy methods you can use to check if your web site is built with WordPress other than looking at the source code.
Just Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, some web development companies, for whatever reason, may build clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you have an existing web site and you’re not sure what application was used to build it, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your website if your website has been built using WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with the person who built your website, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while browsing the net and you would like to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Check Below Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the website them template has not been edited, you can typically see a “Proudly powered by WordPress” message showing at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress – site footer area)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site uses WordPress or not …
Sites That Can Tell You If A Website Runs On WordPress
Here are a some tools that will tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com – WordPress Site Checking Tool
(IsItWP.com)
Is It WP is a free tool that can tell you if a website uses WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really easy. Just type in or paste in the URL of the site into the search field and click the button.
It will then go and search through the site code 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 a WordPress-powered site, you will see a message similar to the one 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 – Add-On For Firefox / Chrome Browser
(Wappalyzer – Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome))
If you use either the Firefox or Google Chrome web browser and would like to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting were built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a useful add-on to add to your web 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 web browser add-on to install and use.
After installing Wappalyzer, icons will appear in your browser menu, next to the site URL allowing you to see which software is installed on the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon shows up on the browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(This is a WordPress site!)
Go here to visit the Wappalyzer web browser extension website:
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 the above the information in this tutorial useful.
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