When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the difference.
Then WordPress came along and changed everything. Now, it’s becoming almost impossible 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 web design and also being able to tell what’s “under the hood”.
(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 tools is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, regarding the areas that matter to most website owners, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the website up-to-date, managing content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of the following options 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 is significantly less than the cost of getting site ”A”.
If you went with web site ”B” above, then you need to know more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that will probably end up costing you far less to build than websites built with traditional web development tools … 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 powerful and easy-to-use CMS that is ideally suited for ”non-techy” website owners.
Whether your reason for having a web site is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no programming skills to use, yet it offers a range of helpful add-ons that make your web presence highly effective in terms of 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 one 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 your business to a smaller budget if required?
Does My Website Run On WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve heard 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 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 a web site is powered by WordPress:
Check The 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 an obvious telltale footprint that the site was built with WordPress …
(View your page source code in Firefox)
Suppose that you are browsing online 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.
After the source code of the site loads on your screen, search for words like “wp-content” either by scanning the code with your eyes …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site was built using WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to see “wp-content” within the source code, it does not mean that you are not looking at a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site runs on the WordPress software, as we will soon be discussing.
As the focus of this article is to try and 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 searching through the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most logical 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 website and you can’t tell what application was used to build it, just ask your developer or whoever built your website if the site runs on WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while surfing online and would like to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WP theme and the templates have not been modified, you can typically see a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice showing at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – footer section)
If these simple methods haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Tools That Tell You If A Website Runs On WordPress
Here are a some tools that will tell you if the website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP
(IsItWP.com – WP Website Checker)
Is It WP is a free tool that tells you if a website runs on WordPress or not.
Using this tool is super easy. Just enter the address of the site into the search field and click the button next to it.
It will go through the URL code and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress the site is currently using …
If the site is not a WordPress website, you will get a message like the one shown in the screen shot 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)
If you use either the Firefox or Chrome browser and want to be able to tell if the sites that you are visiting are WordPress-driven, then Wappalyzer is a useful extension to install on your web browser.
Wappalyzer tells you what type of software is installed in the sites you are visiting.
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 add-on to install and use.
After installing Wappalyzer on your web browser, icons will appear in your browser, in the URL field allowing you to see which technologies are being used by all the sites you are visiting …
If you see the WordPress icon showing on your browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(A WordPress site!)
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:
I hope that you have found this tutorial 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)