It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell blogs and websites apart.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and revolutionized web publishing. Now, it’s becoming more difficult to tell the difference between what tools 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 type of web application is actually powering the site.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System tool like WordPress and other website-building software is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, regarding the areas that many website owners are concerned with, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the site 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 turns out to be quite expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but for a fraction of the cost of getting option ”A” built.
If you chose site “B”, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create an eye-catching website that could end up costing you far less to build than websites built using other web editing applications … 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 and easy-to-use content management system suitable for most types of business applications.
Whether your reason for having a website or blog is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no technical skills to use, and offers many helpful extensions that make your website highly effective when it comes to getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor engagement, 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, your site could also be powered by WordPress.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are considering getting a website 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 something similarly built for your business for a much smaller cost?
How To Tell If Your Web Site Is A WordPress Website
Do you need to know if a website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve read or heard wonderful things about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on WordPress, or some other content management system.
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 ways to tell if sites are built using WordPress:
Search 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 tell-tale footprints …
(Viewing web page source code using Firefox)
Suppose that you are browsing online and you visit a website that you like, and you wonder 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 “wp-content” either by scanning the code with your eyes …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not locate the words “wp-content” in the source code, it doesn’t mean that it’s not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site runs on WordPress, as we will soon see.
As the point of this post is to try and help non “techies”, however, we have listed below a number of easy methods you can use to check if your website is powered by WordPress other than looking through the source code.
Just Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, a number of 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 your website, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your web site if your website has been built using WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your website developer, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while surfing the net late at night and you really want to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the templates have not been modified, you will often find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” message shown below the footer section …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Online Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Uses WordPress
Here are a some tools that can tell you if the website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP
(Is It WordPress?)
Is It WP? is a free tool that can tell you very quickly if a website uses WordPress or not.
Using this site is really easy. Just add the address of the site into the URL field and click the button next to it.
The tool will search through the URL and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress the site is currently using …
If the web site has not been built using WordPress, you will see a message like 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 – Extension For Firefox & Chrome Browser
(Wappalyzer – Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome))
If you use a browser such as Firefox or Chrome and would like to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting use WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful add-on to install on your web browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify what type of 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 an easy extension to install.
After installing Wappalyzer on your web browser, icons will display in your browser menu allowing you to see which software is being used by the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon displays on the browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This website uses WordPress!)
Go here to learn more:
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:
I hope you have found this the information in this tutorial useful.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now