When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and changed all this. Now, it’s becoming almost impossible to tell if a website was built using a “blogging” CMS application like WordPress, or if it’s been created using web-building software. 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.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For many 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, in terms of the things that the majority of website owners are mostly concerned with, such as 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 fraction of the cost of getting option ”A” built.
If you selected website “B”, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create an attractive, professional-looking and fully functional website that could turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites which are built using other website development tools … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful CMS application that is ideally suited for small, medium and even large businesses.
Whether your reason for having a digital presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no technical knowledge to use and manage, yet it offers many helpful functions that make your web site extremely effective when it comes to getting your content published, promoting visitor engagement, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s functionality, 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 is also driven by WordPress.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are considering 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 something similarly built for a much smaller cost?
Is It A WordPress Website?
Do you need to know if a website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve read wonderful things about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on 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 a number of ways to tell if sites are built with WordPress:
View Your Page Source Code
If you know how to view 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 that the site was built using WordPress …
(How to view your web page source code using Firefox)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you visit a site that you like, and you wonder if the site was built on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
After the source code of the page loads on your screen, you can search for “wp-content” either manually …
Or use the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to see “wp-content” within the page source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are not looking at 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 try and help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easier ways to check if your site is built with WordPress other than looking at the source code.
Simply Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, many web development agencies, for whatever reason, may build their 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 is driving it, just ask your developer or whoever built your website if the web site has been built using WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while browsing the net late at night and want to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the site templates have not been modified, you can often find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” message displayed at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress)
If the methods above 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 couple of online applications that will tell you if a website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP
(IsItWP.com)
Is It WP is a free online tool that lets you quickly check if a website was built using WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really simple. Just paste the URL of the website into the search field and click the button.
The tool will then go and search through the page code on the URL and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you the version of WordPress the site is currently using …
If the site has not been built using WordPress, you will get 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 – Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer – Web Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome))
If you browse the net using either the Firefox or Chrome browsers and would like to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting were built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a useful extension to add to 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.”
It’s also very easy to install and very easy to use.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer, icons will show up in your browser, in the URL field allowing you to see which technologies are being used by the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon on your browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(This is a WordPress site!)
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, visit the site below:
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 that you have found this tutorial useful.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)