When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell blogs and websites apart.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and everything changed. Now, it’s becoming almost impossible to tell if a website is running on a “blogging” CMS software application like WordPress, or if it’s been developed using some other website editing application. 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 A Website Has Been Built With?)
For many website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System 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 many website owners are deeply concerned with, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the website up-to-date, managing content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of these options would you choose?
A) An eye-catching, professional-looking website that turns out to be fairly expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but for a tiny fraction of the cost of getting option ”A” above built.
If you chose web site “B”, then you need to know more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create an eye-catching website that will normally turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites which use other web editing applications … and how to tell the two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s preferred online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a budget-friendly CMS application suitable for ”non-techy” website owners.
Whether your reason for having a website is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no programming skills to use, yet it offers an array of helpful add-ons that make your web presence highly effective when it comes to getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s capabilities, 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 the WordPress CMS.
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 something similarly built for a much smaller cost?
Does My Web Site Run On WordPress?
Do you need to know if your website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve heard or read wonderful things about all of the great benefits and advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using WordPress, 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 methods you can use to quickly tell if a web site has been built using WordPress:
Look At Your Page 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 the Firefox web browser)
Let’s say that you are surfing the web and you come across a website that you like, and you wonder if the site runs on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
Once 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 the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to see “wp-content” within the source code, it does not necessarily mean that this is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site was built using WordPress, as we will soon be discussing.
As the focus of this post is to try and help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easy ways to check if your web site is built using WordPress other than scanning the source code.
Just Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the obvious thing to do, many web developers, for whatever reason, will build their clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you have an existing website and you’re not sure what CMS application is driving it, just ask your developer or whoever built your web site if your site was built with WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach the person who looks after your site, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while browsing the net late at night and you would like to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme where the template has not been customized, you will typically find a “Powered by WordPress” message showing at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a website runs on WordPress or not …
Online Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Uses WordPress
Here are a couple of sites that can tell you if the website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com
(Is It WordPress? – WP Website Checker)
IsItWP.com is a free tool that can check if a website was built with WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really easy. Just paste the URL of the site into the search field and click the button.
The tool will go 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 site is not a WordPress-driven website, you will get a message similar to 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 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 Firefox or Chrome and want to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting use WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful add-on 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.”
It’s also a very easy browser add-on to install.
After installing the Wappalyzer extension on your web browser, icons will show up in your web browser, next to the site URL identifying which software is installed on the sites you are visiting …
If you see the WordPress icon displayed on the browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site has been built with 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, go here:
We hope you have found the above the information in this tutorial useful.
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