Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell blogs and websites apart.
Then WordPress came along and everything changed. Now, it’s becoming more difficult to tell if a website is running on a “blogging” CMS tool like the WP CMS, or if it’s been developed using a traditional web building software tooltool. 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”.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For 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, in terms of the areas that many website owners care most about, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain 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 turns out to be fairly expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but at a tiny fraction of the cost of getting site ”A” above built.
If you chose option ”B” above, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an expensive-looking website that could turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites which use a web development application … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a budget-friendly CMS platform suitable for all businesses and non-technical users.
Whether your reason for having a website is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no technical knowledge to use, yet it offers an array of helpful tools that make your web site highly effective in terms of getting your content published, promoting visitor engagement, 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, 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 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 quite inexpensively?
Is My Website Built Using WordPress? How To Tell
Do you need to know if a website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve heard about 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 some simple methods you can use to quickly tell if a site has been built using WordPress:
Check Your Page’s Source Code For TellTale A WordPress Footprint
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 with WordPress …
(View the page source code in Firefox)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you visit a web site that you like, and you’re wondering if the site runs on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the page’s source code, you can search for the words “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to locate the words “wp-content” in the page source code, it does not necessarily mean that the website is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site runs on the WordPress software, as we will soon discuss.
As the point of this article is to help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easy ways to check if your site is powered by WordPress other than searching the source code.
Just Ask Your Website Developer
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, a number of website development agencies, for whatever reason, may build clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you hired a website developer or got somebody else to build your website, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your web site if the website runs on WordPress.
That was simple, 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 browsing the net and you need to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme where the website templates have not been customized, you will often find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice displayed below the footer section …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If the methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a website runs on WordPress or not …
Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a couple of tools that can tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress? – WordPress Site Checker
(Is It WP)
Is It WP? is a free online tool that can tell you if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really simple. Just type the URL of the website into the URL field and click the button next to it.
It will then 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 which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the site was not built using WordPress, you will get 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 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
(Wappalyzer)
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 great add-on for your web browser.
Wappalyzer tells you what type of software is installed on 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 an easy add-on to install.
Once you have installed the Wappalyzer add-on on your browser, icons will appear in your browser, in the URL field identifying which technologies are installed on all the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon displays on the browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This website has been built with WordPress!)
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, 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:
We hope you have found the above tutorial useful.
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"I am beyond impressed with what you have put together. I can tell that you put a ton of hard work into building what you have. You have the absolute best content on WordPress I have ever seen!" - Robert T. Jillie
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