When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the difference.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and revolutionized web publishing and online content management. Now, it’s becoming harder to tell if a website is running on “blogging” software like WordPress, or if it’s been developed using a website development 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 surface.
(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 care about, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the site up-to-date, managing web 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 website, but at a much cheaper cost than the cost of getting site “A” above.
If you selected site ”B” above, then you need to know more about WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that will usually turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites built using web-building software … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s preferred online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful and easy-to-use CMS platform 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 newbie with no technical knowledge to use and manage, and offers an array of helpful features that make your web presence extremely effective when it comes to getting your content published, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s functionality, scalability, etc.
With almost one in every five websites around the world currently 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 thinking of 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 very little cost?
Does My Blog Run On WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard about 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 site is powered by WordPress:
Check Your Page Source Code
If you know how to bring up 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 obvious telltale footprints that the site was built using WordPress …
(Viewing page source code in Firefox)
Let’s say 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.
After the source code of the page loads on your screen, search for words like “wp-content” either by scanning the code …
Or use the 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 cannot locate the words “wp-content” within the page source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if the site runs on the WordPress software, as we will soon be discussing.
As the focus of this post is to try and help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easier methods you can use to check if your website is built using WordPress other than scanning the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, a number of website development agencies, for whatever reason, may build clients a website and not tell them it’s 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 site if the site was built with WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your website developer, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while surfing online and you really need to know if it was built with WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WP theme where the template has not been customized, you will typically find a “Powered by WordPress” message displayed at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – footer)
If the methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site uses WordPress or not …
Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Is Built With WordPress
Here are a couple of tools that can tell you if a website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP
(Is It WordPress? – WP Site Checking Tool)
Is It WP? is a free tool that can tell you if a site uses WordPress or not.
Using this site is really easy. Just add the URL of the website into the URL field and click the button.
The tool will go through the URL code and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the site is not a WordPress-driven website, you will see a message like the one shown 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.com
(Wappalyzer – Web Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome))
If you use either the Firefox or Google Chrome web browser and want to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting use WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a great extension for your web browser.
Wappalyzer identifies what software is installed on 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.”
It’s also an easy to install and easy to use browser extension.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer, icons will display in your browser identifying which technologies are being used by all the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon shows up on the browser menu (as the above screen shot shows), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This is a WordPress site!)
To install Wappalyzer 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, visit the site below:
I hope you have found the above the information in this tutorial useful.
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum
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