It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell blogs and websites apart.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and changed all this. Now, it’s getting more difficult to tell the difference between what applications 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’s under the surface.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For many website owners, understanding the difference between a CMS 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 matter to most website owners, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the site 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 actually expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but at a cost that turns out to be significantly less than the cost of getting option “A” above.
If you picked option ”B” above, 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 which use web-building software … and how to tell the two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful and easy-to-use CMS platform suitable for all businesses and non-technical users.
Whether your reason for having an online presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no web design skills to use, yet it offers a range of helpful extensions that make your web site extremely effective in terms of 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 probably powered by WordPress too.
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 site with the design and layout that you like, know that it was built with WordPress and that you can, therefore, get a similar site built for your business for a much smaller cost?
Is Your Website Powered By WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve heard or read 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 methods you can use to quickly tell if a website has been built using WordPress:
Search Your Source Code For The WordPress Footprint
If you know how to check 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 an obvious telltale footprint …
(How to view page source code using the Firefox web browser)
Let’s say that you are surfing the web and you visit a website that you like, and you would like to know if the site runs on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the source code, you can search for “wp-content” either manually …
Or use the browser’s “Find” function …
(Use the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to see “wp-content” in the page source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site runs on the WordPress software, as we will soon be discussing.
As the focus of this article is to try and help non “techies”, however, we have listed below a number of easier methods you can use to check if your site is built using WordPress other than searching the source code.
Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the obvious thing to do, some website developers, for whatever reason, will build clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you used a website developer or got somebody else to build your website, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your web site if it was built with WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while surfing online and you want to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme where the web templates have not been customized, you can typically find a “Powered by WordPress” message showing at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If the methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site uses WordPress or not …
Sites That Can Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a some tools that will tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress?
(IsItWP.com)
Is It WP is a free tool that can tell you very quickly if a site was built with WordPress or not.
Using this tool is super simple. Just type the URL of the site into the search field and click the button.
The tool will go and search 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 web site has not been built using WordPress, you will see a message similar to the one shown in the screen shot 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 – Extension For Firefox / Chrome Browser
(Wappalyzer – Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome))
If you use either the Firefox or Google Chrome browser and would like to be able to tell if the sites that you are visiting were built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a great extension to install on your web browser.
Wappalyzer tells you 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.”
Wappalyzer is also an easy to install and easy to use web browser add-on.
Once you have installed the Wappalyzer add-on on your browser, icons will show up in your browser menu identifying which software is being used by all the sites you are visiting …
If you see the WordPress icon displayed on your browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(It’s a WordPress site!)
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 that you have found the above tutorial useful.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)