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 revolutionized the web publishing world. Now, it’s getting almost impossible to tell if a site is running on a “blogging” content management system (CMS) like the WP CMS, or if it’s been developed using a website 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 type of web application is actually powering the site.
(Can You Tell Which Application Your Website Is Powered By?)
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 matter to most website owners, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the website up-to-date, managing content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of the options below would you choose?
A) An eye-catching, professional-looking website that turns out to be quite expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking website, but at a fraction of the cost of getting site ”A” built.
If you chose option ”B” above, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create a stunning website that will usually cost far less to build than websites built using traditional website development tools … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading 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 web site is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no knowledge of web coding to use and manage, yet it offers many helpful tools that make your web site more effective in terms of 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 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 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 quite inexpensively?
The Easy Way To Tell If Your Blog Was Built Using WordPress
Do you need to know if your website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve read or heard wonderful things about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on the WordPress software, 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 sites are built using WordPress:
Look At The 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 an obvious tell-tale footprint that the site was built using WordPress …
(View your page source code using Firefox)
Let’s say that you are surfing the web and you visit a website that you like, and you’re wondering if the site uses 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 the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to see “wp-content” within the source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if the site was built using WordPress, as we will soon see.
As the point of this article is to help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easy ways to check if your web site is built using WordPress other than looking at the source code.
Just Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the obvious thing to do, many web developers, for whatever reason, may build their 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 you a website, just ask your web developer or whoever built your site if your web site was built using 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 using WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the theme templates have not been edited, you will typically see a “Powered by WordPress” notice showing below the footer section …
(Powered by WordPress – site footer area)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Sites That Can Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a some online applications that will tell you if a website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress?
(Is It WP)
Is It WordPress? is a free online tool that can tell you very quickly if a website was built using WordPress or not.
Using this site is very simple. Just type in or paste in the URL of the website into the URL field and click the button.
It will then go 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 it is currently using …
If the site is not powered by WordPress, you will get 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 – Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer.com)
If you browse the net using either Firefox or Google Chrome and want to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting are WordPress-driven, then Wappalyzer is a useful extension to add to your browser.
Wappalyzer identifies 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.”
Wappalyzer is also an easy to install and very easy to use web browser extension.
After installing the Wappalyzer extension on your web browser, icons will display in your web browser menu, next to the site URL identifying which technologies are being used by the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon shows up on your browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This site is powered by WordPress!)
Visit the website 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 information useful.
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group
