When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell them apart.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and revolutionized web publishing and content management. Now, it’s getting harder to tell the difference between what tools are being used to build the two. Not so much in terms of what the sites are being used for, but in terms of website design and also being able to tell what’s under the surface.
(Can You Tell Which Application Websites Are Built With?)
For 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 areas that matter to most website owners, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep 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 expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking website, but at a much cheaper cost than the cost of getting option ”A”.
If you selected website “B”, then you need to know more about WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an eye-catching website that could cost far less to build than websites which use other website editing applications … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s preferred online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a budget-friendly content management tool that is ideally suited for most types of business applications.
Whether your reason for having a website or blog is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no knowledge of web coding to use, and offers many helpful tools that make your website 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 functionality, 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 could also be powered by WordPress.
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 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 your business quite inexpensively?
Tell-Tale Signs It’s A WordPress Blog And WP-Checking Tools
Do you need to know if a website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve read about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on WordPress, or some other website 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 some simple methods you can use to quickly tell if a website is powered by WordPress:
Look At The Source Code
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 tell-tale footprints that the site was built with WordPress …
(Viewing page source code in 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.
After the source code of the page loads on your screen, search for words like “wp-content” either by scanning the code …
Or using your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not locate “wp-content” in the source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site was built using WordPress, as we will soon discuss.
As the point of this post is to help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easy methods you can use to check if your website is powered by WordPress other than scanning the source code.
Simply Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, some web developers, for whatever reason, may build their clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you paid a website developer or got somebody else to build your website, just ask your web developer or whoever built your website if the website was built using WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while browsing the net and you really want to know if it was built using WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the theme templates have not been edited, you can often see a “Proudly powered by WordPress” message shown below the footer area …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – site footer section)
If the methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Sites That Can Tell You If A Website Is Built With 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
(IsItWP.com – WordPress Website Checking Tool)
Is It WP is a free tool that tells you if a site uses WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really simple. Just enter the URL of the site into the URL field and click the button next to it.
The tool will go through the page code on the URL 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-powered website, you will see a message similar to the one 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 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 – Add-On For Firefox / Chrome Browser
(Wappalyzer.com)
If you use either the Firefox or Chrome web browser and want to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting have been built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a great add-on to install on your browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify what type of 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 a very easy web browser extension to install.
Once you have installed the Wappalyzer add-on on your web browser, icons will appear in your web browser, in the URL field identifying which software is installed on the sites you are visiting …
If you see the WordPress icon displayed on your browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This site is built using WordPress!)
Go here to download and install the Wappalyzer browser extension:
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 this the information in this tutorial 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