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 the WordPress CMS came along and everything changed. Now, it’s becoming harder to tell the difference between blogs and websites. 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 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 the majority of website owners care most about, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the website 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 expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but at a cost that is significantly less than the cost of getting site ”A” built.
If you decided to go with website “B”, then you need to know more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that will normally turn out to be far less expensive to build than websites built with other website development tools … and how to tell these two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a budget-friendly content management application suitable for most types of business applications.
Whether your reason for having an online presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no technical knowledge to use and manage, and offers many helpful functions that make your website highly effective when it comes to getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s capabilities, 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 could also be powered 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 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 something similarly built for your business quite inexpensively?
Is My Blog WordPress?
Do you need to know if your website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve heard about all of the great advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using 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 some simple methods you can use to quickly tell if a website has been built using WordPress:
Look At The 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 tell-tale footprints that the site was built with WordPress …
(Viewing web page source code in the Firefox web browser)
Let’s say that you are surfing the web and you visit a site 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 source code, search for the words “wp-content” either by scanning the code with your eyes …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not locate “wp-content” within the page source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the website is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if the site was built using WordPress, as we will soon be discussing.
As the focus of this post is to help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easy ways to check if your site is powered by WordPress other than searching the source code.
Just Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, some web developers, for whatever reason, will 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 you a website, just ask your developer or whoever built your website if your website has been built using WordPress.
That was easy, 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 browsing the net and need to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the web templates have not been customized, you will typically find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” message shown at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – site footer)
If the methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Uses WordPress
Here are a couple of online applications that can tell you if the website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com
(Is It WordPress?)
Is It WordPress? is a free online tool that tells you if a website was built using WordPress or not.
Using this site is very easy. Just type in or paste in the URL of the site into the URL field and click the button next to it.
It will then go and search through the URL and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress the site is currently using …
If the site is not a WP-powered website, you will see a message similar to 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 – Add-On For Firefox & Chrome Web Browser)
If you browse the net using either Firefox or Chrome and would like to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting are WP sites, then Wappalyzer is a very useful extension to install on your 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.”
Wappalyzer is also easy to install.
After installing the Wappalyzer add-on on your web browser, icons will appear in your web browser menu, next to the site URL identifying which technologies are being used by the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon showing on the browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(A WordPress site!)
Visit the Wappalyzer web browser extension site 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, go here:
We hope that you have found the above the information in this tutorial useful.
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