Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell them apart.
Then WordPress came along and changed all this. Now, it’s becoming harder to tell blogs and websites apart. 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 Your Website Is Powered By?)
For many website owners, understanding the difference between a CMS tool 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 many website owners are concerned with, 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 these options 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 price than the cost of getting option ”A” built.
If you chose site ”B” above, then you need to know more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an expensive-looking website that could turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites built using a website development tool … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s most used online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful CMS suitable for ”non-techy” website owners.
Whether your reason for having a web site is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no technical knowledge to use and manage, yet it offers a range of helpful functions that make your web presence more effective in terms of getting your content published, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s capabilities, 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 website 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 to a smaller budget if required?
Is Your Website Powered By WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve heard wonderful things about all of the great benefits and advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on the WordPress software, 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 ways to tell if a site is powered by WordPress:
Check The Page Source Code
If you know how to search 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 a telltale footprint that the site was built using WordPress …
(How to view your page source code using the Firefox web browser)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you come across a site that you like, and you’re wondering if the site is built using WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
Once the source code of the site loads on your screen, you can search for words like “wp-content” either by scanning the code …
Or using the browser’s “Find” function …
(Use Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot locate “wp-content” within the source code, it does not mean that this is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site runs on WordPress, as we will soon see.
As the point of this post is to 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 scanning the source code.
Simply Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, many web developers, for whatever reason, may build clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you used the services of a website developer or got somebody else to build your website, just ask your developer or whoever built your website if the web site has been built using WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach the person who looks after your website, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while surfing the net and you would like to know if it was built with WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WP theme where the website template has not been edited, you can typically find a “Powered by WordPress” notice showing at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress – footer area)
If the methods above haven’t helped 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 will tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress? – WP Checker
(IsItWP.com – WP Site Checker)
IsItWP.com is a free tool that can check if a website was built using WordPress or not.
Using this tool is super simple. Just type in or paste in the URL of the site into the search field and click the button next to it.
It will search through the URL files and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the site has not been built with WordPress, you will get a message similar to the one shown 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.com
(Wappalyzer – Extension For Firefox / Chrome Browser)
If you use a web browser such as Firefox or Chrome and would like to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting use WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a great add-on to install on your browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify what software is installed in 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 and very easy to use.
After installing the Wappalyzer add-on on your web browser, icons will appear in your web browser allowing you to see which software is installed on all the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon displays on your browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(This is a WordPress site!)
Go here to learn more and install Wappalyzer:
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, go here:
I hope you have found this tutorial useful.
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"I am beyond impressed with what you have put together. I can tell that you put a ton of hard work into building what you have. You have the absolute best content on WordPress I have ever seen!" - Robert T. Jillie