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 the WordPress CMS came along and changed everything. Now, it’s getting more difficult to tell blogs and websites apart. 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 hood”.
(Can You Tell Which Application Your Website Is Powered By?)
For many website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System application like WordPress and other website-building software is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, in terms of the areas that the majority of website owners are concerned with, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the site 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 much cheaper price than the cost of getting option ”A” above built.
If you selected web site “B”, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that could turn out to be far less expensive to build than websites built using traditional website development tools … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a budget-friendly CMS platform suitable for most business needs.
Whether your reason for having a website is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no knowledge of web coding to use and manage, yet it offers many helpful features that make your web site more effective when it comes to getting your content published, promoting visitor engagement, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s functionality, scalability, 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 is also driven by the WordPress CMS.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are considering getting one built, then wouldn’t it be great to be able 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 a similar site built quite inexpensively?
How To Tell If A Website Is A WordPress Website
Do you need to know if your website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve heard or read about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using WordPress, or some other CMS.
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 ways to tell if sites are powered WordPress:
View Your Source Code
If you know how to access 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 telltale footprints that the site was built using WordPress …
(Viewing your web page source code in the Firefox browser)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you visit a web site that you like, and you’re wondering if the site runs on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
Once the source code of the page loads on your screen, you can search for words like “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or use the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot find “wp-content” within the source code, it does not mean that this is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if the site was built using the WordPress software, as we will soon see.
As the focus of this post is to help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easier ways to check if your web site is powered by WordPress other than scanning the source code.
Simply Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, a number of web development companies, for whatever reason, may build their clients a website and not tell them it’s 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 website was built using WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with your website developer, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while surfing the net and would like to know if it was built using WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WP theme and the site them template has not been modified, you will often see a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice displayed at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If the methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Online Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Has Been Built With WordPress
Here are a some sites that can tell you if a website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com – WP Checker
(Is It WordPress?)
Is It WordPress? is a free tool that can tell you if a website runs on WordPress or not.
Using this site is really quite simple. Just add the address of the site into the search field and click the button.
It will go and search 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 which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the web site is not a WP-driven web site or blog, you will get 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 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 – Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome))
If you use either the Firefox or Google Chrome web browser and want to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting are powered by WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a useful add-on to install on your browser.
Wappalyzer tells you 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 show up in your web browser identifying which technologies are installed on all the sites you are visiting …
If you see the WordPress icon displayed on your browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This is a WordPress site!)
To visit the site, 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 you have found this the information in this tutorial useful.
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