When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the difference between the two.
Then WordPress came along and revolutionized the web publishing world. Now, it’s becoming almost impossible to tell if a site was built with “blogging” applications like the WordPress platform, or if it’s been developed using a traditional web editor tool. 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.
(Can You Tell Which Application A Website Has Been Built With?)
For website owners, understanding the difference between a CMS tool 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, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the site 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 actually expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking website, but at a cost that is significantly less than the cost of getting option ”A” built.
If you selected site ”B” above, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can give you an expensive-looking website that could end up costing you far less to build than websites which use web-building software … 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 application suitable for ”non-techy” website owners.
Whether your reason for having an online presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no programming skills to use and manage, and offers a range of helpful features that make your web presence more 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 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 is also driven by WordPress.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are considering getting a website 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 a similar site built for your business quite inexpensively?
Is It A WordPress Site?
Do you need to know if your website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve heard about 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 some simple methods you can use to quickly tell if sites are powered WordPress:
Look At Your 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 …
(View your page source code using Firefox)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you come across a site that you like, and you would like to know if the site was built with WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the source code, you can search for words like “wp-content” either manually …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not see “wp-content” in the page source code, it doesn’t mean that this is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site runs on WordPress, as we will soon discuss.
As the point of this article is to help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easier ways to check if your website is built with WordPress other than looking at the source code.
Just Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, a number of web developers, for whatever reason, may build clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you have an existing website and you’re not sure what CMS application is driving it, just ask your web developer or whoever built your web site if it runs on WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with the person who built your site, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while browsing the net late at night and you really want to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme where the web theme templates have not been edited, you can often find a “Powered by WordPress” notice shown in the footer area …
(Powered by WordPress)
If the simple methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a website was built with WordPress or not …
Tools That Tell You If A Website Uses WordPress
Here are a couple of online applications that can tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com
(IsItWP.com)
Is It WordPress? is a free online tool that can check if a website uses WordPress or not.
Using this site is really easy. Just paste the URL of the site into the URL field and click the button next to it.
The tool will search through the URL code 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 WordPress-driven web site or blog, 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 – Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome))
If you use either the Firefox or Google Chrome browser and want to be able to tell if the sites that you are visiting are WP-driven, then Wappalyzer is a great add-on to add to your web browser.
Wappalyzer tells you what software is installed in 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 easy to install and very easy to use.
After installing the Wappalyzer extension on your web browser, icons will display in your browser allowing you to see 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 screen shot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(This site is built using WordPress!)
Visit the Wappalyzer add-on 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 that you have found the above tutorial useful.
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