Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference.
Then WordPress came along and everything changed. Now, it’s getting almost impossible 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 hood”.
(Can You Tell Which Application Websites Are Built With?)
For many 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 things that the majority of website owners care most about, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the site 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 actually expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but at a tiny fraction of the cost of getting option “A” above.
If you picked website ”B” above, then you need to know more about WordPress, why WordPress can give you an expensive-looking website that could turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites built using website-building software … and how to tell the two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s most used online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a budget-friendly CMS platform suitable for local businesses.
Whether your reason for having a website or blog is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no knowledge of coding to use and manage, yet it offers an array of helpful extensions that make your web presence extremely effective when it comes to getting your content published, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, 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 website could probably be powered by WordPress too.
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?
Does My Site Run On WordPress?
Do you need to know if your website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve read wonderful things about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on WordPress, 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 ways to tell if sites are powered WordPress:
Search The 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 obvious tell-tale footprints …
(Viewing page source code using Firefox)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you come across a web site 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.
Once the source code of the page loads on your screen, search for the words “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot see “wp-content” within the page 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 the WordPress software, as we will soon be discussing.
As the focus of this post is to help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easy ways to check if your site is built with WordPress other than scanning the source code.
Simply Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, a number of web development companies, for whatever reason, may build clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with 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 web site if the web site has been built with 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 website 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 WP theme where the them template has not been customized, you will often see a “Powered by WordPress” notice showing below the footer area …
(Powered by WordPress – footer)
If the simple methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Sites That Tell You If A Website Is Built With WordPress
Here are a couple of sites that can tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP – WordPress Website Checking Tool
(IsItWP.com)
Is It WP is a free tool that can check if a website was built using WordPress or not.
Using this site is really quite simple. Just add the URL of the site into the URL field and click the button next to it.
It will search through 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 site is not powered by WordPress, you will see a message like the one 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 – Extension For Firefox / Chrome Browser
(Wappalyzer – Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome))
If you browse the net using either Firefox or Chrome and want to be able to tell if the sites that you are visiting are WP-driven, then Wappalyzer is a great extension to install on your web browser.
Wappalyzer identifies what type of 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.”
Wappalyzer is also a very easy to install and very easy to use browser add-on.
After installing Wappalyzer on your browser, icons will show up in your web browser, in the URL field identifying which technologies are installed on all the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon shows up on the browser menu (as the above screen shot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(This site has been built with WordPress!)
Go here to download 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, visit the site below:
We hope that you have found 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