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 WordPress came along and changed everything. Now, it’s getting more difficult to tell if the site is running on a “blogging” CMS application like the WP publishing platform, or if it’s been created using a traditional web development software tooltool. 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”.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For many 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, in terms of the areas that the majority of website owners are mostly concerned with, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the website up-to-date, managing content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of the following options would you choose?
A) An eye-catching, professional-looking website that turns out to be fairly 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” above.
If you decided to go with website ”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 will normally turn out to be far less expensive to build than websites built using other web development tools … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s preferred online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful content management system that is ideally suited for ”non-techy” website owners.
Whether your reason for having a digital presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no programming skills to use, yet it offers many helpful extensions that make your web presence highly 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 site is also driven by the WordPress CMS.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are thinking of getting a website 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 to a smaller budget if required?
How Can I Tell If My Web Site Was Built Using WordPress?
Do you need to know if your website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve read 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.
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 methods you can use to quickly tell if a website is running on WordPress:
Look At The Source Code
If you know how to view 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 using WordPress …
(View the page source code in Firefox)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you come across a web 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 “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or using the browser’s “Find” function …
(Use Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot locate the words “wp-content” within the page source code, it does not necessarily 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-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easy methods you can use to check if your website is powered by WordPress other than viewing the source code.
Ask Your Website Developer
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, many website development companies, for whatever reason, will build clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you hired a website developer or got somebody else to build your website, just ask your web developer or whoever built your site if your web site 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 site that you really like while browsing the net late at night and you need to know if it was built using WordPress?
Check Below Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the web template has not been modified, you can typically see a “Powered by WordPress” message displayed at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – footer area)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site runs on WordPress or not …
Online Tools That Tell You If A Website Runs On WordPress
Here are a couple of tools that can tell you if a website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress? – WordPress Checker
(Is It WP – WordPress Checker)
Is It WordPress? is a free tool that can check very quickly if a site was built using WordPress or not.
Using this site is really easy. Just enter the URL of the site into the search field and click the button.
The tool will then go 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 the version of WordPress the site is currently using …
If the site is not a WordPress-powered website, you will get a message like 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 – Extension For Firefox / Chrome Browser
(Wappalyzer – Add-On For Firefox / Chrome Web Browser)
If you browse the net using either the Firefox or Chrome web browsers and would like to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting are WP-powered, then Wappalyzer is a very useful extension to install on your browser.
Wappalyzer tells you what type of 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.”
It’s also a very easy to install and easy to use web browser extension.
After installing Wappalyzer on your web browser, icons will appear in your browser menu, next to the site URL allowing you to see which software is installed on the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon displays on the browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(This website has been built with WordPress!)
Visit the Wappalyzer web browser extension 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 you have found this tutorial useful.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)