It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference between the two.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and changed everything. Now, it’s becoming more difficult to tell the difference between blogs and websites. 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 Is Powering A Website?)
For website owners, understanding the difference between a CMS application 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 things that matter to most website owners, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the website 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 expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but for a fraction of the cost of getting site ”A”.
If you selected website “B”, then you need to know more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that could cost far less to build than websites which use 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 budget-friendly content management software that is ideally suited for all businesses and non-technical users.
Whether your reason for having a website is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no technical knowledge to use, yet it offers an array of helpful tools that make your web site highly effective in terms of getting your content published and indexed by search engines, 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 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 a similar site built quite inexpensively?
Is Your Website Built With WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard wonderful things about all of the great advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using 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:
Search Your 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 an obvious telltale footprint …
(View your page source code in Firefox)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you come across a site that you like, and you would like to know if the site uses WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the page’s source code, you can search for words like “wp-content” either by scanning the code …
Or using your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to find “wp-content” in the source code, it does not mean that you are not looking at a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if the site runs on the WordPress software, as we will soon see.
As the focus of this post is to try and help non “techies”, however, we have listed below a number of easy methods you can use to check if your site is built using WordPress other than viewing the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, some website developers, for whatever reason, may build their clients a website and not tell them it’s 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 website if your website was built using WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your website developer, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while surfing the net late at night and want to know if it was built using WordPress?
Check Below Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the template has not been edited, you can typically see a “Powered by WordPress” message showing in the footer section of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Is Built With WordPress
Here are a some tools that can tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com – WP Checking Tool
(Is It WP – WordPress Checking Tool)
Is It WP is a free online tool that can tell you very quickly if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this site is really simple. Just type in or paste in the URL of the site into the search field and click the button.
The tool will go and search through the URL and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the web site is not a WordPress-powered site, you will see a message similar to 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 Theme 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 – Web Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome))
If you browse the net using either Firefox or Google Chrome and want to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting are powered by WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a useful extension to add to your web browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify what software is installed on 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 an easy web browser extension to install.
Once you have installed the Wappalyzer extension on your browser, icons will display in your browser menu, next to the site URL identifying which software is installed on the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon shows up on your browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(This website uses WordPress!)
Visit the site 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, 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 information useful.
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