Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the two apart.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and revolutionized web publishing and web content management. Now, it’s becoming harder to tell if a site is being powered by a “blogging” CMS tool like the WordPress CMS, or if it’s been created using website-building software. 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 Your Website?)
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, regarding the areas that matter to most website owners, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the site up-to-date, managing content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of these options 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 cost than the cost of getting option ”A” built.
If you selected website ”B” above, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with a beautiful website that could cost far less to build than websites which are built with a website development tool … and how to tell the two types 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 all types of businesses.
Whether your reason for having a website or blog is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no web design skills to use and manage, and offers many helpful features that make your web site extremely effective when it comes to getting your content published and indexed by search engines, 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 site is also driven by WordPress.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are considering getting one 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 a much smaller cost?
Tell-Tale Signs It’s A WordPress Blog And WP-Checking Tools
Do you need to know if a website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard or 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 web site is powered by WordPress:
Look At The 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 tell-tale footprints …
(How to view page source code in the Firefox browser)
Suppose 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.
After the source code of the site 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 …
(Use Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not locate “wp-content” within the source code, it does not necessarily mean that this is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if the site was built using WordPress, as we will soon see.
As the focus of this post is to try and help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easier ways to check if your site is built with WordPress other than viewing the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, a number of website development companies, for whatever reason, will build clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you used the services of a website developer or got somebody else to build your website, just ask your web developer or whoever built your web site if it runs on WordPress.
That was simple, 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 surfing the net late at night and you want to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme and the site them template has not been customized, you can often see a “Powered by WordPress” message shown at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – site footer area)
If the simple methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site uses WordPress or not …
Tools That Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a couple of sites that will tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com
(IsItWP.com)
Is It WordPress? is a free tool that can check if a site was built using WordPress or not.
Using this site is very easy. Just type in or paste in the URL of the site into the URL field and click the button next to it.
The tool will then go through the URL pages 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 powered by WordPress, 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 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 – Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer – Web Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome))
If you use a web browser such as Firefox or Chrome 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 web browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify what type of 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.”
It’s also a very easy browser add-on to install.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer, icons will appear in your web browser, next to the site URL allowing you to see which technologies are being used by the sites you are visiting …
If you see the WordPress icon displayed on the browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This website has been built with WordPress!)
Visit the Wappalyzer browser add-on 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, 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:
I hope you have found the above 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