When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference between the two.
Then WordPress came along and changed everything. Now, it’s becoming almost impossible to tell if the site was built with a “blogging” content management system (CMS) like the WP CMS, or if it’s been developed using a traditional web development software application. 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 Websites Are Built With?)
For many website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System 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 many website owners care most about, 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 website, but for a tiny fraction of the cost of getting option ”A”.
If you selected web site “B”, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create an eye-catching website that could turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites built using web-building software … and how to tell the two apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful and easy-to-use content management system that is ideally suited 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 many helpful functions that make your website more effective in terms of getting your content published, promoting visitor engagement, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s capabilities, 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, yours is also a WordPress site.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are considering getting a website 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 for a much smaller cost?
Is Your Website Powered By 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 was built using WordPress, 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 ways to tell if sites are running on WordPress:
View The 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 obvious tell-tale footprints that the site was built using WordPress …
(Viewing the page source code in Firefox)
Let’s say that you are surfing the web and you visit a site that you like, and you’re wondering if the site was built using 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 the words “wp-content” either by scanning the code visually …
Or using your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not locate “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 WordPress, as we will soon discuss.
As the focus of this article is to try and help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easy methods you can use to check if your site is built using WordPress other than searching the source code.
Ask Your Website Developer
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, many website development agencies, for whatever reason, will build their clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you have an existing web site and you’re not sure what application was used to build it, just ask your web developer or whoever built your site if the site has been 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 and you want to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme where the theme templates have not been modified, you will typically find a “Powered by WordPress” message displayed at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress – site footer)
If the simple methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a website runs on WordPress or not …
Sites That Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a couple of sites that can tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com – WordPress Checking Tool
(Is It WordPress? – WordPress Checker)
IsItWP.com is a free tool that can check if a website uses WordPress or not.
Using this site is really quite easy. Just type in or paste in the URL of the website 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, which version of WordPress the site is currently using …
If the site is not a WordPress web site or blog, you will get a message like 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 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 Extension (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer – Add-On For Firefox & Chrome Browser)
If you use either the Firefox or Google Chrome browser and would like to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting have been built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful add-on 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 add-on to install.
After installing the Wappalyzer extension on your browser, icons will show up in your web browser menu, next to the site URL identifying which technologies are installed on the sites you are visiting …
If you see the WordPress icon on your browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(It’s a WordPress site!)
Go here to visit the Wappalyzer extension site:
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:
We hope that you have found the above information useful.
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