Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the two apart.
Then WordPress came along and changed all this. Now, it’s becoming more difficult to tell the difference between what tools are being used to build the two. 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 kind of web application is actually powering the site.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For 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, in terms of the areas that many website owners are deeply 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 is 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 built.
If you chose website ”B” above, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create an expensive-looking website that will probably turn out to be far less expensive to build than websites which use website-building software … and how to tell the two apart!
WordPress is the world’s preferred online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful and easy-to-use CMS suitable for all types of businesses.
Whether your reason for having a web site is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no web design skills to use and manage, yet it offers many helpful tools that make your web presence highly effective in terms of getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor engagement, generating business leads and sales, scalability, 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, yours is also a WordPress site.
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 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 My Blog WordPress?
Do you need to know if your website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve heard or read about all of the great benefits of using 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 a number of methods you can use to quickly tell if a website has been built with WordPress:
Look At The Page Source Code
If you know how to access 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 that the site was built using WordPress …
(Viewing your page source code using the Firefox web browser)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you visit a site that you like, and you would like to know if the site is built on 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 the words “wp-content” either by scanning the code …
Or use the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to find the words “wp-content” within the source code, it does not 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 see.
As the point of this post is to try and help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easy methods you can use 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, some website developers, for whatever reason, may build their 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 you a website, just ask your developer or whoever built your web site if it has been built using WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while browsing online and would like to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the site template has not been modified, you will often see a “Powered by WordPress” message showing in the footer section of the site …
(Powered by WordPress)
If the simple methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Sites That Can Tell You If A Website Runs On WordPress
Here are a some online applications that can tell you if the website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress?
(Is It WP – WordPress Checker)
Is It WordPress? is a free online tool that can tell you very quickly if a website was built with WordPress or not.
Using this site is really simple. Just enter the URL of the website into the search field and click the button next to it.
The tool will 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 which version of WordPress the site is currently using …
If the site has not been built with WordPress, 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 – Extension For Firefox / Chrome Browser
(Wappalyzer – Web Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome))
If you use either the Firefox or Chrome browser and want to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting are WP-driven, then Wappalyzer is a useful extension to install on your browser.
Wappalyzer tells you 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 an easy browser add-on to install and use.
After installing Wappalyzer on your web browser, icons will show up in your browser, next to the site URL identifying which technologies are being used by the sites you are visiting …
If you see the WordPress icon on the browser menu (as the above screen shot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(This website is powered by WordPress!)
To learn more, go 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, go here:
We hope you have found this information 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