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 changed everything. Now, it’s getting increasingly harder 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 type of web application is actually powering the site.
(Can You Tell Which Application Your Website Is Powered By?)
For website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System 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 matter to most website owners, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep 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 fairly expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking website, but at a cost that is significantly less than the cost of getting site ”A” above built.
If you picked site ”B” above, then you need to know more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create a professional-looking website that will normally cost far less to build than websites which use a website building application … 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 powerful CMS that is ideally suited for all businesses and non-technical users.
Whether your reason for having an online presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no technical knowledge to use, yet it offers a range of helpful functions that make your website extremely effective in terms of getting your content published, promoting visitor engagement, 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 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 quite inexpensively?
Is My Web Site WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on the WordPress software, or some other content management system.
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 a web site is powered by WordPress:
Search 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 a tell-tale footprint that the site was built with WordPress …
(Viewing web page source code in the Firefox web browser)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you visit a web site that you like, and you wonder if the site runs on 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 words like “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not see the words “wp-content” in the page source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that this is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site was built using WordPress, as we will soon see.
As the focus of this article is to help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easier ways to check if your web site is built with WordPress other than scanning the source code.
Just Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, some web development agencies, for whatever reason, may build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you paid a website developer or got somebody else to build you a website, just ask your developer or whoever built your site if the website runs on WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with your website developer, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while surfing the net and want to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the web theme templates have not been modified, you can often see a “Powered by WordPress” message shown below the footer section of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – footer)
If these simple methods haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a website uses WordPress or not …
Sites That Can Tell You If A Website Has Been Built With WordPress
Here are a couple of sites that will tell you if a website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP – WP Checker
(IsItWP.com – WordPress Website Checking Tool)
Is It WP? is a free tool that tells you if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this site is really quite easy. Just enter the URL of the site into the search field and click the button next to it.
It will go and search through the URL files and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the site is not a WordPress website, you will see a message like 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 – Add-On For Firefox & Chrome Web Browser
(Wappalyzer – Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome))
If you use a web browser like Firefox or Chrome and would like to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting use WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful extension to add to your browser.
Wappalyzer identifies 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 very easy to install.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer, icons will display in your browser menu identifying which software is being used by all the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon on the browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(A WordPress site!)
To install Wappalyzer 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 the above the information in this tutorial useful.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum