Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference between the two.
Then WordPress came along and changed all this. Now, it’s getting more difficult to tell the difference between what applications are being used to build the two. Not so much in terms of what the sites are being used for, but in terms of web design and also being able to tell what’s under the surface.
(Can You Tell Which Application Your Website Is Powered By?)
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, regarding the areas that matter to most website owners, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the site up-to-date, managing web content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of the options below 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 at a cost that turns out to be significantly less than the cost of getting site ”A” built.
If you decided to go with web site “B”, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an eye-catching website that could cost far less to build than websites which are built with website-building software … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful content management system that is ideally suited for most types of business applications.
Whether your reason for having a web site is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no technical skills to use and manage, and offers a range of helpful features that make your web site highly effective when it comes to getting your content published, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s functionality, 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 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 something similarly built to a smaller budget if required?
Does My Web Site Run On WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve heard about all of the great benefits of using 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 some simple methods you can use to quickly tell if sites are built with WordPress:
Search The 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 tell-tale footprint …
(How to view your web page source code in Firefox)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you come across a website that you like, and you wonder 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 source code, you can search for words like “wp-content” either manually …
Or use the browser’s “Find” function …
(Use the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to see “wp-content” in the page source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site runs on WordPress, as we will soon discuss.
As the point 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 using WordPress other than looking through the source code.
Simply Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the obvious thing to do, a number of web development agencies, for whatever reason, will build clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you used a website developer or got somebody else to build you a website, just ask your web developer or whoever built your site if your site runs on WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while surfing the net late at night and would like to know if it was built using WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the templates have not been customized, you will often see a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice showing at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress – site footer)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to 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 tools that can tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress? – WordPress Website Checking Tool
(Is It WordPress? – WordPress Website Checker)
Is It WP is a free tool that can tell you very quickly if a site was built using 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 then go 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 WP web site or blog, you will get a message similar to 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.com
(Wappalyzer – Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome))
If you browse the net using either the Firefox or Google Chrome browsers and want to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting were built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a great extension for your web browser.
Wappalyzer identifies 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 and use.
After installing Wappalyzer on your browser, icons will show up in your web browser menu allowing you to see which software is being used by the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon displays on your browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(A WordPress site!)
To learn more and download 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:
I hope you have found the above the information in this tutorial useful.
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"I am beyond impressed with what you have put together. I can tell that you put a ton of hard work into building what you have. You have the absolute best content on WordPress I have ever seen!" - Robert T. Jillie