It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell blogs and websites apart.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and revolutionized online publishing and web content management. Now, it’s becoming almost impossible 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’s “under the hood”.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For many 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 many website owners are mostly concerned with, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the website up-to-date, managing 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 is significantly less than the cost of getting site ”A”.
If you went with website “B”, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create a professional-looking website that could turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites which are built using website-building software … and how to tell the two apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful CMS that is ideally suited 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 beginner with no technical skills to use, yet it offers a range of 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, enhancing your site’s capabilities, 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 considering getting a website built, then wouldn’t it be great to be able 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?
The Easy Way To Tell If Your Website Was Built Using The WordPress CMS Platform
Do you need to know if a website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve read about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using 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 ways to tell if sites are powered WordPress:
Search Your Source Code For A Tell-Tale WordPress Footprint
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 an obvious telltale footprint …
(How to view page source code using the Firefox web browser)
Suppose that you are browsing online and you visit a web site that you like, and you would like to know if the site is built with WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the source code, search for words like “wp-content” either manually …
Or using the browser’s “Find” function …
(Use the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot locate “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 was built using the WordPress software, as we will soon discuss.
As the focus of this article is to try and help non “techies”, however, we have listed below a number of easy methods you can use to check if your website is built with WordPress other than searching the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the obvious thing to do, many web developers, for whatever reason, may build 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 your website, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your web site if the web site runs on WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with the person who looks after your website, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while browsing the net late at night and you would like to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme where the web theme templates have not been customized, you can often see a “Proudly powered by WordPress” message displayed in the footer section of the site …
(Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Sites That Tell You If A Website Is Built With WordPress
Here are a some online applications that can tell you if a website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress? – WP Website Checking Tool
(IsItWP.com)
Is It WP? is a free online tool that can check very quickly if a website was built using WordPress or not.
Using this site is super easy. Just enter the URL of the website into the search field and click the button.
The tool will then go and search through the URL code 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 was not built using WordPress, you will see a message like the one shown in the screenshot 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 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)
If you use either the Firefox or Chrome browser and want to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting use WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful add-on to add to your browser.
Wappalyzer identifies what type of software is installed in the sites you are visiting.
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 a very easy to install and very easy to use browser add-on.
After installing the Wappalyzer add-on on your browser, icons will appear in your web browser menu allowing you to see which technologies are installed on all the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon shows up on your browser menu (as the above screen shot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(A WordPress site!)
Go here to learn more:
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, visit the site below:
I hope that you have found this 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