It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the difference between the two.
Then WordPress came along and revolutionized web publishing. Now, it’s becoming 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’s “under the hood”.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For website owners, understanding the difference between a CMS 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 the majority of website owners care about, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain 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 site, but for a tiny fraction of the cost of getting site ”A”.
If you decided to go with website “B”, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create a beautiful website that will probably turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites built using web-building software … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful and easy-to-use content management system that is ideally suited for ”non-techy” website owners.
Whether your reason for having an online presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no technical skills to use and manage, yet it offers a range of helpful tools that make your website more effective when it comes to getting your content published and indexed by search engines, 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 powered by WordPress.
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 for your business for a much smaller cost?
Is It A WP Site?
Do you need to know if a website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve read about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on 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 a web site is powered by WordPress:
View Your Source Code
If you know how to bring up 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 telltale footprint …
(Viewing web page source code in the Firefox browser)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you visit a website that you like, and you would like to know if the site uses WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the page’s source code, search for “wp-content” either manually …
Or using the browser’s “Find” function …
(Use the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot find “wp-content” in the page source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the site you’re looking at is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site runs on the WordPress software, as we will soon be discussing.
As the focus of this post 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 web site is built using WordPress other than viewing the source code.
Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, some web development companies, for whatever reason, may build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you used the services of a website developer or got somebody else to build you a website, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your web site if your website was built using WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while surfing online and you want to know if it was built with WordPress?
Check Below Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the template has not been edited, you will typically see a “Powered by WordPress” notice showing below the footer area …
(Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a some tools that can tell you if the website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP – WordPress Checker
(Is It WordPress? – WordPress Checking Tool)
Is It WP? is a free online tool that can tell you very quickly if a website runs on WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really quite simple. Just enter the URL of the site into the search field and click the button next to it.
The tool will then go and search through the site code and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the site was not built using WordPress, 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 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 – Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome))
If you browse the net using either Firefox or Google Chrome and would like to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting are WordPress-driven, then Wappalyzer is a great extension to add to your web browser.
Wappalyzer tells you what software is installed on 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.”
It’s also an easy browser extension to install.
After installing Wappalyzer on your browser, icons will show up in your web browser menu, in the URL field allowing you to see which technologies are installed on all the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon shows up on the browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(This is a WordPress site!)
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, visit the site below:
I hope you have found the above tutorial useful.
***
"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)