It used to be that 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 becoming almost impossible to tell if a website was built with a “blogging” content management system (CMS) like the WordPress publishing platform, or if it’s been built using a web building software application. 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”.
(Can You Tell Which Application Is Powering Your Website?)
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 maintain the website up-to-date, managing web 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 turns out to be significantly less than the cost of getting site ”A” above built.
If you went with web site ”B” above, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an eye-catching website that could turn out to be far less expensive to build than websites which are built using a web building tool … and how to tell these two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a budget-friendly content management system suitable 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 knowledge to use and manage, and offers many helpful tools that make your web site more effective when it comes to 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, 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 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 to a smaller budget if required?
Is Your Site Built With WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard wonderful things about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using 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 some simple methods you can use to quickly tell if a web site is powered by WordPress:
View The Source Code
If you know how to search 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 …
(Viewing your web page source code using Firefox)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you come across a 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.
Once the source code of the site loads on your screen, you can search for words like “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or using the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot see “wp-content” in the source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that this is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site was built using WordPress, as we will soon be discussing.
As the point of this post is to help non “techies”, 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.
Just Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, some website development agencies, for whatever reason, will build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you have an existing website and you can’t tell what CMS application was used to build it, just ask your web developer or whoever built your website if the site 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 the net and need to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme where the site them template has not been customized, you can typically find a “Powered by WordPress” message displayed in the footer section of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – site footer)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site uses WordPress or not …
Online Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a some online applications that can tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress?
(IsItWP.com – WP Website Checker)
Is It WordPress? is a free tool that lets you check if a website runs on WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really easy. Just paste the address of the site into the search field and click the button.
It will 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 web site does not run on WordPress, you will see a message like the one shown 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)
If you use a browser like Firefox or Chrome and want to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting use WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a useful extension for your browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify what type of 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.”
Wappalyzer is also an easy browser extension to install.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer on your browser, icons will display in your browser menu allowing you to see which software is being used by the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon shows up on your browser menu (as the above screen shot shows), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This website is powered by WordPress!)
Go here to visit the Wappalyzer add-on site:
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, go here:
We hope you have found the above the information in this tutorial useful.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now