It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the difference.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and revolutionized web publishing. Now, it’s getting 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”.
(Can You Tell Which Application Your Website Is Powered By?)
For many website owners, understanding the difference between a CMS tool like WordPress and other website-building tools is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, in terms of the things that many website owners care most about, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the site 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 actually 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 option ”A”.
If you went with site ”B” above, then you need to know more about WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that could turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites which use other web editing applications … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful CMS platform that is ideally suited for small, medium and even large businesses.
Whether your reason for having an online presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no technical skills to use and manage, and offers many helpful functions that make your web site extremely effective in terms of 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 being powered by WordPress, chances are that if you already own a website, your website could also be 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 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 for your business quite inexpensively?
How Can I Check If My Site Was Built Using WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website is powered by 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 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 sites are built using WordPress:
Check The Page 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 tell-tale footprints that the site was built using WordPress …
(How to view your web page source code using Firefox)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you come across a site that you like, and you’re wondering if the site runs on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
After the source code of the page loads on your screen, search for “wp-content” either manually …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to see “wp-content” in the source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are not looking at a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site runs on WordPress, as we will soon see.
As the point of this post is to help non “techies”, however, we have listed below a number of easy ways to check if your website is built using WordPress other than looking at the source code.
Just Ask Your Website Developer
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, some website developers, for whatever reason, may build 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 has been built using 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 site that you really like while surfing the net and want to know if it was built using WordPress?
Check Below Footer
If the site uses a WP theme where the theme templates have not been modified, you will typically see a “Proudly powered by WordPress” message showing below the footer section …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site uses WordPress or not …
Sites That Tell You If A Website Uses WordPress
Here are a some sites that will tell you if a website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com
(IsItWP.com)
Is It WordPress? is a free tool that can tell you very quickly if a site uses WordPress or not.
Using this site is super easy. Just paste the address of the website into the URL field and click the button.
The tool will go through the site code and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you the version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the web site is not a WP-driven website, you will see a message similar to 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 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 – Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer – Add-On For Firefox / Chrome Browser)
If you use a web browser like Firefox or Chrome and want to be able to tell if the sites that you are visiting are powered by WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a useful add-on to install on your web 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 add-on to install and use.
Once you have installed the Wappalyzer extension on your browser, icons will display in your browser, next to the site URL identifying which technologies are installed on all the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon displays on your browser menu (as the above screen shot shows), then the site has been built with 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, 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 this 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