When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell them apart.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and everything changed. Now, it’s becoming more difficult to tell if the site is running on a “blogging” CMS tool like WordPress, or if it’s been developed using web-building software. 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 surface.
(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 application like WordPress and other website-building tools is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, regarding the areas that many website owners care about, like 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 site, but at a cost that is significantly less than the cost of getting site “A” above.
If you selected site “B”, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an eye-catching website that will usually turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites built using website-building software … and how to tell the two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful CMS platform suitable for all businesses and non-technical users.
Whether your reason for having a digital presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no technical knowledge to use and manage, yet it offers many helpful functions that make your web site extremely effective when it comes to getting your content published, promoting visitor engagement, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s functionality, 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, your website could probably be powered by WordPress too.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are thinking of getting one 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 to a smaller budget if required?
Is Your Site Built With WordPress?
Do you need to know if your website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve read or heard wonderful things 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 some simple ways to tell if a web site has been built using WordPress:
Look At Your Source Code
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 obvious tell-tale footprints …
(Viewing the page source code in Firefox)
Let’s say that you are surfing the web 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.
In the page’s source code, you can search for “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or use the browser’s “Find” function …
(Use Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to find “wp-content” within the page source code, it does not necessarily mean that you are not looking at a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site was built using the WordPress software, as we will soon see.
As the focus of this article is to try and help non “techies”, however, we have listed below a number of easy ways to check if your website is built using WordPress other than searching through the source code.
Just Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, many website developers, for whatever reason, will build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you hired a website developer or got somebody else to build you a website, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your site if your website has been built using WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while surfing the net and you really would like to know if it was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme and the theme templates have not been edited, you will often see a “Powered by WordPress” notice shown at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Runs On WordPress
Here are a some sites that will tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress? – WordPress Checking Tool
(IsItWP.com – WordPress Site Checker)
IsItWP.com is a free online tool that can check if a website runs on WordPress or not.
Using this site is really simple. Just type the URL of the site into the URL field and click the button.
The tool will then go and search through the URL 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 is not a WP-powered site, you will get 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 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 – Extension For Firefox / Chrome Web Browser
(Wappalyzer.com)
If you use either the Firefox or Chrome browser and would like 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 browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify what software is installed in 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.”
It’s also easy to install and very easy to use.
After installing the Wappalyzer add-on on your browser, icons will appear in your browser allowing you to see which technologies are being used by all the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon shows up on the browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), 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, 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 this tutorial useful.
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum