It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference between the two.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and everything changed. Now, it’s getting more difficult to tell if a website is running on “blogging” tools like the WordPress publishing platform, or if it’s been created using a web editing 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 type of web application is actually powering the site.
(Can You Tell Which Application Your Website Is Powered By?)
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, regarding the areas that many website owners care about, 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 actually expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking website, but at a tiny fraction of the cost of getting site ”A”.
If you chose web site “B”, then you need to know more about WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that could turn out to be far less expensive to build than websites built using website-building software … and how to tell these two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s most used online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful CMS that is ideally suited for most types of business applications.
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, yet it offers many helpful extensions that make your website extremely effective in terms of 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, yours is also a WordPress site.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are considering getting one built, then wouldn’t it be great 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 something similarly built for your business quite inexpensively?
Is It A WordPress Website?
Do you need to know if a website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve heard or read about all of the great benefits and advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using the WordPress software, or some other website 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 ways to tell if a web site has been built with WordPress:
View The Source Code
If you know how to access 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 your page source code using 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 was built on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
Once the source code of the page loads on your screen, search for the words “wp-content” either manually …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not locate “wp-content” within the page source code, it doesn’t mean that you are not looking at 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 point of this post is to try and help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easier methods you can use to check if your web site is built using WordPress other than searching through the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, some website development agencies, for whatever reason, will build their 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 developer or whoever built your site if your site was built using WordPress.
That was easy, 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 late at night and would like to know if it was built with WordPress?
Check Below Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the website them template has not been customized, you will often find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” message showing at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – site footer area)
If the methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Tools That Tell You If A Website Uses WordPress
Here are a some tools 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
(Is It WordPress? – WP Checking Tool)
Is It WP? is a free online tool that tells you if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this tool is super easy. Just enter the address of the site into the search field and click the button.
It will go and search through the URL files 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 is not a WordPress-powered web site or blog, you will get a message similar to the one below …
To use this tool, 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 – Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome))
If you use either the Firefox or Chrome browser and would like to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting are WP sites, then Wappalyzer is a useful extension to install on your web browser.
Wappalyzer tells you what type of 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.”
Wappalyzer is also a very easy to install and easy to use web browser add-on.
After installing Wappalyzer, icons will appear in your browser, 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.
(It’s a WordPress site!)
Visit the Wappalyzer extension site 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 the information in this tutorial useful.
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