When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and changed all this. Now, it’s becoming increasingly harder to tell the difference between what software is being used to build the two. Not so much in terms of what the sites are being used for, but in terms of web design and also being able to tell what’s under the surface.
(Can You Tell Which Application Your Website Is Powered By?)
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, regarding the things that matter to most website owners, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the website up-to-date, managing content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of the following options would you choose?
A) An eye-catching, professional-looking website that turns out to be fairly 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 decided to go with website ”B” above, then you need to know more about WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create a professional-looking website that could turn out to be far less expensive to build than websites built using a website building tool … and how to tell the two apart!
WordPress is the world’s most used online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful and easy-to-use content management tool that is ideally suited for most business needs.
Whether your reason for having a website is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no technical skills to use and manage, and offers many helpful add-ons that make your web presence more effective when it comes to getting your content published, promoting visitor interaction, 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 considering 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 to a smaller budget if required?
Is My Web Site WordPress?
Do you need to know if your website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve heard about all of the great benefits and advantages of using 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 sites are built using WordPress:
Look At 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 an obvious telltale footprint …
(Viewing the page source code in the Firefox browser)
Suppose that you are browsing online and you visit a website that you like, and you wonder if the site uses 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 “wp-content” either manually …
Or using the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot locate the words “wp-content” in the page source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that this is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if the site runs on WordPress, as we will soon see.
As the point of this article is to help non “techies”, however, we have listed below a number of easier methods you can use to check if your website is powered by WordPress other than looking at the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
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 hired a website developer or got somebody else to build your website, just ask your web developer or whoever built your site if the site runs on WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your website developer, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while surfing the net late at night and you would like to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme where the web theme templates have not been modified, you will typically find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” message displayed at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress – footer)
If the simple methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Uses WordPress
Here are a some tools that will tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress?
(Is It WP)
Is It WP? is a free online tool that can tell you very quickly if a site uses WordPress or not.
Using this site is super easy. Just enter the address of the website 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, it will even tell you the version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the site is not powered by WordPress, you will get a message similar to the one shown 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.com
(Wappalyzer – Web Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome))
If you use a browser like Firefox or Google Chrome and would like to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting are WordPress sites, then Wappalyzer is a great extension to install on your browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify what type of software is installed on 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 very easy to install.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer on your web browser, icons will display in your web browser, in the URL field identifying which technologies are installed on the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon displayed on the browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), 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, 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, visit the site below:
I hope that you have found this information useful.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)