It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell blogs and websites apart.
Then WordPress came along and changed all this. Now, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to tell if the website is running on a “blogging” CMS software application like WordPress, or if it’s been developed using a traditional website 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 type of web application is actually powering the site.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
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 the majority of website owners care most about, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the site up-to-date, managing web content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of the options below 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 website, but at a much cheaper cost than the cost of getting site ”A” built.
If you selected web site ”B” above, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an attractive, professional-looking and fully functional website that will probably cost far less to build than websites built using a web development application … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s most used online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful CMS suitable for all businesses and non-technical users.
Whether your reason for having a website is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no programming skills to use and manage, and offers a range of helpful extensions that make your web presence more effective in terms of getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, 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 site is also driven by WordPress.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are considering 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 something similarly built quite inexpensively?
Was My Website Built Using WordPress? Tell-Tale Signs & WordPress-Checking Tools
Do you need to know if a website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve read about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using WordPress, 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 a number of ways to tell if a web site has been built using WordPress:
Search The Page Source Code
If you know how to view 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 web page source code in the Firefox web browser)
Suppose that you are browsing online and you come across a site that you like, and you would like to know if the site was built with 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, search for “wp-content” either by scanning the code with your eyes …
Or using your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to find “wp-content” in the page source code, it does not mean that it’s not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site runs on the WordPress software, as we will soon see.
As the point of this post is to try and help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easier ways to check if your web site is powered by WordPress other than looking at the source code.
Simply Ask Your Website 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 been built with WordPress.
If you have an existing website and you’re not sure what application was used to build it, just ask your web developer or whoever built your website if the website has been built with WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach the person who looks after your website, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while surfing the net and need to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme where the website templates have not been customized, you will often find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” message showing below the footer area …
(Powered by WordPress – footer section)
If the methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Sites That Can Tell You If A Website Has Been Built With 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 WP – WP Site Checking Tool
(Is It WP)
Is It WordPress? is a free online tool that lets you quickly check if a site uses WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really easy. Just type in or paste in the URL of the site into the search field and click the button.
It will go and search through the URL code and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress the site is currently using …
If the web site is not a WP website, you will get a message similar to the one shown in the screen shot 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 Browser
(Wappalyzer)
If you use a browser like Firefox or Chrome and would like to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting were built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful extension to add to 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.”
Wappalyzer is also a very easy browser add-on to install and use.
Once you have installed the Wappalyzer extension on your web browser, icons will display in your web browser menu, in the URL field allowing you to see which technologies are being used by the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon on your browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), 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 that you have found this the information in this tutorial useful.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum