Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the difference.
Then WordPress came along and everything changed. Now, it’s getting almost impossible to tell blogs and websites apart. 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 A Website Has Been Built With?)
For 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 things that many website owners care most about, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the site 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 is actually expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but for a tiny fraction of the cost of getting site ”A” above built.
If you picked option “B”, then you need to know more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an eye-catching website that will normally turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites built using a web development tool … and how to tell the two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful CMS that is ideally suited for most business needs.
Whether your reason for having a digital presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no knowledge of coding to use, yet it offers an array of helpful add-ons that make your website extremely effective when it comes to getting your content published, promoting visitor engagement, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s functionality, 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 site could probably be powered by WordPress too.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are thinking of getting a website 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 something similarly built for your business to a smaller budget if required?
Is Your Website Built With WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve heard about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using 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 a number of methods you can use to quickly tell if sites are built using WordPress:
Search Your Page’s Source Code For WordPress Footprints
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 a tell-tale footprint …
(Viewing page source code in the Firefox web browser)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you come across a web 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.
Once the source code of the page loads on your screen, you can search for words like “wp-content” either by scanning the code …
Or using the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using Firefox’s ‘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 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 discuss.
As the point of this post is to try and help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easy methods you can use to check if your web site is built using WordPress other than scanning the source code.
Simply Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, a number of web development companies, for whatever reason, will build clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you have an existing website and you can’t tell what application was used to build it, just ask your developer or whoever built your website if your website has been built with WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while surfing the net late at night and you really would like to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme and the theme templates have not been customized, you will often see a “Powered by WordPress” message shown below the footer section …
(Powered by WordPress – site footer)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site uses WordPress or not …
Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a couple of sites that can tell you if a website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress? – WordPress Site Checking Tool
(Is It WP – WordPress Website Checking Tool)
IsItWP.com is a free online tool that lets you quickly check if a website was built with WordPress or not.
Using this site is very simple. Just type in or paste in the address of the site into the search field and click the button.
It will go through the page code on 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 site was not built using WordPress, you will see 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 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 – Add-On For Firefox / Chrome Web Browser)
If you browse the net using either the Firefox or Chrome browsers and want to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting were built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a useful add-on for your web browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify what type of software is installed in 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.”
It’s also easy to install.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer, icons will appear in your browser menu allowing you to see which software is being used by all the sites you are visiting …
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!)
To visit the website, 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, go here:
I hope that you have found the above 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