Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference between the two.
Then WordPress came along and changed all this. Now, it’s getting increasingly more difficult to tell blogs and websites apart. 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 hood”.
(Can You Tell Which Application Is Powering A Website?)
For website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System tool like WordPress and other website-building software is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, in terms of the areas 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 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 much cheaper cost than the cost of getting option ”A” built.
If you picked option “B”, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create an attractive, professional-looking and fully functional website that will typically 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 popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a budget-friendly CMS application that is ideally suited for ”non-techy” website owners.
Whether your reason for having a web site is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no technical skills to use, and offers many helpful features 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, 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 one 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 something similarly built quite inexpensively?
Is My Website Built With WordPress? Tell-Tale Signs & WP-Checking Tools
Do you need to know if your website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve read wonderful things 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 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 methods you can use to quickly tell if a web site has been built with WordPress:
Search Your Page’s Source Code For Tell-Tale The WordPress Footprint
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 tell-tale footprints …
(View your page source code in Firefox)
Suppose that you are browsing online and you come across a website that you like, and you would like to know if the site uses WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the page’s source code, search for “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or use the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to find the words “wp-content” within the source code, it does not necessarily mean that this is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if the site runs on the WordPress software, as we will soon discuss.
As the focus of this post is to try and help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easier methods you can use to check if your site is built with WordPress other than searching the source code.
Just Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, some website 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’re not sure what application was used to build it, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your site if it runs on 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 website that you really like while surfing online and you really need to know if it was built using WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme and the site them template has not been modified, you will typically see a “Powered by WordPress” notice shown in the footer section of the site …
(Powered by WordPress – footer)
If the methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site runs on WordPress or not …
Tools That Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a couple of tools that can tell you if the website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com
(Is It WordPress? – WordPress Checking Tool)
IsItWP.com is a free tool that tells you if a site uses WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really quite simple. Just paste the address of the website into the URL field and click the button next to it.
It will then go and search through the URL pages 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 does not run on WordPress, you will see a message similar to the one shown 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.com
(Wappalyzer – Add-On For Firefox / Chrome Browser)
If you browse the net using either the Firefox or Chrome web browsers and would like to be able to tell if the sites that you are visiting are WP-driven, then Wappalyzer is a useful extension for your browser.
Wappalyzer identifies what 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.”
Wappalyzer is also easy to install.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer, icons will show up in your web browser menu, in the URL field allowing you to see which software is installed on all the sites you are visiting …
If you see the WordPress icon showing on the browser menu (as the above screen shot shows), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This website is powered by WordPress!)
To learn more and download the Wappalyzer web browser extension, 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:
We hope that you have found this the information in this tutorial useful.
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