When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell them apart.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and changed everything. Now, it’s becoming almost impossible to tell the difference between what tools are being used to build the two. 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 kind 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 Content Management System tool like WordPress and other website-building tools 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, like 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 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”.
If you decided to go with site “B”, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can give you a professional-looking website that will usually end up costing you far less to build than websites built using traditional web editing applications … and how to tell the two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s preferred online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful and easy-to-use CMS platform that is ideally suited for most types of business applications.
Whether your reason for having an online presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no web design skills to use, and offers an array of helpful features that make your web site highly effective when it comes to getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor engagement, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s capabilities, scalability, 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 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 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?
How To Tell If Your Web Site Is A WordPress Site
Do you need to know if your website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve heard wonderful things about all of the great benefits and advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on 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 site has been built using WordPress:
Look At Your 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 obvious tell-tale footprints that the site was built using WordPress …
(How to view your page source code in Firefox)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you come across a website 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 site loads on your screen, search for the words “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot find “wp-content” within the page source code, it does not necessarily mean that you are not looking at a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if the site runs on WordPress, as we will soon be discussing.
As the focus of this article is to help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easier ways to check if your website is built using WordPress other than looking through the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the obvious thing to do, many web developers, 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 CMS application was used to build it, just ask your web developer or whoever built your website if it has been built using WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while browsing the net and you would like to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Check Below Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme where the them template has not been edited, you can typically see a “Powered by WordPress” notice showing below the footer section …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If the simple methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Sites That Tell You If A Website Has Been Built With WordPress
Here are a some online applications that can tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP
(IsItWP.com – 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 very easy. Just type in or paste in the address of the website into the search field and click the button.
It will then go and search through the page code on the URL 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 WP site, 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 – Web Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer.com)
If you browse the net using either the Firefox or Chrome web browsers and would like to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting are WP sites, then Wappalyzer is a great add-on to install on your browser.
Wappalyzer tells you what type of software is installed on 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 an easy to install and easy to use browser extension.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer on your web browser, icons will appear in your web browser 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.
(This website uses WordPress!)
To visit the site, 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 you have found this information useful.
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