Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell blogs and websites apart.
Then WordPress came along and everything changed. Now, it’s getting more and 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 website design and also being able to tell what’s “under the hood”.
(Can You Tell Which Application Is Powering Your 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 the majority of website owners care about, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the website up-to-date, managing content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of these options 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 price than the cost of getting site ”A” above built.
If you selected web site “B”, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that could turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites built using a website building application … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful CMS application suitable for local businesses.
Whether your reason for having a website or blog is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no web design skills to use and manage, yet it offers a range of helpful tools that make your website 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 being powered by WordPress, chances are that if you already own a website, your website is probably 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 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 Your Website Built With WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve heard about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using the WordPress software, 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 methods you can use to quickly tell if a web site is running on WordPress:
Check The 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 telltale footprints that the site was built using WordPress …
(Viewing your page source code in the Firefox web browser)
Suppose that you are browsing online and you visit a website 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.
In the page’s source code, search for words like “wp-content” either by scanning the code visually …
Or use the 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 are unable to locate “wp-content” within the page source code, it does not necessarily mean that it’s not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if the site was built using the WordPress software, as we will soon be discussing.
As the point of this post is to help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easy methods you can use to check if your website is built with WordPress other than viewing the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, a number of website development agencies, for whatever reason, may build clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you have an existing website and you can’t tell what application was used to build it, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your website if the web site has been built with WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with the person who looks after your site, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while surfing the net late at night and want to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the website template has not been edited, you can typically see a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice shown below the footer section of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If the simple methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Online Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Has Been Built With WordPress
Here are a some tools that will tell you if a website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP – WP Website Checking Tool
(IsItWP.com – WP Website Checking Tool)
Is It WP? is a free online tool that can check very quickly if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this tool is super simple. Just paste the address of the site into the URL field and click the button next to it.
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 web site is not a WP-driven site, you will get a message similar to the one shown in the screenshot 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 – Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer – Web Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome))
If you use either the Firefox or Google Chrome web browser and would like to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting are powered by WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a great add-on to install on your 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 a very easy web browser extension to install.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer on your browser, icons will show up in your web browser, next to the site URL allowing you to see which software is being used by the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon shows up on your browser menu (as the above screen shot shows), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This site uses WordPress!)
To visit the Wappalyzer browser add-on 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, visit the site below:
We hope that you have found this tutorial 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)