Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell blogs and websites apart.
Then WordPress came along and changed everything. Now, it’s getting 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 type of web application is actually powering the site.
(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 software is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, in terms of the things that the majority of website owners care about, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the website 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 is expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but at a fraction of the cost of getting option “A” above.
If you picked option “B”, then you need to know more about WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that could cost far less to build than websites which use a website building application … 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 powerful and easy-to-use CMS application that is ideally suited for all businesses and non-technical users.
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 knowledge 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 engagement, 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 could probably be powered by WordPress too.
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 a similar site built quite inexpensively?
How Can I Tell If My Site Was Built With WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve read wonderful things about all of the great benefits of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on WordPress, 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 some simple methods you can use to quickly tell if sites are running on 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 …
(How to view your web page source code in Firefox)
Suppose that you are browsing online and you visit a site that you like, and you’re wondering if the site runs on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the source code, search for the words “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or using the browser’s “Find” function …
(Use the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not find the words “wp-content” in the page source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that this is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if the site runs on the WordPress software, as we will soon discuss.
As the point of this post is to help non “techies”, however, we have listed below a number of easy ways to check if your web site is built using WordPress other than looking through the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, a number of web developers, for whatever reason, may build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you used the services of a website developer or got somebody else to build you a website, just ask your developer or whoever built your web site if the website has been built using WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with your website developer, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while browsing online and you really need to know if it was built with WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme where the site them template has not been modified, you can typically find a “Powered by WordPress” message showing in the footer area …
(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 can tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP
(IsItWP.com – WP Website Checker)
IsItWP.com is a free online tool that lets you check if a website was built using WordPress or not.
Using this site is really quite easy. Just enter the URL of the site into the URL field and click the button.
It will go through the URL code and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you which version of WordPress the site is currently using …
If the web site is not a WP web site or blog, you will get 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 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 – Extension For Firefox / Chrome Browser)
If you use either the Firefox or Google Chrome browser and would like to be able to tell if the sites that you are visiting are WP-driven, then Wappalyzer is a great extension 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.”
It’s also very easy to install.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer on your web browser, icons will appear in your web browser menu, next to the site URL allowing you to see which software is installed on the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon displayed on the browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(It’s a WordPress site!)
To install Wappalyzer 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, 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, visit the site below:
I hope that you have found this information 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)