It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the difference between the two.
Then WordPress came along and revolutionized web publishing. Now, it’s getting harder to tell the difference between blogs and websites. 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 Your Website Is Powered By?)
For many website owners, understanding the difference between a CMS tool like WordPress and other website-building software is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, regarding the things that the majority of 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 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” above.
If you went with option “B”, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create a stunning website that could turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites built using a website development tool … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s most used online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful CMS platform suitable for all types of businesses.
Whether your reason for having a digital presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no programming skills to use and manage, yet it offers many helpful extensions that make your website highly effective when it comes to getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor interaction, 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 thinking of 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 for your business for very little cost?
Does My Site Run On WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using 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 a number of methods you can use to quickly tell if a site is powered by WordPress:
View 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 tell-tale footprints …
(Viewing the page source code in Firefox)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you come across a web site that you like, and you’re wondering if the site is built with WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the source code, you can search for the words “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or using your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not find the words “wp-content” within the source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the website is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site runs on WordPress, as we will soon be discussing.
As the point of this post is to help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easy ways to check if your web site is built with WordPress other than searching the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, a number of website development agencies, 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 your website, just ask your developer or whoever built your website if your site has been built with WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your website developer, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while browsing online and you need to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WP theme where the template has not been edited, you can typically see a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice shown at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a website uses WordPress or not …
Sites That Tell You If A Website Runs On 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 Checking Tool
(IsItWP.com – WP Site Checker)
IsItWP.com is a free online tool that can check if a site was built using WordPress or not.
Using this site is really quite easy. Just paste the address of the site into the URL field and click the button.
It will then search through the site code and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the site is not a WP site, you will get a message like the one 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.com
(Wappalyzer – Web Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome))
If you use a web browser such as Firefox or Google Chrome and want to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting use WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful extension to add to your web browser.
Wappalyzer tells you what type of software is installed in the sites while you are browsing.
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 add-on to install.
After installing Wappalyzer on your web browser, icons will appear in your web browser identifying which software is being used by the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon on your browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This is a WordPress site!)
Go here to learn more:
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, go here:
We hope you have found the above tutorial useful.
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"I am beyond impressed with what you have put together. I can tell that you put a ton of hard work into building what you have. You have the absolute best content on WordPress I have ever seen!" - Robert T. Jillie