When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference between the two.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and revolutionized web publishing. Now, it’s becoming almost impossible 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”.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
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 many website owners are deeply concerned with, 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 for a tiny fraction of the cost of getting option “A” above.
If you decided to go with site “B”, then you need to know more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with a professional-looking website that will probably end up costing you far less to build than websites built using traditional web editor tools … and how to tell the two apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful CMS application that is ideally suited for ”non-techy” website owners.
Whether your reason for having a digital presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no technical knowledge to use and manage, and offers a range of helpful functions that make your website highly effective in terms of getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor engagement, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s capabilities, 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 considering getting one built, then wouldn’t it be great to show your web developer an existing site 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?
The Easy Way To Tell If Your Blog Was Built Using WordPress Software
Do you need to know if your website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve read wonderful things about all of the great benefits of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using 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 a number of ways to tell if a web site is running on WordPress:
Look At The Source Code
If you know how to check 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 an obvious tell-tale footprint that the site was built using WordPress …
(View the web page source code in the Firefox browser)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you visit a website that you like, and you would like to know if the site runs on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
After the source code of the page loads on your screen, you can search for the words “wp-content” either by scanning the code …
Or use the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot see “wp-content” within the page source code, it does not necessarily mean that it’s not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if the site was built using WordPress, as we will soon see.
As the focus of this article is to help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easier methods you can use to check if your web site is built with WordPress other than looking at the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, a number of website development companies, for whatever reason, will build clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you have an existing web site and you can’t tell what application is driving it, just ask your developer or whoever built your website 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 site that you really like while surfing the net late at night and you would like to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Check Below Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the template has not been edited, you can typically find a “Powered by WordPress” notice shown below the footer section of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Sites That Can Tell You If A Website Has Been Built With WordPress
Here are a some sites that will tell you if a website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP – WordPress Website Checker
(Is It WP – WP Checker)
Is It WordPress? is a free tool that tells you if a website runs on WordPress or not.
Using this site is really simple. Just add the URL of the site into the search field and click the button.
It will go through the site code 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 WordPress-driven web site or blog, you will see 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 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 – Add-On For Firefox & Chrome Web Browser
(Wappalyzer – Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome))
If you use a web browser like Firefox or Google Chrome and want to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting are WP sites, then Wappalyzer is a very useful extension to install on your web browser.
Wappalyzer tells you what software is installed on 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 easy to install and very easy to use.
After installing the Wappalyzer extension on your web browser, icons will display in your web browser menu, in the URL field identifying which technologies are being used by all the sites you are visiting …
If you see the WordPress icon showing on the browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(It’s a WordPress site!)
Go here to learn more and download the Wappalyzer add-on:
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:
We hope that you have found this the information in this tutorial useful.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)