It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell blogs and websites apart.
Then WordPress came along and changed everything. Now, it’s getting more and more difficult to tell if the site was built using a “blogging” content management system (CMS) like the WordPress CMS, or if it’s been developed using a website development software tooltool. 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 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, regarding the areas that matter to most website owners, 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 actually expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but for a fraction of the cost of getting site ”A”.
If you went with site “B”, then you need to know more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an eye-catching website that will normally end up costing you far less to build than websites which are built with a web building tool … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful content management system suitable for businesses on a budget.
Whether your reason for having a digital presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no knowledge of coding to use, and offers a range of helpful add-ons that make your web presence 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 functionality, 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, yours is also a WordPress site.
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 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 for your business to a smaller budget if required?
The Easy Way To Tell If Your Blog Runs On WP Software
Do you need to know if a website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve read 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 content management system.
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 site has been built with WordPress:
Search The Page 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 obvious tell-tale footprints …
(How to view web page source code in the Firefox browser)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you come across a web 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 page’s source code, search for the words “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot see “wp-content” within the source code, it does not necessarily mean that you are not looking at a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site was built using the WordPress software, as we will soon be discussing.
As the point of this post is to try and help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easier methods you can use to check if your web site is built with WordPress other than viewing the source code.
Simply Ask Your Website Developer
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, a number of web development companies, for whatever reason, will build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you employed the services of a website developer or got somebody else to build you a website, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your site if it has been built using WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with the person who looks after your website, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while browsing online and you really would like to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the theme templates have not been edited, you will typically find a “Powered by WordPress” message shown at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Tools That Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a couple of sites that can tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com – WordPress Checker
(Is It WordPress? – WP Checker)
IsItWP.com is a free online tool that can check if a site uses WordPress or not.
Using this tool is very simple. Just add the address of the site into the search field and click the button next to it.
It will go and search through the URL files 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 was not built using WordPress, you will get a message like 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 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
(Wappalyzer.com)
If you use a browser like Firefox or Google Chrome and want to be able to tell if the sites that you are visiting use WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful add-on to add to your web browser.
Wappalyzer identifies what 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 a very easy to install and easy to use browser extension.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer, icons will appear in your browser menu identifying which software is installed on all the sites you are visiting …
If you see the WordPress icon on the browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(A WordPress site!)
Visit the Wappalyzer web browser add-on site 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 you have found this tutorial useful.
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"Learning WordPress has been a huge stumbling block for me. I've been looking for something that covers absolutely everything but doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Thank you so much ... you have just provided me with what I have been looking for! Truly appreciated!" - Tanya
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