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 changed everything. 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 surface.
(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 tools is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, regarding the things that matter to most website owners, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep 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 at a much cheaper cost than the cost of getting option ”A” built.
If you went with site ”B” above, then you need to know more about WordPress, why WordPress can give you an expensive-looking website that could end up costing you far less to build than websites which use other web editor tools … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful content management software that is ideally suited for small, medium and even large businesses.
Whether your reason for having a website is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no knowledge of HTML to use and manage, and offers a range of helpful functions that make your website extremely effective in terms of 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 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 considering 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 something similarly built to a smaller budget if required?
Tell-Tale Signs It’s A WordPress Site And WP-Checking Tools
Do you need to know if your website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve read about all of the great benefits of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on WordPress, 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 ways to tell if a website is powered by WordPress:
Look At Your Page 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 a telltale footprint that the site was built using WordPress …
(View your page source code in the Firefox web browser)
Suppose that you are browsing online and you come across a website that you like, and you would like to know if the site uses WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
Once the source code of the page loads on your screen, search for “wp-content” either manually …
Or using your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot locate “wp-content” within the page source code, it does not mean that the site you’re looking at is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if the site runs on WordPress, as we will soon be discussing.
As the point of this article is to help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easy ways to check if your web site is built with WordPress other than scanning the source code.
Just Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the obvious thing to do, a number of web developers, for whatever reason, may build clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with 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 web site if the site runs on WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with your webmaster, 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 with WordPress?
Check Below Footer
If the site uses a WP theme where the site them template has not been modified, you can often find a “Powered by WordPress” message shown in the footer section of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Online Tools That Tell You If A Website Has Been Built With WordPress
Here are a couple of sites that will tell you if the website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com – WordPress Site Checker
(Is It WP – WordPress Site Checking Tool)
Is It WP is a free tool that tells you if a website runs on WordPress or not.
Using this site is super easy. Just paste the URL of the site into the URL field and click the button next to it.
The tool will go through the URL files and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the site was not built using WordPress, you will see a message similar to the one below …
To visit this site, 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 Extension (Firefox / Chrome))
If you use a web browser like Firefox or Chrome and want to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting were built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a useful extension to add to 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.”
Wappalyzer is also easy to install.
After installing Wappalyzer on your web browser, icons will display in your web browser menu, next to the site URL identifying which technologies are being used by all the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon shows up on the browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(This is a WordPress site!)
To learn more about 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, 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, go here:
I hope that you have found this information useful.
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