It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the difference.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and changed all this. Now, it’s getting almost impossible to tell the difference between what software is being used to build the two. 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 kind of web application is actually powering the site.
(Can You Tell Which Application A Website Has Been Built With?)
For many 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, in terms of the areas that the majority of website owners care most about, 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 turns out to be fairly expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking website, but at a fraction of the cost of getting site ”A” above built.
If you decided to go with web site “B”, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an eye-catching website that could turn out to be far less expensive to build than websites built using a website development tool … and how to tell the two apart!
WordPress is the world’s preferred online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful CMS platform suitable for businesses on a budget.
Whether your reason for having a web site is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no web design skills to use, yet it offers a range of helpful tools that make your web site 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, 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 considering getting a website built, then wouldn’t it be great to be able 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 quite inexpensively?
How Can I Check If A Site Was Built With WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here 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 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 website has been built with WordPress:
Search The Page’s Source Code For A WordPress Footprint
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 telltale footprints …
(Viewing page source code in the Firefox browser)
Suppose that you are browsing online and you visit a 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.
Once the source code of the site loads on your screen, you can search for the words “wp-content” either manually …
Or using the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not find “wp-content” in the page source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that this is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site runs on the WordPress software, as we will soon see.
As the point of this post is to help non “techies”, however, we have listed below a number of easier ways to check if your web site is built using WordPress other than scanning the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, some web development agencies, for whatever reason, will build clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you have an existing website and you can’t tell what application was used to build it, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your website if the web site runs on WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach the person who built your website, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while surfing the net late at night and need to know if it was built using WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme where the templates have not been edited, you will typically see a “Proudly powered by WordPress” message displayed at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If the simple methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site was built with WordPress or not …
Online Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Runs On WordPress
Here are a some online applications that can tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com
(Is It WordPress? – WP Checker)
IsItWP.com is a free tool that can tell you very quickly if a website was built using WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really quite easy. Just add the address of the website into the URL field and click the button.
It will then go and search through the site code and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you the version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the site was not built using WordPress, you will get a message like the one shown 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 – Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer – Web Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome))
If you browse the net using either Firefox or Google Chrome and want to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting are WP-driven, then Wappalyzer is a very useful add-on to install on your web browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify 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.”
Wappalyzer is also easy to install and very easy to use.
After installing the Wappalyzer extension on your browser, icons will appear in your browser, next to the site URL identifying which software is installed on the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon on the browser menu (as the above screen shot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(This is a WordPress site!)
Go here to visit the Wappalyzer add-on site:
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 that you have found this the information in this tutorial useful.
***
"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum