Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell them apart.
Then WordPress came along and revolutionized web publishing. Now, it’s becoming almost impossible 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’s under the surface.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For many website owners, understanding the difference between a CMS 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 things that many website owners are concerned with, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the site up-to-date, managing web 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 quite expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but at a cost that turns out to be significantly less than the cost of getting option ”A”.
If you selected site “B”, then you need to know more about WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that will usually end up costing you far less to build than websites which are built with other website editing applications … and how to tell the two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s most used online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful and easy-to-use content management tool suitable for most business needs.
Whether your reason for having an online 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 functions that make your website more 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 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 probably powered by WordPress too.
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 to a smaller budget if required?
Is My Website Built Using WordPress? Tell-Tale Signs & WordPress-Checking Tools
Do you need to know if your website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve read or heard wonderful things about all of the great advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using the WordPress software, 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 a number of methods you can use to quickly tell if a site is running on WordPress:
View Your Page Source Code
If you know how to access 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 that the site was built with WordPress …
(How to view page source code in Firefox)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you visit a web site that you like, and you wonder if the site is built on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
After the source code of the site loads on your screen, you can search for “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or using the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to locate “wp-content” in the page source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are not looking at a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site runs on the WordPress software, as we will soon discuss.
As the point of this article is to help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easy methods you can use to check if your web site is powered by WordPress other than looking at the source code.
Simply Ask Your Website Developer
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, a number of web developers, for whatever reason, will build their clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you used the services of a website developer or got somebody else to build your website, just ask your web developer or whoever built your web site if the website was built with WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while surfing online and you need to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme and the website template has not been customized, you can typically see a “Powered by WordPress” notice displayed below the footer area …
(Powered by WordPress – site footer)
If the methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Runs On WordPress
Here are a some sites that can tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP
(IsItWP.com – WordPress Checker)
Is It WordPress? is a free tool that tells you if a website runs on WordPress or not.
Using this tool is super easy. Just type in or paste in the address of the site into the search field and click the button.
It will then go through the URL code and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you which version of WordPress the site is currently using …
If the site has not been built with WordPress, you will see a message like the one shown in the screen shot 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 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 – Extension For Firefox / Chrome Web Browser
(Wappalyzer)
If you use either the Firefox or Chrome web browser and would like to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting are WordPress-powered, then Wappalyzer is a very useful add-on to add to your web browser.
Wappalyzer identifies what type of 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.”
Wappalyzer is also easy to install.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer on your web browser, icons will appear in your web browser identifying which software is installed on all the sites you are visiting …
If you see the WordPress icon showing on your browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(It’s 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, 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, visit the site below:
We hope you have found the above the information in this tutorial useful.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now
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