It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the two apart.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and revolutionized online publishing and content management. 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 web 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 many website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System 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 the majority of website owners are mostly concerned with, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the website 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 website, but at a much cheaper price than the cost of getting option ”A”.
If you decided to go with web site ”B” above, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can give you a beautiful website that could turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites which use traditional website editor tools … and how to tell the two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful and easy-to-use content management system that is ideally suited for all businesses and non-technical users.
Whether your reason for having a website or blog is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no knowledge of HTML to use, yet it offers many helpful features that make your web presence more effective when it comes to getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, 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 one built, then wouldn’t it be great 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 a similar site built for your business for a much smaller cost?
Is Your Web Site Powered By WordPress?
Do you need to know if your website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve read 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 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 methods you can use to quickly tell if sites are built using WordPress:
Look At Your 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 telltale footprints that the site was built using WordPress …
(How to view web page source code in the Firefox web browser)
Suppose that you are browsing online and you come across a site that you like, and you’re wondering if the site is built using 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, you can search for words like “wp-content” either by scanning the code visually …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site was built using WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot see the words “wp-content” in the page source code, it doesn’t 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 the WordPress software, as we will soon discuss.
As the point of this article is to help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easy ways to check if your site is built using WordPress other than looking at the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, some website development companies, for whatever reason, may build clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you have an existing website and you’re not sure what application was used to build it, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your web site if the site was built with WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while browsing online and you really need to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme where the them template has not been modified, you will typically see a “Powered by WordPress” notice showing in the footer area …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – footer)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a website runs on WordPress or not …
Sites That Tell You If A Website Uses WordPress
Here are a couple of online applications that can tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com
(Is It WordPress? – WordPress Checker)
Is It WordPress? is a free online tool that can tell you very quickly if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this site is very simple. Just type in or paste in the URL of the website into the URL 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, it will even tell you which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the web site does not run on WordPress, you will see a message similar to 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 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.com)
If you use a web browser such as Firefox or Google Chrome and want to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting are WP sites, then Wappalyzer is a very useful extension to install on your browser.
Wappalyzer identifies what type of software is installed in 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 an easy to install and easy to use browser extension.
After installing Wappalyzer on your web browser, icons will show up in your web browser, next to the site URL allowing you to see which technologies are installed on all the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon shows up on the browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This site is powered by WordPress!)
To learn more, 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 the above the information in this tutorial useful.
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