Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference between the two.
Then WordPress came along and changed all this. Now, it’s getting increasingly more difficult 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 kind of web application is actually powering the site.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For website owners, understanding the difference between a CMS application like WordPress and other website-building software is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, regarding the areas that the majority of website owners care about, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the site 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 at a much cheaper cost than the cost of getting site ”A” above built.
If you decided to go with web site “B”, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create a beautiful website that could end up costing you far less to build than websites built with web-building software … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful and easy-to-use CMS platform 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 newbie with no programming skills to use, yet it offers many helpful features that make your website more 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 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, your site could also be powered 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 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 quite inexpensively?
Is My Web Site WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve heard or read about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using 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 a number of methods you can use to quickly tell if a web site has been built with WordPress:
Search Your Source Code For Tell-Tale WordPress Footprints
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 an obvious telltale footprint …
(How to view your web page source code in the Firefox browser)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you come across a web site that you like, and you would like to know if the site runs on 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 words like “wp-content” either manually …
Or use the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to find the words “wp-content” within the source code, it doesn’t 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 article is to try and help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easier methods you can use to check if your website is built with WordPress other than viewing the source code.
Just Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, a number of web development companies, for whatever reason, may build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you have an existing web site and you can’t tell what CMS application was used to build it, just ask your developer or whoever built your website if the site was built using WordPress.
That was easy, 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 online and need to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme where the website theme templates have not been edited, you will typically see a “Proudly powered by WordPress” message displayed below the footer section of the site …
(Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a website was built with WordPress or not …
Sites That Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a some tools that will tell you if a website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com
(IsItWP.com – WP Website Checker)
Is It WordPress? is a free tool that can check if a site was built with WordPress or not.
Using this site is really easy. Just type in or paste in the address of the site into the search field and click the button next to it.
The tool will then go and search through the URL pages and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the web site is not powered by WordPress, you will see 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 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 – Add-On For Firefox & Chrome Web Browser
(Wappalyzer)
If you use either the Firefox or Chrome web browser and would like to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting are WP sites, then Wappalyzer is a useful extension to install on your web 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 very easy to install and easy to use.
After installing the Wappalyzer extension on your web browser, icons will appear in your web browser, in the URL field allowing you to see which software is being used by the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon on your browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(A WordPress site!)
Visit the Wappalyzer web browser add-on website 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, go here:
I hope that you have found the above information 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