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 WordPress came along and changed all this. Now, it’s getting 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 hood”.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System tool 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 areas that many website owners care most about, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the site up-to-date, managing web content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of the following 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 website, but at a cost that is significantly less than the cost of getting site ”A” above built.
If you picked option “B”, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an eye-catching website that could cost far less to build than websites which use website-building software … and how to tell these two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful CMS application suitable for most types of business applications.
Whether your reason for having a digital presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no technical knowledge to use, yet it offers an array of helpful add-ons that make your web presence extremely effective in terms of 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 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 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 something similarly built for very little cost?
Is My Web Site WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve heard or read wonderful things about all of the great advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on WordPress, 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 is powered by WordPress:
Check Your Page’s Source Code For WordPress Footprints
If you know how to search 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 …
(Viewing your page source code using the Firefox web browser)
Suppose that you are browsing online and you visit 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.
After the source code of the page loads on your screen, you can search for “wp-content” either by scanning the code …
Or use the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not see “wp-content” within the source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that this 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 focus of this post is to help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easier ways to check if your web site is built with WordPress other than looking at the source code.
Ask Your Website Developer
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, some web developers, for whatever reason, may build 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 is driving it, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your website if it runs on WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with your website developer, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while browsing the net late at night and you want to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme where the site templates have not been customized, you can often find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” message shown below the footer section of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – footer section)
If these simple methods haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site was built using WordPress or not …
Online Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a some online applications that will tell you if the website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress? – WordPress Checking Tool
(Is It WP – WordPress Checker)
Is It WP is a free online tool that can check if a website uses WordPress or not.
Using this site is very simple. Just type in or paste in the address of the website into the search field and click the button.
It will then go through the site code 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 has not been built with 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 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
(Wappalyzer)
If you use a browser such as Firefox or Google Chrome and would like to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting are powered by WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a great extension for your web browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify what 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.”
Wappalyzer is also a very easy add-on to install.
After installing the Wappalyzer add-on on your web browser, icons will display in your web browser menu allowing you to see which software is being used by all the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon shows up on your browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(A WordPress site!)
Visit the 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, 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, visit the site below:
We hope you have found the above tutorial useful.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)