It used to be that 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 becoming increasingly more difficult 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 type 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, in terms of the things that matter to most website owners, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the website up-to-date, managing 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 much cheaper cost than the cost of getting site ”A” above built.
If you selected option ”B” above, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with a beautiful website that will typically turn out to be far less expensive to build than websites which use a web development tool … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful CMS suitable for ”non-techy” website owners.
Whether your reason for having an online presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no knowledge of web coding to use and manage, yet it offers many helpful add-ons that make your web site extremely effective in terms of getting your content published, promoting visitor engagement, 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 considering getting one 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 to a smaller budget if required?
Is It A WP Website?
Do you need to know if a website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve heard or read about all of the great benefits and advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using WordPress, 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 some simple methods you can use to quickly tell if a web site is powered by WordPress:
Search Your Page’s Source Code For Tell-Tale WordPress Footprints
If you know how to view 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 with WordPress …
(View your page source code using the Firefox browser)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you come across a website that you like, and you wonder if the site runs on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the page’s source code, search for the words “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use Firefox’s ‘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 mean that it’s not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site was built using WordPress, as we will soon see.
As the point of this article is to try and help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easier ways to check if your site is built with WordPress other than searching through the source code.
Ask Your Website Developer
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, some website development agencies, for whatever reason, may build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you used a website developer or got somebody else to build you a website, just ask your developer or whoever built your site if the 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 browsing the net late at night and want to know if it was built using WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme where the site templates have not been customized, you can often see a “Powered by WordPress” message shown at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress – site footer)
If the simple methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Sites That Can Tell You If A Website Has Been Built With WordPress
Here are a couple of tools that will tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com
(Is It WordPress? – WP Website Checker)
Is It WP? is a free tool that can check very quickly if a site was built using WordPress or not.
Using this tool is very simple. Just paste the address of the website into the search field and click the button.
The tool will go through the URL pages and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress the site is currently using …
If the site is not a WordPress web site or blog, you will see a message like 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 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 browse the net using either the Firefox or Google Chrome browsers and want to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting have been built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful add-on to add to your 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 very easy to install.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer, icons will show up in your web browser allowing you to see which technologies are installed on all the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon showing on your browser menu (as the above screen shot shows), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(A WordPress site!)
Go here to learn more:
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 information useful.
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"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