It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell blogs and websites apart.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and everything changed. Now, it’s becoming harder to tell the difference between what software is being used to build the two. 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”.
(Can You Tell Which Application Websites Are Built With?)
For many website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System application like WordPress and other website-building tools is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, regarding the things that matter to most website owners, 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 fairly expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but at a fraction of the cost of getting site ”A”.
If you decided to go with website “B”, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create a professional-looking website that will normally turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites built using traditional website editing applications … and how to tell the two apart!
WordPress is the world’s most used online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful and easy-to-use CMS suitable for businesses on a budget.
Whether your reason for having a web site is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no technical skills to use, and offers many helpful features that make your web site more effective when it comes to getting your content published, promoting visitor engagement, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s capabilities, 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, your website is also powered by WordPress.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are thinking of 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 for your business quite inexpensively?
The Easy Way To Tell If Your Blog Runs On WordPress Software
Do you need to know if your website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard or read about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on WordPress, or some other content management system.
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 with WordPress:
Look At The Page Source Code
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 an obvious tell-tale footprint that the site was built with WordPress …
(Viewing your page source code in Firefox)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you visit 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.
Once the source code of the page loads on your screen, you can search for the words “wp-content” either by scanning the code with your eyes …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site was built using WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not find “wp-content” within the source code, it doesn’t mean that it’s not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site runs on 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 methods you can use to check if your site is powered by WordPress other than looking at the source code.
Ask Your Website Developer
While this may seem like the obvious thing to do, a number of web development agencies, for whatever reason, will build their clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you have an existing website and you’re not sure what application is driving it, just ask your web developer or whoever built your website if your web site has been built with WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your website developer, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while browsing the net and you would like to know if it was built with WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the theme templates have not been modified, you can typically find a “Powered by WordPress” message displayed below the footer section …
(Proudly 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 Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a some online applications that can tell you if a website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress?
(IsItWP.com – WP Website Checking Tool)
Is It WordPress? is a free online tool that can tell you if a site was built with WordPress or not.
Using this tool is super easy. Just add the URL of the website into the search field and click the button next to it.
The tool will go and search through the URL files 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 is not a WordPress-powered web site or blog, you will get a message similar to the one 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 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 – Extension For Firefox / Chrome Web Browser)
If you browse the net using either Firefox or Google Chrome and want to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting use WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a great add-on to add to your browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify what software is installed on 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.”
It’s also an easy extension to install and use.
Once you have installed the Wappalyzer add-on on your browser, icons will appear in your browser, in the URL field identifying which technologies are installed on the sites you are visiting …
If you see the WordPress icon on the 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 extension 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:
I hope that you have found this tutorial useful.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)