When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell blogs and websites apart.
Then WordPress came along and changed everything. 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 surface.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For many 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, like 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 site, but at a fraction of the cost of getting option ”A”.
If you chose site “B”, then you need to know more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create an eye-catching website that will usually turn out to be far less expensive to build than websites which use a web building application … and how to tell the two apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful content management system that is ideally suited for businesses on a budget.
Whether your reason for having an online presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no technical knowledge to use, and offers a range of helpful features that make your web presence highly effective when it comes to getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s capabilities, 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 is also driven by WordPress.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are thinking of getting a website built, then wouldn’t it be great 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?
How To Tell If A Site Is A WordPress Website
Do you need to know if a website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard or read about all of the great benefits of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on 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 running on WordPress:
Search 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 an obvious tell-tale footprint …
(Viewing web page source code using the Firefox web browser)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you come across a web site that you like, and you’re wondering if the site uses 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, search for “wp-content” either manually …
Or use the browser’s “Find” function …
(Use Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to find “wp-content” within the page source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are not looking at a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if the site was built using WordPress, as we will soon be discussing.
As the focus of this article is to help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easy methods you can use to check if your web site is built using WordPress other than searching the source code.
Simply Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, many web developers, for whatever reason, will build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you paid a website developer or got somebody else to build you a website, just ask your developer or whoever built your website if the web site has been built using WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while browsing the net and you really need to know if it was built with WordPress?
Check Below Footer
If the site uses a WP theme where the templates have not been edited, you will often find a “Powered by WordPress” message displayed in the footer area …
(Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Online Tools That Tell You If A Website Is Built With WordPress
Here are a couple of sites that can tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com – WordPress Site Checker
(IsItWP.com)
Is It WordPress? is a free tool that tells you if a website uses WordPress or not.
Using this site is super simple. Just paste the URL of the site into the search field and click the button.
It will search through the URL files 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 was not built using 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 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 – Web Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer)
If you use a browser like Firefox or Chrome and would like to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting are WordPress sites, then Wappalyzer is a great extension to install on your 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.”
It’s also an easy add-on to install.
After installing Wappalyzer on your browser, icons will appear in your web browser, in the URL field identifying which technologies are being used by all the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon displayed on your browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(This is a WordPress site!)
Visit the Wappalyzer 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, visit the site below:
I hope that you have found the above tutorial useful.
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