It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the difference between the two.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and changed all this. Now, it’s becoming increasingly harder 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 many website owners, understanding the difference between a CMS application like WordPress and other website-building tools is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, in terms of the areas that many website owners care about, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the website up-to-date, managing web content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of these options would you choose?
A) An eye-catching, professional-looking website that turns out to be quite expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking website, but at a much cheaper price than the cost of getting option ”A”.
If you went with website ”B” above, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that will probably cost far less to build than websites built with other website development tools … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a budget-friendly CMS platform suitable 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 beginner with no web design skills to use, and offers an array of helpful add-ons that make your web presence more effective when it comes to getting your content published, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s functionality, 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 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 a similar site built for a much smaller cost?
Was My Website Built Using WordPress? Tell-Tale Signs & WordPress-Checking Tools
Do you need to know if a website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard wonderful things about all of the great advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using the WordPress software, 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 some simple ways to tell if a site is powered by WordPress:
Search The Page Source Code
If you know how to bring up 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 obvious telltale footprints that the site was built with WordPress …
(Viewing the page source code in the Firefox browser)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you come across a site that you like, and you’re wondering if the site runs on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the source code, search for the words “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or using your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site was built using 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 tell if a site was built using the WordPress software, as we will soon discuss.
As the point of this article is to try and help non “techies”, however, we have listed below a number of easy methods you can use 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, many website developers, for whatever reason, will build clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you used the services of a website developer or got somebody else to build your website, just ask your web developer or whoever built your web site if the website has been built using WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while surfing the net late at night and need to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WP theme and the them template has not been modified, you can often see a “Powered by WordPress” message shown at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site uses WordPress or not …
Online Tools That Tell You If A Website Runs On WordPress
Here are a some online applications that will tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com – WP Website Checker
(IsItWP.com)
IsItWP.com is a free online tool that can tell you very quickly if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this site is really simple. Just type in or paste in the URL of the site into the URL field and click the button.
It will search through the URL and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you the version of WordPress the site is currently using …
If the site has not been built using WordPress, 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 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 – Add-On For Firefox / Chrome Web Browser)
If you browse the net using either Firefox or Chrome and want to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting were built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a useful add-on to install on your browser.
Wappalyzer identifies what software is installed on 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.”
It’s also an easy to install and very easy to use web browser add-on.
Once you have installed the Wappalyzer add-on on your web browser, icons will appear in your browser, in the URL field allowing you to see which software is being used by the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon shows up on your browser menu (as the above screen shot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(This is 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, 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 you have found this the information in this tutorial 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