Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the two apart.
Then WordPress came along and everything changed. Now, it’s becoming increasingly harder 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 hood”.
(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 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, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the website up-to-date, managing content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of the options below would you choose?
A) An eye-catching, professional-looking website that is expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking website, but for a tiny fraction of the cost of getting option ”A”.
If you picked site “B”, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with a professional-looking website that could turn out to be far less expensive to build than websites built using web-building software … and how to tell the two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful and easy-to-use CMS that is ideally suited for most types of business applications.
Whether your reason for having an online presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no web design skills to use, and offers an array of helpful features that make your web presence more effective in terms of getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor interaction, 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 site is also driven by the WP CMS.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are considering getting one 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 a similar site built quite inexpensively?
Is Your Website Built With WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard 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 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 ways to tell if sites are built using WordPress:
View The Page Source Code
If you know how to check 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 page source code using the Firefox browser)
Suppose that you are surfing the web 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.
After the source code of the page loads on your screen, search for “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to see the words “wp-content” in the source code, it does not necessarily mean that this is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site was built using the WordPress software, as we will soon see.
As the point of this article is to help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easy methods you can use to check if your website is built with WordPress other than searching through the source code.
Just Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, some website developers, for whatever reason, will build 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 web developer or whoever built your site if your website has been built using WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your website developer, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while browsing the net late at night and need to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme where the template has not been edited, you will typically find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” message displayed at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site was built using WordPress or not …
Tools That Tell You If A Website Is Built With WordPress
Here are a couple of sites that can tell you if the website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress?
(IsItWP.com – WordPress Website Checker)
Is It WP? is a free online tool that can check if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this site is really simple. Just add the URL of the site into the search field and click the button.
It will then search through the site code 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 has not been built with WordPress, you will get a message like 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 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.com
(Wappalyzer.com)
If you browse the net using either the Firefox or Chrome browsers and would like to be able to tell if the sites that you are visiting are WP-driven, then Wappalyzer is a useful extension to add to your browser.
Wappalyzer tells you what type of 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 very easy to install and very easy to use.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer, icons will display in your web browser menu identifying which software is installed on the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon displays on your browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(This website is powered by WordPress!)
Visit the Wappalyzer add-on 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, go here:
We hope that you have found the above information useful.
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group