Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference between the two.
Then WordPress came along and changed everything. 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 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 tool 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 areas that matter to most website owners, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the site 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 turns out to be quite 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”.
If you went with option “B”, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with a beautiful website that will typically cost far less to build than websites built using web-building software … 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 budget-friendly content management system that is ideally suited for businesses on a budget.
Whether your reason for having a website or blog is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no technical skills to use and manage, and offers a range of helpful tools 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, 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 could probably be powered by WordPress too.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are thinking of getting a website built, then wouldn’t it be great to be able to show your web developer an existing website 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 very little cost?
Does My Site Run On WordPress?
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 was built using WordPress, or some other CMS.
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 a web site has been built using WordPress:
Look At The Page Source Code
If you know how to access 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 using WordPress …
(Viewing page source code in Firefox)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you visit a website that you like, and you wonder if the site uses WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the source code, you can search for “wp-content” either manually …
Or using your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot locate the words “wp-content” in the page source code, it does not mean that you are not looking at a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site was built using the WordPress software, as we will soon see.
As the focus of this post 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 powered by WordPress other than looking through the source code.
Simply Ask Your Website Developer
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, many website development companies, for whatever reason, may 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 was used to build it, just ask your web developer or whoever built your web site if your website runs on 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 surfing the net and you really want to know if it was built using WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the templates have not been modified, you will often find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice shown below the footer area …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
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 sites that will tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP – WP Website Checking Tool
(IsItWP.com)
Is It WordPress? is a free tool that can tell you if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this site is very simple. Just add the URL of the website into the search field and click the button.
The tool will then go and search through the page code on 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 is not a WordPress 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 – Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer – Add-On For Firefox & Chrome Web Browser)
If you browse the net using either 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 add-on for your web browser.
Wappalyzer tells you 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.”
Wappalyzer is also very easy to install.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer on your web browser, icons will show up in your browser identifying which technologies are being used by the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon displays on the browser menu (as the above screen shot shows), then the site has been built with 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, 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 you have found this information 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