When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the difference.
Then WordPress came along and changed all this. Now, it’s becoming almost impossible to tell if the site is being powered by a “blogging” content management system (CMS) like the WordPress CMS, or if it’s been built using a traditional website building software application. 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 type of web application is actually powering the site.
(Can You Tell Which Application A Website Has Been Built With?)
For website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System 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 things that the majority of website owners care most about, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the website up-to-date, managing content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of these 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 cost that turns out to be significantly less than the cost of getting site ”A” above built.
If you selected web site ”B” above, then you need to know more about WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an eye-catching website that could turn out to be far less expensive to build than websites built using traditional website development tools … and how to tell the two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s preferred online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful CMS platform that is ideally suited for ”non-techy” website owners.
Whether your reason for having a website is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no programming skills to use, and offers an array of helpful features that make your web site extremely effective in terms of getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, scalability, 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, yours is also a WordPress site.
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 website 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 your business to a smaller budget if required?
Is Your Website Built With WordPress?
Do you need to know if your website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve heard or read wonderful things 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 some simple methods you can use to quickly tell if a web site is running on WordPress:
Check Your 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 tell-tale footprints …
(Viewing the web page source code using the Firefox web browser)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you visit a website that you like, and you would like to know if the site is built on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the page’s source code, you can search for “wp-content” either manually …
Or use the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot find the words “wp-content” in the source code, it doesn’t mean that you are not looking at a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site runs on the WordPress software, as we will soon be discussing.
As the point of this post is to try and help non “techies”, however, we have listed below a number of easy methods you can use to check if your website is built using WordPress other than looking through the source code.
Simply Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, many website development companies, 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 can’t tell what application is driving it, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your website if your website has been built using WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with your website developer, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while browsing the net late at night and you would like to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Check Below Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the theme templates have not been modified, you will often find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice showing in the footer section …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – site footer)
If the methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Tools That Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a some tools that will tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP
(Is It WP)
Is It WP? is a free online tool that can tell you if a site was built using WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really quite easy. Just paste the URL of the website into the URL field and click the button.
The tool will then go 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 site is not a WP site, 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 – Extension For Firefox & Chrome Browser)
If you use a web browser like Firefox or Chrome and want to be able to tell if the sites that you are visiting are powered by WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful add-on for your browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify what type of 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.”
Wappalyzer is also an easy web browser add-on to install and use.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer, icons will show up in your web browser allowing you to see which software is installed on the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon displays on your browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(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, go here:
I hope that you have found the above information useful.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)