Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the two apart.
Then WordPress came along and changed all this. Now, it’s getting increasingly more difficult to tell if a site is running on “blogging” applications like the WordPress CMS, or if it’s been created using a traditional website development 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’s under the surface.
(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, regarding the areas that matter to most website owners, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the website up-to-date, managing web 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 site, but at a cost that turns out to be significantly less than the cost of getting option ”A” above built.
If you decided to go with website ”B” above, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create an eye-catching website that could end up costing you far less to build than websites built using a web development tool … and how to tell the two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful and easy-to-use CMS application that is ideally suited for most types of business applications.
Whether your reason for having a website is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no web design skills to use and manage, yet it offers many helpful tools that make your web presence extremely 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 functionality, 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 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 for a much smaller cost?
Is My Website WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard or read wonderful things about all of the great advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on the WordPress software, 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:
View The 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 tell-tale footprints that the site was built using WordPress …
(Viewing your 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 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 manually …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not see “wp-content” in the page source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if the site was built using the WordPress software, as we will soon discuss.
As the focus of this article is to try and help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easier methods you can use to check if your website is powered by WordPress other than searching through the source code.
Just Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, some web development companies, 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 your website, just ask your web developer or whoever built your site if it was built with WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with the person who looks after your website, 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 with WordPress?
Check Below Footer
If the site uses a WP theme where the site them template has not been customized, you can often find a “Powered by WordPress” notice showing at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress – site footer)
If these simple methods haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site was built with WordPress or not …
Tools That Tell You If A Website Uses WordPress
Here are a couple of tools that can tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress?
(Is It WP)
Is It WP? is a free online tool that can tell you very quickly if a website uses WordPress or not.
Using this site is really quite simple. Just type the address of the site into the URL field and click the button next to it.
It 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 web site is not a WordPress web site or blog, you will see 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
(Wappalyzer – Web Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome))
If you browse the net using either the Firefox or Google Chrome browsers and would like to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting are powered by WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a useful extension for your web browser.
Wappalyzer tells you what software is installed in 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.
After installing Wappalyzer, icons will display in your browser identifying which technologies are installed on all the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon on the browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(This is a WordPress site!)
Go here to learn more and install Wappalyzer:
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 this tutorial useful.
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