It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference.
Then WordPress came along and changed all this. Now, it’s becoming 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 many website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System application 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 the majority of website owners are concerned with, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain 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 turns out to be fairly expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking website, but at a cost that turns out to be significantly less than the cost of getting site ”A” above built.
If you decided to go with option “B”, then you need to know more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an attractive, professional-looking and fully functional website that could turn out to be far less expensive to build than websites which are built with website-building software … and how to tell these two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s preferred online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a budget-friendly CMS suitable for ”non-techy” website owners.
Whether your reason for having a web site is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no technical knowledge to use and manage, and offers an array of helpful functions that make your website extremely effective when it comes to getting your content published, promoting visitor engagement, 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 considering 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 a similar site built for your business to a smaller budget if required?
Is It A WordPress Blog?
Do you need to know if a website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve read 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 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 website is powered by WordPress:
Check Your Page Source Code
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 web page source code in Firefox)
Suppose that you are browsing online and you visit a web site that you like, and you would like to know 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 “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to locate “wp-content” in the source code, it doesn’t mean that the site you’re looking at is 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 help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easy methods you can use to check if your site is powered by WordPress other than looking at the source code.
Simply Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the obvious thing to do, a number of web 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 web site and you can’t tell what CMS application was used to build it, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your website if it has been built with WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while browsing the net late at night and you really would like to know if it was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the templates have not been edited, you can often see a “Powered by WordPress” notice displayed at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – site footer section)
If the methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site was built with WordPress or not …
Sites That Can Tell You If A Website Uses WordPress
Here are a some online applications that can tell you if a website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP – WordPress Checker
(Is It WordPress?)
IsItWP.com is a free tool that can tell you very quickly if a website runs on WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really quite easy. Just paste the URL of the site into the URL field and click the button next to it.
The tool will then go and search through the URL code and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress the site is currently using …
If the web site is not powered by WordPress, 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.com
(Wappalyzer – Web Browser Add-On (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 great add-on to install on your web browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify 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.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer on your browser, icons will show up in your browser identifying which software is installed on the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon displays on the browser menu (as the above screen shot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(A WordPress site!)
To learn more and install Wappalyzer go 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, visit the site below:
We hope you have found this information useful.
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