When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell blogs and websites apart.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and revolutionized online publishing. Now, it’s getting more and 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 website 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, regarding the areas that many website owners care most about, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the site 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 is actually expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking website, but for a fraction of the cost of getting site “A” above.
If you chose site “B”, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with a professional-looking website that will normally end up costing you far less to build than websites built using other website editing applications … and how to tell these two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful content management tool suitable for all types of businesses.
Whether your reason for having a website is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no programming skills to use, and offers a range of helpful features that make your web presence more effective when it comes to getting your content published, promoting visitor engagement, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s capabilities, 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, your site is also driven by WordPress.
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 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 quite inexpensively?
Is It A WordPress Site?
Do you need to know if your website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard or read wonderful things about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using WordPress, 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 a number of methods you can use to quickly tell if sites are powered WordPress:
Search Your Source Code For WordPress Footprints
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 an obvious telltale footprint that the site was built using WordPress …
(How to view your page source code in Firefox)
Let’s say that you are surfing the web and you visit a website that you like, and you would like to know if the site was built with WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
Once the source code of the site loads on your screen, search for the words “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site was built using WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot find “wp-content” within 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 WordPress, as we will soon see.
As the point of this article is to help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easier ways to check if your site is built using WordPress other than viewing the source code.
Simply Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, many web development companies, for whatever reason, will build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you have an existing website and you can’t tell what CMS application is driving it, just ask your web developer or whoever built your site if your web site has been built with WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach the person who built your website, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while browsing online and you really would like to know if it was built with WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WP theme and the templates have not been modified, you will typically see a “Powered by WordPress” message displayed in the footer area …
(Powered by WordPress – site footer area)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a website runs on WordPress or not …
Tools That Tell You If A Website Is Built With WordPress
Here are a some tools that can tell you if a website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com – WP Site Checking Tool
(Is It WordPress? – WP Site Checking Tool)
IsItWP.com is a free tool that can tell you very quickly if a website runs on WordPress or not.
Using this site is really easy. Just type the address of the website into the URL field and click the button next to it.
It will go and search through the URL and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress the site is currently using …
If the site does not run on 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 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 – Web Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer)
If you browse the net using either Firefox or Chrome and want to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting are powered by WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a great extension to add to your web 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 an easy to install and easy to use browser add-on.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer, icons will appear in your web browser menu, in the URL field identifying which technologies are being used by all the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon showing on the browser menu (as the above screen shot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(This site uses WordPress!)
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:
We hope you have found the above the information in this tutorial 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