When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the difference.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and changed all this. Now, it’s becoming harder to tell blogs and websites apart. 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.
(Can You Tell Which Application Your Website Is Powered By?)
For many 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 matter to most website owners, like 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 turns out to be quite expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking website, but at a cost that is significantly less than the cost of getting option “A” above.
If you chose site ”B” above, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create an expensive-looking website that could cost far less to build than websites built using other web editing applications … 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 flexible and powerful CMS suitable for businesses on a budget.
Whether your reason for having a web site is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no knowledge of coding to use, yet it offers many helpful tools that make your web site highly effective in terms of getting your content published, promoting visitor engagement, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s functionality, 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 a website built, then wouldn’t it be great 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 your business quite inexpensively?
Is It A WordPress Web Site?
Do you need to know if a website was built using 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 ways to tell if sites are built using WordPress:
View The 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 with WordPress …
(Viewing page source code using the Firefox browser)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you visit a website 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.
In the page’s source code, search for the words “wp-content” either manually …
Or using the 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 see “wp-content” within the page source code, it does not mean that you are not looking at a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if the site runs on the WordPress software, as we will soon be discussing.
As the focus of this article is to try and help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easier ways to check if your website is built with WordPress other than looking at the source code.
Simply Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, many web development companies, for whatever reason, will build their clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you hired a website developer or got somebody else to build you a website, just ask your web developer or whoever built your website if your web site has been built with WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with the person who built your website, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while browsing online and want to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the templates have not been modified, you can often find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice showing at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – footer section)
If these simple methods 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 couple of tools that will tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com – WordPress Checking Tool
(Is It WP – WP Site Checker)
Is It WP is a free tool that can check very quickly if a site was built using WordPress or not.
Using this tool is very simple. Just type the URL of the website into the URL field and click the button.
It will then go through the URL code and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the web site is not a WP site, you will get a message like 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.com
(Wappalyzer – Extension For Firefox / Chrome Browser)
If you use a browser such as Firefox or Chrome and want to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting use WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful add-on for your browser.
Wappalyzer identifies 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 a very easy browser add-on to install.
After installing Wappalyzer, icons will display in your web browser identifying which software is being used by the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon displayed on your browser menu (as the above screen shot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(It’s a WordPress site!)
To visit the Wappalyzer web browser add-on site, 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 that you have found this information useful.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum