When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the two apart.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and changed everything. Now, it’s getting harder 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 kind 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 CMS tool like WordPress and other website-building tools 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, 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 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 site ”B” above, then you need to know more about WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an eye-catching website that could cost far less to build than websites built using website-building software … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s preferred online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful content management system that is ideally suited for all types of businesses.
Whether your reason for having a web site is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no technical knowledge to use and manage, yet it offers a range of helpful functions that make your website more effective when it comes to getting your content published and indexed by search engines, 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 could also be powered 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 for a much smaller cost?
Is Your Site Powered By WordPress?
Do you need to know if your website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve read about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using WordPress, or some other content management system.
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 with WordPress:
Look At The Source Code
If you know how to view 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 …
(How to view your web 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 uses 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 scanning the code visually …
Or using your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not find the words “wp-content” in the source code, it doesn’t necessarily 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 be discussing.
As the focus of this post is to help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easy methods you can use to check if your website is built using WordPress other than looking at the source code.
Simply Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, a number of website development companies, for whatever reason, may build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you have an existing website and you can’t tell what application was used to build it, just ask your web developer or whoever built your site if your site has been built using WordPress.
That was easy, 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 and you want to know if it was built with WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WP theme where the web them template has not been edited, you can typically find a “Powered by WordPress” notice shown below the footer section …
(Powered by WordPress)
If the simple methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Tools That Tell You If A Website Uses WordPress
Here are a some sites that will tell you if the website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com – WordPress Website Checking Tool
(Is It WordPress? – WP Site Checker)
Is It WP? is a free online tool that tells you if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this site is very simple. Just enter the address of the website into the search field and click the button next to it.
The tool will then search through the URL code and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you the version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the site was not built using WordPress, you will get a message like the one shown 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
(Wappalyzer – Add-On For Firefox & Chrome Web Browser)
If you use a browser such as Firefox or Google Chrome and want to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting use WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a great add-on to install on your browser.
Wappalyzer identifies what type of 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.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer on your browser, icons will display in your browser, in the URL field identifying which software is installed on all the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon shows up on your browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(A WordPress site!)
To learn more, 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, go here:
We hope you have found the above tutorial 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)