It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and changed everything. Now, it’s becoming almost impossible 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 CMS 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 matter to most website owners, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the site up-to-date, managing web content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of the following options would you choose?
A) An eye-catching, professional-looking website that is expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking website, but at a fraction of the cost of getting option ”A” built.
If you went with option “B”, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create an eye-catching website that could cost far less to build than websites built using a website building application … 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 powerful CMS that is ideally suited for most types of business applications.
Whether your reason for having a digital presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no technical skills to use and manage, yet it offers a range of helpful extensions that make your web site highly effective when it comes to getting your content published, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, 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 one 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 Your Web Site Powered By WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve heard about all of the great advantages of using 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 a site has been built with WordPress:
Check Your Page’s Source Code For TellTale WordPress Footprints
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 a telltale footprint that the site was built with WordPress …
(Viewing web page source code using Firefox)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you come across a site 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.
After the source code of the page loads on your screen, you can search for words like “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or using the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site was built using WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not find “wp-content” within the source code, it does not necessarily mean that it’s not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site runs on WordPress, as we will soon see.
As the point of this article is to try and help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easy ways to check if your website is built using WordPress other than searching the source code.
Just Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, many web developers, for whatever reason, may build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you have an existing web site and you can’t tell what CMS application is driving it, just ask your developer or whoever built your website if your site runs on 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 site that you really like while surfing online and need to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the template has not been customized, you will typically see a “Powered by WordPress” notice shown at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress)
If the simple methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site uses WordPress or not …
Tools That Tell You If A Website Uses WordPress
Here are a some sites that can tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com
(Is It WP – WP Website Checking Tool)
Is It WP? is a free tool that can tell you very quickly if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really easy. Just add the address of the website into the URL field and click the button.
The tool will go and search through the site code and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you which version of WordPress the site is currently using …
If the site is not powered by WordPress, you will get a message similar to 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 – Web Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer.com)
If you use a browser like Firefox or Chrome and want to be able to tell if the sites that you are visiting use WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful extension to install on 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 web browser add-on.
Once you have installed the Wappalyzer add-on on your browser, icons will show up in your browser menu allowing you to see which technologies are being used by all the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon displayed on the browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This site is built using WordPress!)
Visit the site 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, 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, visit the site below:
We hope that you have found the above the information in this tutorial 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