Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the difference.
Then WordPress came along and changed everything. Now, it’s becoming almost impossible to tell if a site is running on a “blogging” content management system (CMS) like the WP platform, or if it’s been developed using a web building software application. 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 surface.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System application 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 maintain the site 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 quite expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but at a fraction of the cost of getting site “A” above.
If you picked website “B”, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create a professional-looking website that could 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 leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful CMS that is ideally suited for small, medium and even large businesses.
Whether your reason for having an online presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no programming skills to use, and offers many helpful functions that make your web site more effective in terms of getting your content published, promoting visitor interaction, 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, your site is probably powered by WordPress too.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are considering 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 to a smaller budget if required?
Does My Site Run On WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard or read about all of the great benefits of using 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 ways to tell if sites are built using WordPress:
View The Page 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 telltale footprints that the site was built using WordPress …
(View your page source code using the Firefox web browser)
Let’s say that you are surfing the web and you come across a site that you like, and you wonder if the site runs on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
Once the source code of the page loads on your screen, you can search for the words “wp-content” either manually …
Or using the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to find the words “wp-content” in the page source code, it does not mean that the site you’re looking at is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site runs on WordPress, as we will soon discuss.
As the point of this article is to help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easier methods you can use to check if your site is built with WordPress other than searching through the source code.
Simply Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, many website developers, for whatever reason, may build their clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you have an existing website and you’re not sure what application was used to build it, just ask your developer or whoever built your site if your website was built using WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while browsing the net and you really need to know if it was built using WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WP theme where the theme templates have not been edited, you can often find a “Powered by WordPress” notice showing at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress)
If the simple methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Online Tools That Can 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 – WordPress Site Checking Tool
(IsItWP.com – WordPress Website Checking Tool)
Is It WordPress? is a free tool that tells you if a website was built with WordPress or not.
Using this site is really quite easy. Just paste the address of the site into the search field and click the button next to it.
The tool will search through the URL pages 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 a WP site, you will get a message like the one shown in the screenshot 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 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 – Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer.com)
If you use a browser like Firefox or Chrome and want to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting have been built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful extension to install on your browser.
Wappalyzer tells you what software is installed in the sites you are visiting.
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.”
Wappalyzer is also an easy browser add-on to install.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer on your browser, icons will display in your browser allowing you to see which technologies are installed on the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon displayed on your browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This website uses WordPress!)
Visit the Wappalyzer extension website 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:
I hope that you have found the above the information in this tutorial useful.
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