Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference between the two.
Then WordPress 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 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 many website owners are deeply concerned with, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep 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 is expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking website, but for a tiny 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 stunning website that could turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites which are built using traditional web editor tools … 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 CMS suitable 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 newbie with no technical knowledge to use, yet it offers many helpful functions that make your website highly effective in terms of 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, yours is also a WordPress site.
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 a similar site built for your business to a smaller budget if required?
Is My Website Built Using WordPress? How To Tell
Do you need to know if your website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site 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 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 using WordPress:
View The Page Source Code
If you know how to search 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 with WordPress …
(Viewing web page source code in Firefox)
Suppose that you are browsing online and you come across a site 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.
Once the source code of the page loads on your screen, you can search for words like “wp-content” either manually …
Or using the browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to see “wp-content” within the page source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are not looking at a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site was built using the WordPress software, as we will soon see.
As the focus of this article is to help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easier methods you can use to check if your web site is built with WordPress other than searching the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the obvious thing to do, many web development companies, for whatever reason, may build clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you have an existing web site and you’re not sure what CMS application is driving it, just ask your developer or whoever built your website if your web 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 website that you really like while browsing the net and you need to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme and the site templates have not been edited, you can often find a “Powered by WordPress” notice shown below the footer section …
(Powered by WordPress – footer)
If these simple methods haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site runs on WordPress or not …
Tools That Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a couple of online applications that will tell you if the website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com
(Is It WP)
IsItWP.com is a free tool that can tell you very quickly if a site was built using WordPress or not.
Using this site is really easy. Just type the address of the site into the search field and click the button next to it.
The tool will go through the page code on the URL and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the site is not a WordPress-powered site, you will see a message similar to 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 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 – Add-On For Firefox / Chrome Web Browser
(Wappalyzer – Web Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome))
If you use either the Firefox or Chrome web browser and would like to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting use WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a great add-on to install on your browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify what type of software is installed on 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 to install and easy to use browser extension.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer on your web browser, icons will show up in your web browser menu identifying which technologies are being used by the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon displayed on the browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(This is a WordPress site!)
To visit the Wappalyzer web browser extension website, 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, 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 tutorial useful.
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