When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the two apart.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and changed everything. Now, it’s getting almost impossible to tell the difference between what applications are being used to build the two. 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.
(Can You Tell Which Application Websites Are 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 maintain the website up-to-date, managing 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 website, but for a tiny fraction of the cost of getting site ”A” above built.
If you picked website “B”, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create an eye-catching website that will typically turn out to be far less expensive to build than websites which use web-building software … and how to tell the two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful and easy-to-use content management tool that is ideally suited for ”non-techy” website owners.
Whether your reason for having a web site is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no programming skills to use, and offers many helpful add-ons that make your web site extremely effective in terms of getting your content published, promoting visitor engagement, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s functionality, 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 the WP CMS.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are thinking of getting one built, then wouldn’t it be great 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 your business quite inexpensively?
Is It A WP Site?
Do you need to know if your website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve read about all of the great advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using the WordPress software, 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 website is running on WordPress:
Search Your Page’s Source Code For WordPress Footprints
If you know how to bring up 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 the web page source code in Firefox)
Let’s say that you are browsing online 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 the words “wp-content” either manually …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to locate “wp-content” within the source code, it does not necessarily mean that the site you’re looking at is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site runs on WordPress, as we will soon be discussing.
As the point of this article is to help non “techies”, however, we have listed below a number of easier ways to check if your site is built with WordPress other than looking at the source code.
Just Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, a number of web development companies, for whatever reason, will build clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you have an existing website and you’re not sure what CMS application was used to build it, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your web site if your website was built with WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your website developer, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while browsing online and you really need to know if it was built with WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WP theme where the theme templates have not been edited, you will often see a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice showing at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – footer)
If the simple methods above aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a website runs on WordPress or not …
Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a couple of tools that will tell you if the website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress? – WP Site Checking Tool
(IsItWP.com)
Is It WP? is a free tool that can check if a website runs on WordPress or not.
Using this site is very easy. Just type in or paste in the address of the website into the search field and click the button.
The tool will then go and search through the URL files and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the web site is not a WordPress site, you will see 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 – Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer – Extension For Firefox & Chrome Web Browser)
If you use either the Firefox or Google Chrome browser and would like to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting are WordPress sites, then Wappalyzer is a great extension for your web browser.
Wappalyzer identifies what 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.”
It’s also an easy web browser add-on to install and use.
After installing Wappalyzer on your browser, icons will display in your web browser identifying which technologies are being used by the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon shows up on your browser menu (as the above screen shot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(This site uses WordPress!)
Go here to visit the website:
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 this information useful.
***
"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group