When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference.
Then WordPress came along and revolutionized web publishing. Now, it’s getting harder to tell if the website is being powered by a “blogging” content management system (CMS) like WordPress, or if it’s been built using some other web editor tool. 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 website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System tool 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 things that matter to most website owners, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the website 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 at a cost that is significantly less than the cost of getting site “A” above.
If you picked site ”B” above, then you need to know more about WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with a stunning website that could end up costing you far less to build than websites which use web-building software … and how to tell the two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s most used online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful CMS that is ideally suited for all businesses and non-technical users.
Whether your reason for having a website or blog is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no web design skills to use, and offers an array of helpful features 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 currently 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 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 something similarly built for a much smaller cost?
How To Check If A Site Is A WordPress Website
Do you need to know if a website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve read or heard wonderful things about all of the great benefits 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 methods you can use to quickly tell if sites are built using WordPress:
Search Your Source Code
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 using WordPress …
(View the page source code in Firefox)
Let’s say that you are surfing the web and you visit a web site that you like, and you wonder if the site was built on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
After the source code of the site loads on your screen, search for the words “wp-content” either by scanning the code with your eyes …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not locate “wp-content” in the source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that this is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if the site was built using WordPress, as we will soon see.
As the focus of this post is to try and help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easy ways to check if your site is built using WordPress other than looking through the source code.
Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, a number of web developers, for whatever reason, will build clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you paid a website developer or got somebody else to build your website, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your site if the web site has been built using WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with the person who looks after your site, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while browsing the net late at night and want to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the theme templates have not been modified, you will often see a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice shown below the footer section …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a website was built using WordPress or not …
Sites That Can Tell You If A Website Is Built With WordPress
Here are a some tools that will tell you if a website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com
(Is It WP – WP Checking Tool)
Is It WP is a free online tool that can tell you if a website uses WordPress or not.
Using this tool is really easy. Just type the URL of the website into the search field and click the button.
The tool will go through the URL code 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-driven web site or blog, you will see 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.com
(Wappalyzer.com)
If you use either the Firefox or Google Chrome web browser and want to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting are WordPress sites, then Wappalyzer is a very useful extension to install on your web browser.
Wappalyzer tells you 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.”
Wappalyzer is also a very easy add-on to install.
After installing Wappalyzer, icons will display in your web browser menu allowing you to see which software is installed on all the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon displays on the browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(It’s a WordPress site!)
Go here to learn more:
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 that you have found the above the information in this tutorial useful.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now