When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. You could easily tell the difference between the two.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and revolutionized web publishing. Now, it’s becoming almost impossible to tell blogs and websites apart. 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 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 matter to most website owners, like web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the website up-to-date, managing web content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of these options 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 website, but at a tiny fraction of the cost of getting site ”A” above built.
If you chose site ”B” above, then you need to know more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an eye-catching website that will probably turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites which use website-building software … and how to tell these two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s preferred online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful content management system that is ideally suited for most types of business applications.
Whether your reason for having a web site is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no programming skills to use and manage, yet it offers an array of helpful features that make your web site highly effective when it comes to getting your content published, promoting visitor engagement, 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 could also be powered by WordPress.
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 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 for a much smaller cost?
How Can I Tell If My Web Site Was Built With WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve read wonderful things about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on 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 some simple methods you can use to quickly tell if sites are running on WordPress:
Look At The Source Code
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 with WordPress …
(Viewing the web page source code using Firefox)
Suppose that you are browsing online and you come across a web site that you like, and you’re wondering if the site was built using WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the source code, you can search for “wp-content” either by scanning the code …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use the Firefox browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site was built with WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to find “wp-content” in 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 find out if a site was built using WordPress, as we will soon be discussing.
As the point of this post is to try and help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easy methods you can use to check if your site is powered by WordPress other than looking at the source code.
Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, many website 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 you a website, just ask your developer or whoever built your web site if the website was built with WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with the person who built your site, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while surfing the net and you need to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the site theme templates have not been edited, you can typically see a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice displayed in the footer area …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site uses WordPress or not …
Online Tools That Can Tell You If A Website Runs On WordPress
Here are a some online applications that will tell you if a website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com – WordPress Website Checker
(IsItWP.com – WordPress Checking Tool)
Is It WP is a free tool that can check very quickly if a website was built using WordPress or not.
Using this site is super simple. Just type the address of the site into the URL field and click the button next to it.
It will go and search through 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 has not been built using WordPress, you will get a message like the one 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
(Wappalyzer.com)
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 very useful extension to install on your browser.
Wappalyzer tells you what type of 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 a very easy to install and easy to use browser add-on.
After installing Wappalyzer on your web browser, icons will appear in your browser menu, next to the site URL allowing you to see which software is installed on all the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon displays on the browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(This site has been built with WordPress!)
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:
I hope that you have found this information useful.
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