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 all this. 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 hood”.
(Can You Tell Which Application Websites Are Built With?)
For website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System application 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 turns out to be significantly less than the cost of getting site ”A” built.
If you went with web site “B”, then you need to know more about WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create an expensive-looking website that could cost far less to build than websites built using traditional web editing applications … and how to tell the 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 local businesses.
Whether your reason for having a website is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no programming skills to use, yet it offers a range of helpful features that make your web presence highly effective when it comes to getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor interaction, 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, yours is also a WordPress site.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are considering 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 to a smaller budget if required?
The Easy Way To Tell If Your Web Site Was Built Using WordPress
Do you need to know if a website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve heard wonderful things about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using WordPress, or some other website 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 a site has been built with WordPress:
Search Your Source Code For TellTale A WordPress Footprint
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 an obvious tell-tale footprint …
(Viewing the page source code in the Firefox web browser)
Suppose that you are browsing online and you visit a website that you like, and you would like to know if the site runs on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the page’s source code, you can search for “wp-content” either manually …
Or using your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you cannot find “wp-content” in the page source code, it does not necessarily mean that the website is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if the site runs on WordPress, as we will soon be discussing.
As the point of this post is to try and help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easier ways to check if your website is powered by WordPress other than looking through the source code.
Simply Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, some web developers, for whatever reason, will build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you used the services of a website developer or got somebody else to build you a website, just ask your web developer or whoever built your site if your web site runs on WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while surfing online and you need to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme where the web them template has not been edited, you can often find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice shown at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress – site footer)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Sites That Can Tell You If A Website Was Built Using WordPress
Here are a some sites that can tell you if a website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP
(Is It WP)
Is It WP? is a free online tool that can tell you very quickly if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this site is really quite simple. Just add the URL of the website into the URL field and click the button next to it.
It will then search through the URL code 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 site was not built using WordPress, you will see a message like the one shown in the screen shot 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 – Extension For Firefox & Chrome Browser
(Wappalyzer)
If you use a browser like Firefox or Chrome and want to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting were built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a useful extension for 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 web browser add-on to install.
After installing Wappalyzer on your browser, icons will show up in your browser, in the URL field identifying which software is installed on the sites you are visiting …
If you see the WordPress icon on your browser menu (as shown in the screen shot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(This is a WordPress site!)
To learn more, 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 that you have found the above the information in this tutorial useful.
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