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 changed everything. Now, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to tell blogs and websites apart. Not so much in terms of what the sites are being used for, but in terms of website design and also being able to tell what type of web application is actually powering the site.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For website owners, understanding the difference between a CMS 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, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the site up-to-date, managing web content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of the options below would you choose?
A) An eye-catching, professional-looking website that turns out to be fairly expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking website, but for a tiny fraction of the cost of getting option ”A” built.
If you picked site ”B” above, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can give you a professional-looking website that will usually cost far less to build than websites built with a web development application … 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 flexible and powerful content management application suitable for businesses on a budget.
Whether your reason for having a website or blog is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no knowledge of HTML to use, and offers an array of helpful features that make your website more effective when it comes to getting your content published and indexed by search engines, 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, 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 quite inexpensively?
Is Your Site Powered By WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website was built using WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve heard or read 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 a number of methods you can use to quickly tell if a web site is running on WordPress:
Look At 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 tell-tale footprints that the site was built with WordPress …
(View the web page source code in the Firefox browser)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you come across 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.
Once the source code of the site loads on your screen, you can search for words like “wp-content” either by visually scanning the code …
Or using the 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 cannot locate the words “wp-content” within the page source code, it does not 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 discuss.
As the point of this article is to try and help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easy ways to check if your website is built with WordPress other than scanning the source code.
Just Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, many website developers, for whatever reason, may build clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you used a website developer or got somebody else to build your website, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your website if your web site runs on WordPress.
That was easy, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach the person who built your website, 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 using WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WP theme where the site theme templates have not been modified, you will typically find a “Powered by WordPress” notice displayed at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of identifying WordPress sites …
Tools That Tell You If A Website Has Been Built With 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 WP
(IsItWP.com)
Is It WordPress? is a free online tool that can check if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this site is super easy. Just paste the URL of the website into the URL field and click the button next to it.
It will go through the URL 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 does not run on WordPress, you will see a message like the one shown in the screenshot 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 Browser
(Wappalyzer – Web Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome))
If you browse the net using either Firefox or Chrome and would like to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting were built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a great add-on for your web browser.
Wappalyzer identifies what type of software is installed on 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.”
It’s also an easy extension to install and use.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer, icons will appear in your browser allowing you to see which software is being used by the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon shows up on your browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(A WordPress site!)
Visit the site 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 tutorial useful.
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