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 WordPress came along and changed all this. Now, it’s getting almost impossible to tell if the website is running on a “blogging” CMS software application like the WP CMS, or if it’s been built using web-building software. 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’s under the surface.
(Can You Tell Which Application Websites Are Built With?)
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, regarding 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 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 at a much cheaper cost than the cost of getting option “A” above.
If you picked website “B”, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can provide you with an attractive, professional-looking and fully functional website that will typically end up costing you far less to build than websites built using a website development tool … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful and easy-to-use CMS that is ideally suited for local businesses.
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 programming skills to use, and offers many helpful tools that make your website more effective when it comes to getting your content published and indexed by search engines, 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 quite inexpensively?
Is It A WP Website?
Do you need to know if a website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve heard or read about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on 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 a number of methods you can use to quickly tell if a website is running on WordPress:
Look At Your Source Code
If you know how to check 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 …
(How to view page source code in the Firefox browser)
Let’s say that you are browsing online and you visit a website that you like, and you’re wondering if the site uses 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 the words “wp-content” either by scanning the code visually …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site was built using WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to find “wp-content” in the page source code, it does not necessarily mean that it’s not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to tell if a site was built using WordPress, as we will soon discuss.
As the point of this post is to try and help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easy methods you can use to check if your website is powered by WordPress other than scanning the source code.
Simply Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, a number of web developers, for whatever reason, may build clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you hired a website developer or got somebody else to build your website, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your site if your web site was built using WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with your website developer, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while browsing online and you would like to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WP theme and the site templates have not been customized, you will typically see a “Powered by WordPress” message showing in the footer section of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – footer)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site runs on WordPress or not …
Sites That Tell You If A Website Uses WordPress
Here are a couple of online applications that will tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP – WordPress Website Checking Tool
(Is It WP – WP Checking Tool)
Is It WP? is a free tool that can check very quickly if a website uses WordPress or not.
Using this tool is very simple. Just enter the URL of the site into the search field and click the button.
The tool will go and search through the site code and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the site does not run on WordPress, you will see a message similar to 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 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 – Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome))
If you browse the net using either the Firefox or Chrome web browsers and want to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting are powered by WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a great add-on to add to your 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.”
Wappalyzer is also very easy to install.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer, icons will display in your browser, next to the site URL identifying which technologies are being used by the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon displays on the browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(It’s a WordPress site!)
Visit the Wappalyzer browser add-on website 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, 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, visit the site below:
I hope that you have found this the information in this tutorial useful.
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