It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference.
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 website 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 tools is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, in terms of the areas that the majority of website owners are concerned with, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the website 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 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 built.
If you went with website ”B” above, then you need to know more about WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that will typically end up costing you far less to build than websites which use a web building application … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful CMS that is ideally suited for most types of business applications.
Whether your reason for having an online presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a beginner with no technical skills to use and manage, yet it offers many helpful functions that make your web presence more effective in terms of getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s capabilities, 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, 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 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 to a smaller budget if required?
Is My Web Site WordPress?
Do you need to know if your website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to this page because you’ve read wonderful things about all of the great advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on 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 methods you can use to quickly tell if a website is powered by WordPress:
Check The Source Code For WordPress Footprints
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 an obvious tell-tale footprint that the site was built with WordPress …
(Viewing web page source code using Firefox)
Suppose that you are surfing the web and you visit a web site that you like, and you wonder if the site uses WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the page’s source code, search for “wp-content” either by scanning the code with your eyes …
Or using your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will quickly tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not see “wp-content” in the source code, it does not mean that the website is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if the site was built using the WordPress software, as we will soon see.
As the point of this post is to help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easy methods you can use to check if your website is built using WordPress other than searching through the source code.
Just Ask Your Web Developer
While this may seem like the obvious thing to do, some web development companies, for whatever reason, may build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you employed the services of a website developer or got somebody else to build you a website, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your web site if your website 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 website that you really like while browsing the net and would like to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the site templates have not been edited, you can typically find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice shown below the footer section of the site …
(Powered by WordPress)
If these simple methods haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a website runs on WordPress or not …
Online Tools That Tell You If A Website Has Been Built With WordPress
Here are a some online applications that can tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress?
(Is It WordPress? – WordPress Checking Tool)
Is It WP? is a free online tool that can check if a website uses WordPress or not.
Using this site is really easy. Just add the address of the site into the URL field and click the button.
It 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 web site does not run on WordPress, you will see 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.com
(Wappalyzer.com)
If you use a web browser like Firefox or Chrome and want to be able to see if the sites that you are visiting have been built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful extension to add to 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.”
It’s also an easy web browser add-on to install and use.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer on your web browser, icons will display in your web browser allowing you to see which technologies are installed on all the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon shows up on your browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(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, 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:
I hope that you have found this the information in this tutorial useful.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)