It used to be that blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference between the two.
Then WordPress came along and everything changed. Now, it’s becoming more and 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’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 CMS 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, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep 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 site, but at a tiny fraction of the cost of getting option ”A”.
If you selected web site ”B” above, then you need to know more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that could end up costing you far less to build than websites built using traditional web editing applications … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful CMS suitable for businesses on a budget.
Whether your reason for having a web site is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no knowledge of HTML to use and manage, yet it offers a range of helpful features that make your web presence extremely 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 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 thinking of 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?
How Can I Check If My Website Was Built Using WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve heard about WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using 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 sites are built with WordPress:
Search The Source Code For TellTale 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 obvious tell-tale footprints that the site was built using WordPress …
(View your page source code in the Firefox web browser)
Let’s say that you are surfing the web and you come across a site 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.
After the source code of the page loads on your screen, search for “wp-content” either by scanning the code visually …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Using the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to find “wp-content” in the page source code, it does not necessarily mean that you are not looking at a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site runs on the WordPress software, as we will soon discuss.
As the point of this post is to try and help non “techies”, however, below you will find a number of easier methods you can use to check if your site is built with WordPress other than searching the source code.
Just Ask Your Website Developer
While this may seem like the most logical thing to do, many website developers, for whatever reason, will build their clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you have an existing web site and you can’t tell what application was used to build it, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your site if it was built with 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 the net late at night and you really would like to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Powered By WordPress
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the them template has not been modified, you can often find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” message showing below the footer section of the site …
(Powered by WordPress – footer section)
If the simple methods above 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 Is Built With WordPress
Here are a some sites that will tell you if your website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
IsItWP.com
(Is It WordPress?)
Is It WordPress? is a free online tool that can tell you if a site was built with WordPress or not.
Using this site is really simple. Just add the address of the site into the URL field and click the button.
It will then go and search through the URL pages and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you the version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the site is not a WP site, you will see a message similar to the one below …
To visit this site, 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 – Add-On For Firefox & Chrome Web Browser
(Wappalyzer – Add-On For Firefox & Chrome Browser)
If you use a web browser such as Firefox or Chrome and would like to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting have been built using WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a useful add-on for your web browser.
Wappalyzer tells you what type of 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.”
It’s also a very easy web browser extension to install.
After installing Wappalyzer, icons will appear in your browser menu, next to the site URL identifying which technologies are installed on all the sites you visit …
If the WordPress icon displays on the browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site has been built with WordPress.
(It’s a WordPress site!)
Go here to visit the website:
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:
We hope that you have found the above information useful.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum