How To Check If A Website Was Built Using WordPress

At its core, WordPress is the simplest and most popular tool used to create websites and blogs. Today, more than 35% of all websites in the world with a known content management system are powered by WordPress and that will no doubt continue to grow.

Since one out of every four websites on the entire internet is developed with WordPress, it’s likely you’ve come across a great website design and wondered if it in fact was built using WordPress.

If you are looking through websites for ideas for your own website or any other reason, it would be handy to know how to check whether a website was built using WordPress right? Well that’s why we’ve assembled five easy ways to identify a WordPress website.

1) Check for the “Powered by WordPress” Text in the Footer

The easiest way of identifying a WordPress website is to look for the “Powered by WordPress” text at the very bottom of the page.

Every website that is built with WordPress has the ‘Powered by WordPress’ credit in the footer by default, but if the website you’re looking at does not, it doesn’t mean it’s not powered by WordPress.

While most websites that use WordPress don’t hide it, many may choose to replace the credit with their own company name or remove it altogether. If there is no ‘Powered by WordPress’ credit in the footer, below are more ways to check if a website was built using WP.

2) Add /WP-Admin to the Domain Name

Every WordPress website has its own login page where the website’s administrators log in to the WP platform.

The login page is always hidden to users on the frontend, but to access it you just need to add “/wp-admin” to the website’s domain.

To do this, simply go to the website’s homepage and type /wp-admin directly after the domain and hit “enter” on your keyboard. If after doing this you are redirected to a WordPress login page, then the site is powered by WP.

If not, you will get a message along the lines of “Page Not Found.”

3) Search the Sites Source Code for WordPress Elements

Luckily, you don’t have to be a programmer or developer to determine if a website was built with WordPress through its source code. All you have to do to search a website’s source code for WP elements.

To do this, simply right-click on any part of the website then click “View Source,” which brings up the source code script.

Once there, pull up your text-search tool and type in either “WordPress” or “wp-content” and hit “enter” on your keyboard. If either of those keywords comes up in the highlighted text, you’ll know the site is powered by WordPress.

You can see a quick reference on how to check these in the most popular browsers below:

Google Chrome, go to View > Developer > View Source.

Safari, go to Develop > Show Web Inspector.

Firefox, go to Tools > Web Developer > Page Source.

Internet Explorer / Edge, go to View > Source > Debugger.

4) Use an Online Tool

If you prefer the copy and paste approach, you can use an online tool such as Built With or IsItWP to check if a website was built with WordPress.

To get started, go to the homepage of the website in question and simply copy it’s domain.

Next, go to your preferred online tool’s website and paste the domain into the search bar and hit “Lookup”.

The tool will then tell you if the website is using WordPress or not, as well as other useful behind the scenes information.

5) Use a Browser Extension

Browser extensions work similarly to the online tools mentioned above, without the hassle of repetitive work and are very simple to install. If you regularly need to check for WP sites, then this is the tool for you.

You can install different extensions depending on your browser. If you’re using Google Chrome, install Library Sniffer by clicking “Add to Chrome.” For FireFox, install Built With by clicking “download.” Once the extensions are installed, they will pop up next to the search bar at the very top of the browser you’re using.

All you do next is go to the website you want to check and look at what pops up in place of the extension icon. If the website is powered by WordPress, a little ‘W’ icon will pop up next to the website’s domain.

If you’re unsure of the identity of the icon, just move your mouse over the icon and the CMS’s name will appear.

Conclusion

You may have different reasons for wanting to check a website’s CMS, but whatever the reason, you now know how to do just that and will do it with ease. Found the method you liked best? Tell us about it in the comment section below.

Categorised in: Wordpress

This post was written by David Boustead