Whenever someone contacts me looking for a new website, general edits, or new features to be added to their current, existing website, one of the first things I do is look to see what software their current website is using. If you’re like me and need to know how to tell if a site is WordPress, then this might be helpful to you.
Over the years, I’ve found some very helpful ways to figure out if a site is using WordPress and can do it really fast. I’m a coder so I can look at the code and tell you almost instantly, but not everyone knows how to read code.
Why would you need to know if it’s WordPress?
Knowing how or what was used to build a website is super important should you need changes. It’s actually one of the most important things. Because there are so many systems out there, not everyone can be familiar with all of them. Just like there are many types of transportation – cars, planes, or trains – you wouldn’t hire a car mechanic to fix your plane. Just like you wouldn’t hire a Shopify expert to work on your WordPress/Woocommerce website.
You want to hire the right WordPress designers for the job, and that’s starts with knowing what kind of expert is needed.
If you’re the expert (like me), I’d need to know if the website is using the software I’m an expert in. It’s always a bummer when a potential client’s website is coded in some outdated or completely different system. The only real thing I can offer is a new website, which many people wouldn’t want to do. A lot do though – WordPress really is that good that people will completely scrap what they have to get on this system.
Why would people try to hide that it’s WordPress?
There are a few good reasons that someone would want to hide that their website is made with WordPress. The best one that I can think of is to hide it from hackers. WordPress powers a huge portion of the internet, which makes it attractive to hackers who want to exploit anything they can. If they were able to find a vulnerability, they would have access to MILLIONS of websites.
If you’re able to hide that you’re on WordPress, that would prevent hackers from even trying to get into your website. They’d just pass right by it.
We rarely come across websites that have it hidden, though. In general, only some things can be hidden but the most obvious signs can’t be hidden so a lot of it is moot.
How to tell if a site is WordPress
1. Let this website tell you!
I use https://builtwith.com/ whenever I’m not sure what a website is made with. It also tells you a bunch of other stuff like server information and a lot of other things. I’ve never seen it incorrectly identify something, so I’m pretty sure it’ll never falsely identify WordPress or not.
2. Check the code
There are a few tell-tale signs of WordPress in the code. To check the code, view the source of the page and look for some of the following things using the search functionality of your browser:
- ‘wp-content’ – WordPress’ content folder
- ‘wp-includes’ – WordPress’ important files
- ‘plugins’ – Plugins is generally going to be a WordPress word
3. Check for certain pages
There are system pages that all WordPress websites have. If you go to the URLs for them and they work, then it’s WordPress! Keep in mind, if the pages don’t work, that doesn’t mean it’s not WordPress. You are able to change these URLs if you’re really trying to hide it. All you have to do is put these on to the end of the website: E.G. nerdywp.com/wp-admin
- /wp-admin
- /wp-login.php
