Determining if a site is built on WordPress

[kurtm]

Is there any way to tell if a site is generated by WordPress by looking at the source of the resulting pages? I have a client who wants to move their hosting and email to me and I’m trying to figure out if the site is currently using WordPress. The client has no idea and we don’t want to tip off the current host until they are ready to pull the site due to some ongoing problems. There is no blogging component to the site, but all the pages are PHP which is what makes me suspect it might be WordPress.

[rainemaida]

put /wp-admin/ after the URL to see if there’s a login page or look in the source code for anything wordpressy.

[TeMc]

If you don’t have access via FTP:

* Look in the source-code and see if you see one or more of the following lines (or something alike)

Code:

http://yourwebsite.net/wp-includes

* Anything in the source-code at all that refers to "wp-content" or "wp-includes"

* Try access http://yourwebsite.nl/wp-admin and check if it’s a 404 Error, or an actuall login screen

=> None of these are a garuantee of it NOT being wordpress, since they can be cloaked (tho the latter one is a bit hard).

If you do have access via FTP:

.. then it’s pretty easy

* Check for any files or folders at all that start with "wp-". for example the folder "wp-includes", or the file "wp-config.php"

[kurtm]

I’d already tried the /wp-admin/ and looked through the source for references to WP. Just wanted to make sure there wasn’t some other kind of tip off. Doesn’t appear to be WP.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[AshtonSanders]

Wow. That’s a pretty impressive list of possibilities.

As of right now, I’m pretty sure there’s no real way to move the wp-admin/ so checking for that should pretty confirm one way or the other. (I had a friend who tried to do it for 2.7 and decided it was impossible.)

[AshtonSanders]

Good point.

They could still have the wordpress installation be in the root directory using the WP location settings, right? I’ve seen the settings but never actually used it.

[JaredAM]

I use the Backend Firefox plugin: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10493 It’s experimental but useful.

[mattvot]

could you ask the client how he changes the site’s content?

[Author]

Posts