Webpage Evaluation
Evaluating websites
The World Wide Web is a massive collection of information, available to you with the click of a mouse. Around 1.7 billion websites exist! Anyone can make a website. Websites can be designed by extremely knowledgeable experts or any dummy with an Internet connection. Just because it is on the Net does not make it true. How do you know which websites to trust? How can you tell whether a website is accurate or unreliable? This page shows a few methods of evaluating websites so you can weed out the trash from the treasure.
Check the hostname.
The hostname can be found in the address of the website. It consists of a three-letter suffix, usually:
.com
.net
.gov
.org
.edu
The hostname tells you where the site originated. Reliable websites tend to come from trusted government or educational institutions (.gov, .edu). Sites that end with .com or .net are usually commercial, which means they often want to sell you something rather than simply share information with you. Sites that end in .org belong to organizations, which often have a political or social agenda, although their information can often be deemed reliable. When in doubt, check other websites to see if they display the same information.
Check out the author.
A reputable website is written by someone who is considered an expert on the topic.
The author's name should be clearly displayed, as well as this person's credentials.
The site should provide information about the author's educational background and professional experience (usually through a link).
The author should be contactable (e-mail address, phone number, address).
Check out the content.
Does the content seem plausible or believable?
Does the content seem opinionated? Is someone trying to sell an idea or product to you?
Does the site inform you when it was last updated? A reliable website should have up-to-date information with recent updates.
Is the site professionally designed? Does it have broken links, misspelled words or poor layout?
Are additional links provided for further research? Reputable websites should provide them.
Checklist
Use the checklist here in order to evaluate the credibility of websites.
27-22 YES marks: Very credible!
21-19 YES marks: Probably credible.
18-16 YES marks: I'd be skeptical...
Less than 16 YES marks: Probably not credible.
It's your turn!
Below are some websites for you to evaluate. Using the criteria above, determine which of the websites you would use for research and which ones are not so accurate.