Evaluating websites requires paying attention to particular details, such as:
- Appearance of site - Does it have a professional look and feel?
- Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is the address of a specific location on the web. It is often referred to as the "web address". Websites may include these Top-Level Domains (TLDs)/domain extensions (part of URL):
.gov - For government use.
.edu - Educational
.org - Organization or Individual - Advocacy
.com - Business or Commercial - in the United Kingdom, .co.uk is used.
.net - Network providers
.biz - Business
.info - Informational
- Are there advertisements on the site? This may introduce a for-profit component that can diminish credibility, depending on the topic.
- Do the links on the site work? Check the links. Broken links can indicate lack of attention to site currency and accuracy.
- Check when site was last updated. This can provide indications of currency and accuracy.
