How Should a User Check the Credibility of a Website?
Users of a website can check the credibility of the site by looking at the author of the site, the date the site was published, the company that designed the site, the sources of the site, the domain of the site and the writing style that is used for the site. Most credible sites will be written in plain English by an identifiable author.
An author that does not have a formal name or goes by a screen name may not be a credible author. If the author does not use proper spelling and grammar procedures, the author may not edit the website properly, if at all. If the website is out of date, has not been updated for many years or has no date listed on it, there is a chance that it might not be credible. Many sites that are credible have a .org or .net domain name. This ensures that the author or the creator of the site is using a paid domain and is not simply writing from a free platform. Sites that include .edu or .gov in their name are usually always credible because they are property of a government agency or an educational institution. Most of these credible websites will also list sources that show where the information contained on the website came from.
