Criteria for Web Site Evaluation

Determine the Web site’s relevance and reliability by asking yourself the following questions.

What does the URL tell you about the Web site? 
You can often tell what kind of organization is providing the information by looking at the domain name of the web site address. Common domain types include: edu (educational), org (organization) and com (commercial). You can generally trust educational or government websites. In Google, you can limit your search to a particular domain. For example, to limit a search on abortion to educational sites only, type the following: abortion and site:edu.

Who is the author?  What are his/her qualifications?
Are the author’s credentials given on the site?  If not, you may need to check biographical sources to identify the author.

If there is no individual identified as author, who is responsible for the information?
Find out something about the site’s sponsor by going to its home page or by looking up the organization in a source such as Gale Group’s Associations Unlimited.

Is the material presented in an objective manner?
Does the author or sponsor show prejudice or have a particular bias?

What is the purpose of the site?
Is the purpose to educate, entertain, or sell?

Are you able to tell whether or not the information is current?
Sometimes, information is not recent because the web site has not been updated for years. In some situations, such as historical or critical research, timeliness might not be too important.

Is the information accurate?
You might need to verify the information by looking in other sources.

Does the site show evidence of careful research?
A bibliography is a good clue.

Are there links to other web sites?
A good web site usually has links within the content of the article to lead us to further information on our subject. If the document's links are "dead," the site might be an old one.

Does the site give good coverage of your topic?
Is the material discussed in depth or superficially?
Is there information that can't be found anywhere else?

Tutorial - "Credible Sources Count" provided by Vaughan Memorial Library at Acadia University