There are dozens of unreliable sites for every reputable site, full of fake and inaccurate or unreliable information. Such sites can cause problems for inexperienced and reckless journalists and researchers. Here and in this article, we provide you with eight ways to identify a reputable and reliable site.
1- Check the age of the site
The Internet is full of sites that were launched just five minutes ago, But what you need to look for are websites that have been around for a long time and have a proven track record of being trusted.
These sites include sites run by government agencies, nonprofits, foundations, colleges, or universities.
2- Specialized sites are more reputable
If your leg breaks, you will not go to a mechanic, and you will certainly not go to the hospital to repair your car. This is obvious: look for sites that provide technical information in your field. For example, if you are going to write or read about the flu, you should check out medical sites like Healthline, WebMD, etc. So usually (but not always), only specialized sites are more reputable.
3- Do not value commercial and advertising sites too much
Websites run by companies and businesses, usually ending in a .com extension, seek to sell you something, and to achieve this goal, most of the information they give you is likely to benefit their product. . Of course, this does not mean that you should give up such sites altogether; But be careful.
4- The site is acceptable to Google (important)
Google is the most reliable source for recognizing the credibility and importance of various websites. Just search the title of a few articles of your site in Google (in incognito mode) and see if it is displayed on the first pages of Google or not? Google uses hundreds of factors to display the results, and if you search several sites on Google and a result is not displayed from that site, you should doubt its validity.
5- Consider the appearance of the site
If a site looks awkward and amateurish in terms of design, it was likely created by amateur and non-expert people. Cluttering texts is another bad omen for a site. It is better to leave these sites aside, But be careful! The design of a site can not be the only reason for its unreliability.
6. Avoid anonymous authors
Articles and articles that mention the author’s name are often – but not always – more trustworthy than articles whose author is anonymous. There is a logical reason behind this: someone who wants his name to appear next to what he has written is more likely to be willing to take responsibility for that writing. In addition, if you have the author’s name, you can always do a Google search for their credentials.
7- Check the links
Reputable sites are often linked to each other through links. Do a Google search to find out what other sites link to your research site. Enter the following text in the Google search box and type the name of the site you want instead of the word WEBSITE:
Search results show you which sites are linked to your research site. If the link of the site you are looking for is located in many sites and those sites are valid, it is a good sign.