Website evaluation checklist

1. Website Evaluation Checklist
Authorship and Accuracy:
Practically anyone can publish a website. Therefore, it’s important to be a critical consumer of
information. Understanding who the author is (this could be an individual or an organization)
and the author’s qualifications can help us determine the quality and reliability of the
information
Website 1:
Website 2:
http://www.dhmo.org
http://www.watercure.com
Does the site give an author
or organization responsible
 Yes
 No
 Yes
 No
for authoring the site?
Is the author’s or
organization’s credentials
 Yes
 No
 Yes
 No
(degree/experience)
provided?
Website Domain:
Be sure to look at the web address, which can give you some insight into its reliability. Note that
.edu and .gov are restricted, which means that only academic institutions and government
agencies can use these. Often times, websites with these extensions are more reliable. On the
other hand, anyone can register a .com, .net, or .org site regardless of whether or not it’s a
business, network, or organization. Therefore, websites with these extensions should be carefully
scrutinized.
Indicate the type of
 .com(commercial/company )
 .com(commercial/company)
extension by marking the
 .org (non-profit organization)  .org (non-profit organization)
box that matches the
 .edu (academic institution)
 .edu (academic institution)
website’s domain.
 .net (Network)
 .net (Network)
 .gov/mil/us (Gov’t agency)
 .gov/mil/us (Gov’t agency)
.uk (country sponsored site)
.uk (country sponsored site)
 other:
 other:
Purpose and Content:
In addition to the web address, evaluate the content of the website to determine its purpose.
Some sites have a “mission statement” or an “about” page which will provide more information. If
you’re looking for research information and the site wants your credit card number, think twice.
What is the purpose of this
 Inform  Persuade  Sell
 Inform  Persuade  Sell
website?
 Entertainment
 Entertainment
 Other:
 Other:
What type of information
 Balanced, objective or factual
 Balanced, objective or factual
does the site provide?
 Biased, subjective,
 Biased, subjective,
opinionated
opinionated
Are there any words or
concepts related to the
overall purpose of the site
that you don’t understand?
If anything seems “fishy”
use google or
dictionary.com to do some
research.

Yes, I looked up the
following words/concepts:

No, I did not need to look up
any words or concepts


Yes, I looked up the following
words/concepts:
No, I did not need to look up
any words or concepts

2. Currency, Functionality, and Design:
Depending on the type of website, recent updates can be important. When websites are
regularly updated, this means that they are being monitored and someone is taking the
time to maintain the site. There are some exceptions to this. For example, a historical
site about the Constitution would need fewer updates than a site about the current
economy. Another component of a well maintained site is that the links work. You can
also evaluate a website based on the design. Does the site look professional?
Was the site recently
 Yes
 No
updated?
Does this site have
working links (links are
 Yes
 No
writing on the page that
take you to another page
when you click on
them)?
How does the website appear  Well designed and organized
Easy to read and navigate
overall?
Help screens available
A search feature is available
Poorly designed and organized
Difficult to navigate
Helps screens unavailable
Search feature unavailable
 Yes
 No
 Yes
 No
 Well designed and organized
Easy to read and navigate
Help screens available
A search feature is available
Poorly designed and organized
Difficult to navigate
Helps screens unavailable
Search feature unavailable
Now that you’ve completed the checklist, between the
two websites that you reviewed, which one do you
think is the most credible?
Answer:__________________________________________