The internet is full of good information. The problem is that the internet is also full of bad information. It is important to be aware that you can not believe everything you see and read on the internet. Just like you can’t believe everything you see on TV or read in the newspapers. You need to look carefully at everything you see on the internet.

There are a few things you can look for when you are trying to decide if a website is legitimate or not. There are a lot of spammers out there trying to make money off of internet users, but if you do your homework and look at everything with a critical eye, you will see the differences.

1. Check the URL. Always look at the address of websites you are visiting. There are some websites that will try to impersonate a legitimate site by just changing the spelling. If you are not sure how to spell the name of the company or service you are looking for, check into it first.
2. Try the links. If you click on a link and it leads you to a blank page, or it doesn’t go anywhere at all, you are probably on a fake website. You can also check this out by just bringing your mouse to the link and hovering. make sure it is going to where it says it is going.
3. Look for dates on the page. This could be a date that the page was last updated, or a date that something was posted by a user. If it has been updated fairly recently, it is more likely that the page is legitimate and someone is taking the time needed to update information. If the last time the site was touched was two years ago, you should quickly move on.
4. Look at the number of advertisements on the page. If a page has more ads than actual content then the site is probably there only to generate money for someone. This is sometimes a tough call because there are many legitimate websites that use advertising, but again, look at it with a critical eye.

If you feel like you are being bombarded with website options when you are looking for information and you don’t know where to turn, you are not alone. There are a lot of people putting information on the web, some are putting out good information, while others are not.

When you go to a website there are some basic questions you can ask yourself to help figure out if it is a good site or not. First, look at the author. If you can’t even find this information then you should move on to the next site. Once you find out who created the page, verify their information and background. This is very important if you are using the internet for research. If you can’t verify who they are, you should probably look further.

You can also look for the last time the information was updated, or when the last time the page was updated. This is more important in some instances than others. If you are researching a history paper, the information does not necessarily need to be created within the last few months. If you are researching a current events project, you don’t want to write a paper about something that happened two years ago.

Does the information and the flow of the website make sense? This sometimes takes a very critical eye. When you look at the page is the information on it clear and organized? If you feel like you are skipping all over the place without really learning anything, you should probably move on to a different site.  You should also make sure that the information within the site does not contradict itself.

Look at the advertising. Although this is not a sure sign of a spam website, it is important to look at the number of ads on a page. If you are having trouble finding content within all the ads, the site may only exist to make money.