Searching |Evaluation | Ethical Use
Evaluating Resources on the Web
Tip #4: Do reliable pages LINK TO this author?
Questions to ask:
Do other reliable (or unreliable) pages provide links to the author's page?
- Do these pages support or contradict facts or opinions on the author's page?
- Do these pages add any new information or perspective on the topic?
- Are these pages on the same or different sites?
- Are these pages in the same or a different domain?
Why?
"Links to" a page or site can tell you who considers it a valuable page or site. If other reputable authors or organizations reference the page, it suggests that others have evaluated it positively.
How?
Individual search engines may have their own "links to" features, usually on the advanced search page. Use the following operator with most other search engines. Type the word "link" followed by a colon and the URL of the page you are evaluating.
Example:
link:https://21cif.com
The resulting list will contain Webpages that link to the URL you want to evaluate. But not all search engines provide this service and some limit the results. The reason may be due to the profitability of knowing who links to a site, a large component in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Companies are willing to pay money for this information. Consequently, for extensive link: operator results, there are services for that, but expect to pay.
A no-cost way to explore connecting sites is to use the -site operator. This may be more productive than using link: (which many search engines are discontinuing). Using the same example, here is what that query would look like: https://21cif.com -site:21cif.com. The effect of this query is to retrieve pages with a link to 21cif but none of these are internal links from 21cif.com itself (where you would expect to find the most links).
Web sites that link to 21cif consist of mainly educational ventures. They support our efforts to improve digital research skills. They offer alternative perspectives and additional information about the current state of education. Pages linked to us cover as wide a variety of sites and domains as the pages we link to.
A few sites that link to us: