Ten Tips on How to Know a Genuine Website

There are millions, if not billions, of websites in today’s world, and differentiating scam websites from genuine websites may be difficult. This article discusses ten tips that will let one knows a genuine website.

· One of the most important ways to know whether a website is genuine or not is to check for its security. A secured website is a genuine website, although not all genuine websites are secured. One can know whether a website is secured or not by checking the address bar of the website; a secured website will start with ‘’https’’ and will also have a padlock symbol beside its address. One can view the details of the security of a website by clicking on this padlock symbol.

· A genuine website should have physical address of the owner’s office. If it is a company’s website, then it should have the address of that company. Please run away from any website that claim to be a company’s website, but does not contain the physical location of that company. Although some genuine websites that are owned by individuals may not contain physical location addresses of such individuals, but this type of websites should be treated with caution.

· A genuine company’s website should have a page that introduces the company’s executives. This tip is only important when the information on the website shows that the website is owned by a company.

· A genuine website should have an “about page’’. This will reveal what the website is all about.

· A genuine website that provides a service or sell goods should have a “term of service page’’. This is very compulsory for a website that claims to provide services or sell goods.

· A security certificate of a genuine website must be active, i.e. it must not be an expired one. This is important if that website is a secured website. A secured website must always have an active security certificate. You can view the details of the security of a website by clicking on the padlock symbol in the address bar.

· You can also know a genuine website by analysing the service or goods the website is rendering. If a website is promising something too good to believe, then please treat this type of website with extreme caution. Also if a website is dealing in suspicious things, then it is probably not a genuine website.

· Another way to know a genuine website is to do a search engine research by typing the name of the website followed by the ‘’scam’’ into the search engine.

· A software like ‘McAfee Security Scan Plus’ may be of help when determining the authenticity of a website. McAfee Security Scan Plus provides information on whether a website is virus free or not, and it can be downloaded free of charge from McAfee’s website. Also, internet security of various reputable world class antiviruses can be of help.

· Any website that asks for one’s credit card information through an unsecured website page is not a genuine website. A genuine website should only ask for one’s credit card information on a secured page, even if that genuine website is not secured then it should lead one to a secured website when it is asking for one’s credit card information. The first bullet on the page describes how to know a secure website or a webpage.

By using the tips above one should be in a better position to avoid scam websites. Also, one should note that it is not compulsory for a single website to possess all the ten characteristics, but a genuine website must possess a multiple of these characteristics.

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