You can almost always find the author, sponsor, or publisher of a website in the "About Us" section, sometimes called "Who We Are" or "Contact Us". This is usually found toward the bottom of the page, as if the publication date.
Sometimes it takes digging to uncover the individuals behind sites. If you can't find this info, that is probably a red flag.
You will need this info for your citations as well so it is a good idea to get in the habit of finding this before you take what the website is saying as reliable information. If you're not sure if a website is credible, ask us!
Most people will only look at the first three results in a search. The problem is anyone can write and publish a website. It is important to take time to investigate and evaluate the web sources you are using.
There are 5 criteria to use when evaluating websites:
Currency
Relevance
Authority
Accuracy
Purpose
This is called the CRAAP Test. See the comic below for more information.
The Google Story by 
Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet by 
