How to cite a website apa
How to cite a website apa
How to Cite a Website | MLA, APA & Chicago Examples
Published on March 5, 2021 by Jack Caulfield. Revised on June 28, 2022.
To cite a page from a website, you need a short in-text citation and a corresponding reference stating the author’s name, the date of publication, the title of the page, the website name, and the URL.
This information is presented differently in different citation styles. APA, MLA, and Chicago are the most commonly used styles.
Use the interactive example generator below to explore APA and MLA website citations.
Note that the format is slightly different for citing YouTube and other online video platforms, or for citing an image.
Table of contents
Citing a website in MLA Style
An MLA Works Cited entry for a webpage lists the author’s name, the title of the page (in quotation marks), the name of the site (in italics), the date of publication, and the URL.
The in-text citation usually just lists the author’s name. For a long page, you may specify a (shortened) section heading to locate the specific passage. Don’t use paragraph numbers unless they’re specifically numbered on the page.
The same format is used for blog posts and online articles from newspapers and magazines.
You can also use our free MLA Citation Generator to generate your website citations.
Generate accurate MLA citations with Scribbr
Citing a whole website
When you cite an entire website rather than a specific page, include the author if one can be identified for the whole site (e.g. for a single-authored blog). Otherwise, just start with the site name.
List the copyright date displayed on the site; if there isn’t one, provide an access date after the URL.
Webpages with no author or date
When no author is listed, cite the organization as author only if it differs from the website name.
If the organization name is also the website name, start the Works Cited entry with the title instead, and use a shortened version of the title in the in-text citation.
When no publication date is listed, leave it out and include an access date at the end instead.
Citing a website in APA Style
An APA reference for a webpage lists the author’s last name and initials, the full date of publication, the title of the page (in italics), the website name (in plain text), and the URL.
The in-text citation lists the author’s last name and the year. If it’s a long page, you may include a locator to identify the quote or paraphrase (e.g. a paragraph number and/or section title).
Note that a general reference to an entire website doesn’t require a citation in APA Style; just include the URL in parentheses after you mention the site.
You can also use our free APA Citation Generator to create your webpage citations. Search for a URL to retrieve the details.
Cite a Website
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Citing a website in APA
Once you’ve identified a credible website to use, create a citation and begin building your reference list. Citation Machine citing tools can help you create references for online news articles, government websites, blogs, and many other website! Keeping track of sources as you research and write can help you stay organized and ethical. If you end up not using a source, you can easily delete it from your bibliography. Ready to create a citation? Enter the website’s URL into the search box above. You’ll get a list of results, so you can identify and choose the correct source you want to cite. It’s that easy to begin!
If you’re wondering how to cite a website in APA, use the structure below.
Structure:
Author Last Name, First initial. (Year, Month Date Published). Title of web page. Name of Website. URL
Example of an APA format website:
Keep in mind that not all information found on a website follows the structure above. Only use the Website format above if your online source does not fit another source category. For example, if you’re looking at a video on YouTube, refer to the ‘YouTube Video’ section. If you’re citing a newspaper article found online, refer to ‘Newspapers Found Online’ section. Again, an APA website citation is strictly for web pages that do not fit better with one of the other categories on this page.
Social media:
When adding the text of a post, keep the original capitalization, spelling, hashtags, emojis (if possible), and links within the text.
Facebook posts:
Structure: Facebook user’s Last name, F. M. (Year, Monday Day of Post). Up to the first 20 words of Facebook post [Source type if attached] [Post type]. Facebook. URL
Source type examples: [Video attached], [Image attached]
Post type examples: [Status update], [Video], [Image], [Infographic]
Examples:
Gomez, S. (2020, February 4). Guys, I’ve been working on this special project for two years and can officially say Rare Beauty is launching in [Video]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/Selena/videos/1340031502835436/
Life at Chegg. (2020, February 7) It breaks our heart that 50% of college students right here in Silicon Valley are hungry. That’s why Chegg has [Images attached] [Status update]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/LifeAtChegg/posts/1076718522691591
Twitter posts:
Structure: Account holder’s Last name, F. M. [Twitter Handle]. (Year, Month Day of Post). Up to the first 20 words of tweet [source type if attached] [Tweet]. Twitter. URL
Source type examples: [Video attached], [Image attached], [Poll attached]
Example: Edelman, J. [Edelman11]. (2018, April 26). Nine years ago today my life changed forever. New England took a chance on a long shot and I’ve worked [Video attached] [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/Edelman11/status/989652345922473985
Instagram posts:
APA citation format: Account holder’s Last name, F. M. [@Instagram handle]. (Year, Month Day). Up to the first 20 words of caption [Photograph(s) and/or Video(s)]. Instagram. URL
How to Cite a Web Article in APA
This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Jennifer Mueller, JD. Jennifer Mueller is a wikiHow Content Creator. She specializes in reviewing, fact-checking, and evaluating wikiHow’s content to ensure thoroughness and accuracy. Jennifer holds a JD from Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 2006.
This article has been viewed 37,710 times.
If you’re writing a research paper, it’s likely that many of the articles you use as sources will come from the internet. If you’re using the citation style of the American Psychological Association (APA), the format of your Reference List entry will differ if you’re citing an online article as opposed to a print article. Any time you quote or paraphrase from the source, you’ll also need to include an in-text citation at the end of the sentence.
\u00a9 2022 wikiHow, Inc. All rights reserved. wikiHow, Inc. is the copyright holder of this image under U.S. and international copyright laws. This image is not licensed under the Creative Commons license applied to text content and some other images posted to the wikiHow website. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc.
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\u00a9 2022 wikiHow, Inc. All rights reserved. wikiHow, Inc. is the copyright holder of this image under U.S. and international copyright laws. This image is not licensed under the Creative Commons license applied to text content and some other images posted to the wikiHow website. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc.
\n
\u00a9 2022 wikiHow, Inc. All rights reserved. wikiHow, Inc. is the copyright holder of this image under U.S. and international copyright laws. This image is not licensed under the Creative Commons license applied to text content and some other images posted to the wikiHow website. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc.
\n
\u00a9 2022 wikiHow, Inc. All rights reserved. wikiHow, Inc. is the copyright holder of this image under U.S. and international copyright laws. This image is not licensed under the Creative Commons license applied to text content and some other images posted to the wikiHow website. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc.
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APA Reference List Format — Web Article
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Date). Title of article in sentence case. Site. URL
\u00a9 2022 wikiHow, Inc. All rights reserved. wikiHow, Inc. is the copyright holder of this image under U.S. and international copyright laws. This image is not licensed under the Creative Commons license applied to text content and some other images posted to the wikiHow website. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc.
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Tip: If you have several different articles written by the same author in the same year, include the title of the articles in your parenthetical citations to distinguish them from one another.
How to Cite a Website in APA
This guide explains all of the important steps to referencing a website/web page in your APA research papers. The guidance below follows APA style, 7th edition.
APA format is much different than MLA format and other styles. If you need to cite websites in MLA, or you’re looking for more styles, check out the other resources on EasyBib.com!
Guide Overview
Here’s a run-through of everything this page includes:
What is a website? Am I citing a website or a web page?
A website is a place on the Internet that holds a group of individual pages (called web pages).
Think of a website like a tree. A website is the tree, and the individual web pages are the branches. Use YouTube as an example. YouTube is the site, and the individual channel pages and video pages are the branches. Wikipedia is a site, and each article has its own individual web page on that site.
Most of the time, you aren’t trying to cite a whole, entire site, but actually an individual web page. If you used a YouTube video to help you with your research project, you wouldn’t cite the entire YouTube site, you would cite the specific YouTube page the video was found on.
Here’s a similar question we’re often asked when it comes to the APA citation of a web page:
Q: This page describes citing specific pages and articles. Can I cite an entire site?
A: According to the APA manual (7th edition), it is not necessary to cite a site in its entirety in a reference list. Instead, include a reference to the website in the body of your paper and cite any web page individually.
Example:
The Department of Justice has just released a new site called ReportCrime.gov at https://www.reportcrime.gov/ to help people identify and report crimes in their area.
In the above passage, the website is stated in the text rather than cited. This guide focuses on how to cite individual pages found on the web (web pages). If you used an entire website, it’s perfectly acceptable to cite the whole site in the text of your paper, as shown above, but for the most part, you want to cite the page where the information was found.
If you’re seeking out an APA citation website to take the stress away from proper referencing, try out EasyBib.com! Stop typing into the search bar, “how to cite a website APA” or “APA in-text citation website.” EasyBib.com is the answer to your referencing questions and needs!
Citing a website in the text (in-text citation)
When you include a piece of information from a site in your project, you must include two citations: a brief citation in the text and also a full citation on the reference page.
When it comes to mentions in the text, students are sometimes tempted to put the web address in the body of a project. However, URLs can be long, clunky, and distracting. They should never be written in the body of a project.
Instead of writing the full address in the text, use the last name of the author and the date the source was published. If no author is shown, write the title of the individual page and the date.
For direct quotations, you may use paragraphs to indicate the quotation’s location in the work. Count the paragraphs manually if needed and use the abbreviation “para.” for paragraph.
Check out this in-text citation APA website example:
| In-text citation | |
|---|---|
| Examples: | The ice shelves in the Antarctic Peninsula have been affected by climate change (Rasmussen, 2021). |
Researchers found that “these ice shelves may break up even faster than scientists had expected due to rising air temperatures” (Rasmussen, 2021, para. 2).
The above APA website in-text citation (the author’s last name and the date the information was published) corresponds to the information on the final page of the project, the reference page.
Here’s how the full APA citation for a web page looks on the final page of the project:
Rasmussen, C. (2021, October 12). Icy ‘glue’ may control pace of Antarctic ice-shelf breakup. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/icy-glue-may-control-pace-of-antarctic-ice-shelf-breakup
Need more in-text citation APA website info? Here’s more on how to build an APA parenthetical citation. You may also like our full-length guide on how to create an APA in-text citation.
If you’re looking for information on structuring other styles in the text of your paper, check out our page on MLA in-text and parenthetical citations.
Citing a website on the reference page
In the next section of this APA citation website guide, we’re going to focus on how to format an APA website citation. If you’re wondering how to create an APA citation of a web page, the majority of web references use the structure shown below.
General structure for how to cite a website in APA
Note: A retrieval date is no longer required for online sources. It’s only needed if the content is likely to change over time (such as wikis and social media). The article or page title should be italicized. The URL is at the end and does not have a period after it.
Full reference example:
Last name, F. M. (Year, Month Date Published). Article title or page title. Site Name. URL
Limer, E. (2013, October 1). Heck yes! The first free wireless plan is finally here. Gizmodo. https://gizmodo.com/heck-yes-the-first-free-wireless-plan-is-finally-here
Example of an in-text citation for a website in APA:
According to Limer (2013), …
If you’re looking for an APA format website to do the work for you, try out EasyBib.com’s citation generator. Our APA citation website makes referencing a breeze!
Citing a general web article without an author
APA citation for website structure:
Do you need to cite a source with no author in APA? No problem. Wikipedia pages, online dictionary sites, and online encyclopedia sites are just a few examples of sites without an author. When there is no clear individual author, use the website organization (group author) as the author.
Group authors
There are plenty of times when an individual’s name isn’t listed as the author, but the information on the site is written by a group, organization, or company.
In an APA website citation, it is completely acceptable to use the group’s name in the author position. Type it out in its entirety and add a period at the end. Check out the various APA citation of web page examples at the bottom of the page to see group authors in action!
Note: If the author name and website name is the same, just list it once in as the author; leave out the website name section in the APA citation.
APA citation for website example:
Website Name. (Year, Month Date of publication). Title of page/article. Site Name. URL
Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2021. (2014). Malala Yousafzai – facts. NobelPrize.org. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2014/yousafzai/lecture/
Columbia Doctors. (2016). Vital signs (Body temperature, pulse rate, respiration rate, blood pressure). https://www.columbiadoctors.org/condition/vital-signs-body-temperature-pulse-rate-respiration-rate-blood-pressure
(Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2021, 2014)
Dates
If you’re wondering whether to include the full date in your APA citation for web pages (month, day, and year) or just the year, we have the answer for you here.
An APA citation of web page reference includes the month, day, and year if it’s a site that is updated with new information frequently. Blog posts, newspaper articles, posts from social media profiles, and YouTube videos are just a few of the sources that would display the full date. In an APA citation for web pages, it’s written in this order in parentheses: (Year, Month Day).
Mukherjee, S. (2016, November 17). How far can we push the limits of human life? Scientists explore the edges of our morality. VICE. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wdj7qz/how-far-can-we-push-the-limits-of-human-life
If there is any information missing, simply include what is available. Also, if there is no date, indicate this by using (n.d.).
No date APA website example:
Chegg Inc. (n.d.). Marginal product of labor. https://www.chegg.com/learn/economics/introduction-to-economics/marginal-product-of-labor
If you’re using the EasyBib citation generator to create an APA citation for a web page, our technology structures dates for you in their proper order. It’s the APA format website (and also the APA in-text citation website) you’ve been waiting for. Give it a whirl!
Titles of pages on the web
Here’s the advice we provide on many of our guides:
Long story short, do not italicize an APA citation for web pages’ title in the text and on the final page of references.
For full references on the final page of the project, only include capital letters at the beginning of the title, at the beginning of each proper noun, and at the beginning of the first word in the subtitle.
The title is written in the text only when there isn’t an author listed. So, instead of showing the reference as (Author, Date), use (“Title of Page,” Date) in any APA citation for web pages. Notice the switch from sentence case to title case in the text reference.
Extra information
A little extra information goes a long way when it comes to site citations. If you’re including a unique source type, include information about the medium directly after the title. This information is placed in brackets. Only the first letter is capitalized.
Here are a few examples you might see in an APA citation for a web page:
To see some of the extra information in action, scroll down to the examples towards the bottom of this page.
Speaking of extra information, it may not hurt to get some extra details on grammar topics in that brain of yours. Brush up on your adjective, pronoun, and interjection knowledge with our comprehensive guides!
Publisher information
Any information related to the publisher is not invited to the web citation party. In an APA citation of a web page, you do not need to include information about the company that made the site, where its offices are located, or any other similar information about the company in any web references. One thing less to worry about in your APA citation for web pages!
Other source types are much different, so before you exclude publisher information from all of your references, make sure you check out our APA citation page. While you’re at it, check out our other helpful resources, such as APA reference page and MLA works cited.
Web addresses and DOIs
We also need a web address and DOI number in an APA citation for a web page. Including site addresses and DOIs are an absolute necessity. Addresses and DOIs (which stand for direct object identifiers) are usually the last item in an APA website citation.
For sites, after adding the full URL to the APA citation for a web page, do not end it with a period. If the address is very long, it is acceptable to roll it onto the next line, but break it up so that a type of punctuation mark or symbol is the first item closest to the left margin. Check out the APA citation of a webpage URL below.
APA citation of a webpage example of a properly structured URL:
https://books.google.com/books?id=Oa0JAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=sports+ medicine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi1l-jy-fPiAhVLMY8KHQD6BfUQ6AEIWjAJ#v=onepage&q=sports %20medicine&f=false
DOI numbers are assigned by publishers to electronic sources such as journal articles, e-books, datasets, and more. They’re a string of numbers and sometimes other characters. If the source you’re using has a DOI number assigned to it, place it at the end of the APA website citation, instead of the URL, in this format: https://doi.org/10.XXXXXXXXX. Place the DOI string in place of the X’s shown above.
DOIs were created to combat the problem of broken links and 404 errors (pages taken down). Think about it: if a webpage is taken off of the Internet, it can be pretty difficult to find a copy of it. If you’re lucky, an archive site may have a copy stored somewhere, but for the most part, when sites are gone, they’re gone. DOIs are permanent, making them the ideal choice to include in any APA citation for webpages.
APA properly structured DOI:
| Reference Page | |
|---|---|
| Example | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04043-8 |
APA format for online news articles
APA differentiates between traditional newspapers that are online versus news websites with no daily/weekly/monthly newspaper or magazine edition. Unsure what you’re citing? Follow this decision tree:
Online news article APA example:
Nicholls, P., & Young, S. (2021, August 14). A great British spraycation: Banksy’s new seaside murals. Reuters. https://www.reutersagency.com/en/coverage/a-great-british-spraycation-banksys-new-seaside-murals/
News sites with no associated daily/weekly/monthly publication should be cited like a web page. That means the article title is italicized and the publisher/site name is in plan font. This format applies to articles from these sites:
Newspaper article online APA example:
Nunn, G. (2019, April 2). Don’t ditch the adverb, the emoji of writing. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/29/dont-ditch-the-adverb-the-emoji
Sites associated with a daily/weekly/monthly publication should be cited as a newspaper article. That means the article title is in plain font and the publisher/site name is italicized. This format applies to articles from these sites:
Additional Website Citation Examples
Below are various web reference examples to give you a quick visual of how pages are structured and organized. Quick reminder that if you’re trying to create a reference for an e-book found on the web, use the APA book citation page. In addition, if it’s an online article from journal, use our APA journal page.
If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to build your references, EasyBib.com is an APA citation website that does the work for you. Try it out and say hello to stress-free referencing and goodbye to constantly searching for “how to cite a website APA” or “how to cite APA” on search engines. The APA offers more information here.
How to cite a group/organization/company:
Columbia Doctors. (2016). Vital signs (Body temperature, pulse rate, respiration rate, blood pressure). https://www.columbiadoctors.org/condition/vital-signs-body-temperature-pulse-rate-respiration-rate-blood-pressure
How to Cite a Blog Post in APA:
The structure is the same, but the format is slightly different: The blog article title is in plain text, and the name of the blog is italicized.
Last, F. M. (Year, Month Date Published). Article title. Blog Name. URL
APA citation of a web page example for Facebook:
The text of the post is italicized, while the site name (Facebook) is in plain text.
Kaku, M. (2019, April 10). Congratulations to the National Science Foundation (NSF) on the success of the Event Horizon Telescope Project, which Wednesday unveiled the first-ever image of a real supermassive black hole and its shadow, 55 million light-years away from Earth [Status update]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/michiokaku/
APA citation of a web page example for Twitter:
Kaku, M. [michiokaku]. (2019, May 31). It was 100 years ago, this week, that the results from then solar eclipse came in, verifying Einstein’s theory. Max Planck predicted that if the experiment was true, Einstein would be considered the successor to Copernicus. This has come to pass [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/michiokaku/status/1134489848994258945
If the name of the author is unknown, start the APA citation of a web page for Twitter with the username.
