To cite a website, you need the author, the date, the page title, the site name and the URL. Each style arranges these five details differently.
This guide shows where to find each detail, then gives the formats for APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago and Harvard, with examples for webpages, online news, social media and videos.
The Five Details Every Website Citation Needs
- Author: a person or the organization responsible for the page.
- Date: publication or last-updated date of the page itself, not the site's copyright year.
- Title: the title of the specific page.
- Site name: the website the page belongs to.
- URL: the full address of the page.
Some styles also ask for an access date, mainly when the page has no publication date or is likely to change.
Why Citing Websites Is Tricky
Books and journal articles follow predictable layouts. Webpages do not. Authors hide in footers, dates appear as "updated" stamps, and the same organization may be author, publisher and site owner at once.
The fix is to look in the same places every time: the byline under the title, the "About" page, the footer and the page's metadata. If a detail is truly missing, each style has a standard substitute.
| Detail | Where to look | If missing |
|---|---|---|
| Author | Byline, end of article, About page | Use the organization, or start with the title |
| Date | Under the title, top or bottom of page | APA: n.d.; MLA: add access date; Chicago: add access date |
| Title | Main heading of the page | Describe the page in square brackets (APA) |
| Site name | Logo, header, About page | Use the domain's recognized name |
Citing Websites in APA 7
APA 7 italicizes the page title and gives the site name in plain text. Leave out the site name if it is the same as the author.
Format: Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of page. Site Name. URL
Individual author: Okonjo, L. (2023, May 18). How tides shape coastal towns. Ocean Matters. https://www.example.org/tides
Organization as author and site: British Heart Foundation. (2024, January 9). High blood pressure. https://www.example.org/bp
In text: (Okonjo, 2023) or Okonjo (2023)
Add "Retrieved Month Day, Year, from" only for pages designed to change, such as live data. Never write "Retrieved from" on its own in APA 7.
Citing Websites in MLA 9
MLA 9 puts the page title in quotation marks and italicizes the website, which is the container. The access date is optional but recommended when there is no publication date.
Format: Last, First. "Title of Page." Website Name, Publisher (if different), Day Month Year, URL.
Example: Okonjo, Lina. "How Tides Shape Coastal Towns." Ocean Matters, 18 May 2023, www.example.org/tides.
No date: "Visiting Hours." Riverside Hospital, www.example.org/visit. Accessed 3 Feb. 2025.
In text: (Okonjo) or ("Visiting Hours")
MLA usually drops "https://" from URLs. Webpages rarely have page numbers, so the in-text citation is often just the author or a short title.
Citing Websites in Chicago
Chicago notes-bibliography uses a numbered note plus a bibliography entry. Page titles go in quotation marks and site names in plain text.
Note: 1. Lina Okonjo, "How Tides Shape Coastal Towns," Ocean Matters, May 18, 2023, https://www.example.org/tides.
Short note: 2. Okonjo, "How Tides Shape."
Bibliography: Okonjo, Lina. "How Tides Shape Coastal Towns." Ocean Matters, May 18, 2023. https://www.example.org/tides.
Use an access date only if the page shows no date of publication or revision. In the author-date variant, the year moves after the author's name.
Citing Websites in Harvard
Harvard varies by university, but most versions follow a pattern like the one below, with an access date in brackets.
Common format: Author (Year) Title of page. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).
Example: Okonjo, L. (2023) How tides shape coastal towns. Available at: https://www.example.org/tides (Accessed: 3 February 2025).
In text: (Okonjo, 2023)
Check your university's Harvard guide for small differences, such as whether the site name is included or how the access date is written.
News, Social Media and Videos
Other online formats follow the same logic, with a few extra elements. The APA 7 versions are shown here; adapt the order for other styles.
| Source | APA 7 example |
|---|---|
| Online news article | Mwangi, J. (2024, March 2). Ferry fares rise again. Daily Nation. URL |
| Post on X | NASA [@NASA]. (2023, July 4). First words of the post, up to 20 [Post]. X. URL |
| Instagram post | Name [@handle]. (Year, Month Day). Caption, up to 20 words [Photograph]. Instagram. URL |
| YouTube video | Channel Name. (Year, Month Day). Title of video [Video]. YouTube. URL |
| Podcast episode | Host, A. (Host). (Year, Month Day). Episode title (No. 12) [Audio podcast episode]. In Podcast name. Publisher. URL |
For news articles, the newspaper name is italic and the article title is in sentence case. For social media, keep original spelling, hashtags and emoji in the quoted words.
Government Sites, Databases and PDFs
Government and organization pages usually have a group author. Use the most specific agency responsible for the page, and give a report number if one is shown.
Material found through a library database, such as a journal article, is cited as an article, not a website. Do not include the database URL, because readers cannot open it without your login.
A PDF on a website is cited by what it is: a report, a fact sheet or an article. The file format does not change the citation pattern, though some styles note it in brackets.
Report from a government site, APA 7: Department for Transport. (2023). Road safety statistics: Annual summary. https://www.example.gov.uk/road-safety
The department is both author and publisher, so it is not repeated after the title.
Judging Whether a Website Is Worth Citing
Not every website belongs in academic work. Before citing, ask who wrote it, why, and whether they show their evidence.
- Prefer: government agencies, universities, professional bodies, established news outlets and organizations that publish their methods.
- Use with care: company sites, blogs and campaign groups, which may have commercial or political aims.
- Avoid as evidence: anonymous pages, content farms and open wikis. Use them, at most, to find better sources.
Our free citation generator can auto-fill website citations from a URL. Check the author and date it finds, because page metadata is often incomplete.
Common Website Citation Mistakes
| Mistake | Fix |
|---|---|
| Citing the home page instead of the page used | Give the URL of the exact page |
| Using the site's copyright year | Use the date of the page or its last update |
| Writing "Retrieved from" in APA 7 | Give the URL alone, unless you need a retrieval date |
| Repeating the organization as author and site | Leave out the site name when it matches the author |
| Citing a database URL | Cite the article itself, with its DOI if it has one |
A final pass that opens every link catches most of these. It also confirms each page still exists and says what you cite it for.
How Bibloq Helps with Citing Online Sources
Send your paper and name your style. An editor formats every webpage, news article, video and social media citation, finds missing authors and dates where the page provides them, and makes sure each in-text citation matches the list.
You receive a clean copy with tracked changes. Free revisions are included within the scope of your original request.
Want Your Online Sources Cited Correctly?
Send your paper. An editor formats every webpage, article and video citation to your required style and checks the details.
Order Citation FormattingFree revisions · Full refund if late · Written from scratch for your order
Frequently Asked Questions
In APA 7, only for pages designed to change. In MLA 9, it is optional but useful when there is no date. Chicago uses one only when no publication or revision date is shown. Many Harvard versions always include one.
Use the organization responsible as the author. If there is none, start the citation with the page title.
Use n.d. in APA and Harvard. In MLA and Chicago, leave out the date and add an access date.
No. The copyright year usually covers the whole site. Use the date of the specific page or its last update.
In APA 7, the page title is italic. In MLA 9, the site name is italic and the page title goes in quotation marks.
APA and Chicago keep the full URL. MLA 9 usually drops "https://" but keeps the rest.
In APA, a general mention of a website in the text needs only the URL in parentheses, with no reference entry. Cite a specific page if you use its content.
Most tutors discourage it as evidence. Use it to find sources, then cite the sources themselves.
Cite it as the type of document it is, such as a report or article, with its URL.
Webpages rarely have page numbers. For a direct quotation in APA, give a paragraph number or section heading instead, for example (Okonjo, 2023, para. 6).