That said, here’s how to cite a website in APA and MLA format.
How to Cite a Website Using APA
The format of your APA citation depends on the type of website you’re citing. However, you can always make things a bit easier by using one of Google Docs’ add-ons to write your citations instead.
But if you’d prefer to do it manually, APA citations for online articles usually include the author’s name, publication date, the title of the page/article, the website name, and the URL. A typical APA citation for a website looks like this:
Let’s break down each piece of the APA citation to give you a full rundown.
The Name
When citing an online article, start off with the author’s last name, followed by their first and middle initials. If there is no specific author listed on the page, omit the author section and start with the title of the article.
If the author’s name isn’t attributed on the page, you can usually attribute it to the organization involved. This would look something like this:
If the organization name and the site name are the same, omit the site name portion altogether.
The Date
The next piece of information is the publish date of the article or webpage. If there is no publication or revision date listed on the page, replace the date with n.d. (no date).
Also, if you think the content on the webpage will change over time, add a retrieval date to show when you accessed the information.
The Title
After the publish date, include the title of the article or webpage. When you’re writing the in-text citation, use the same format for the title as you did in your reference list.
Since the page title will be in italics in your reference list, keep this format in the in-text citation, but add quotations. Also, keep in mind that title case is used for in-text citations only, while sentence case is used in the reference list.
The URL
After the title, list the site name and the URL. Don’t include any tracking parameters when citing your website URL.
The webpage or online article that you cite needs to have corresponding in-text citations with the reference list entry. If you don’t quote or paraphrase the article in your in-text reference, you don’t need a formal citation. You can get away with including the URL in parentheses after the name of the site.
Putting It All Together
Once you’ve gathered all of your information, your webpage APA citation should look similar to this:
Other APA Website Formats
Let’s say you want to cite an online article published by the New York Post. You can simply use the same formatting you would for any print source, except you’ll add the URL at the end of the citation. You’ll use this formatting for any online newspapers, magazines, or encyclopedias that have print versions.
For example:
You’ll also use this same format for any blog posts that you cite. The blog name will replace the title of the magazine or newspaper.
You can also cite social media posts, but since they don’t have actual titles, you’ll replace that with up to the first 20 words of the post’s caption or description. This needs to be written in italics as well. In square brackets, include any relevant information about the type of post like [Video], [Image], [Sound], etc.
If you know the poster’s real name, add it to the citation. Otherwise, just use their screen name. If you want to cite the entire profile instead of a specific post, include an access date, as the content will change over time.
Here’s an example of what an APA citation for a social media post would look like:
How to Cite a Website Using MLA
Citing a website using MLA is quite similar to citing a website with APA. The only major difference is formatting.
Every MLA citation usually has the author’s name, the title of the page, the name of the website, the publication date, and the URL.
You’ll write the title of the page in quotation marks, the website name in italics, and the URL will not include “https://” at the beginning. This is what a typical MLA citation for a website should look like:
Example:
If you aren’t sure who the author is, start the citation with the title of the page instead. You’ll also want to add an access date to the end of the citation if you believe the webpage’s content will change over time. You can also use the access date if there is no publication date listed.
Other MLA Website Formats
If you’re citing an article from an online newspaper, magazine, or blog, follow the same general MLA webpage citation format. There aren’t any special rules for this like there are with APA formatting.
If you want to cite an entire website instead of a specific page, don’t include an author. Instead, just start the citation with the website name in italics:
This type of citation is required if you’re referencing the site’s content in general, instead of a specific page or article. You’ll also use this format when referring to the site’s homepage, or quoting text from many different pages on the site, like a slogan.
Remember that citing multiple pages from the same website requires separate entries for each page or article. Sometimes, a website will be published by an organization with a different name than the website—this will need to be included in the citation as well.
In-text MLA citations just need to include the author’s name in parentheses. If you already mentioned the name of the author in your sentence, then you don’t need to include an in-text citation.
Where to Find Website Citation Information
Most of the information for a published article can either be found at the top or bottom of the page. It will sometimes list the publishing date at the top of the article along with the author’s name and the title.
If you can’t find all the information at the top of the page, try scrolling down to the very bottom. Most articles will have the author’s byline where you can find their information.
Writing Proper APA and MLA In-Text Citations for Websites
APA and MLA citations for websites will generally contain the same information. The only difference is how you format the two.
If you’re tired of struggling to write the perfect citation, you may want to try a citation generator to cut down on time.
