To cite a website in APA style, you need four core pieces: the author, the publication date, the page title in italics, the site name, and the URL. The basic format looks like this:
Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of page. Site Name. https://www.example.com/page
That template covers the most straightforward case, but websites are messy. Authors are missing, dates are nowhere to be found, and it’s not always obvious whether you’re looking at a news article, a blog post, or a generic webpage. Here’s how to handle all of it.
The Basic Reference List Entry
Every APA website citation follows the same general structure: who wrote it, when it was published, what the page is called, where it lives, and how to find it. When all the information is available, the entry looks like this:
Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of page. Site Name. https://www.example.com/page
The page title is written in sentence case, meaning you capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon, and any proper nouns. The title is italicized. The site name is not italicized, and it appears after the title, followed by a period. The URL goes at the very end with no period after it. Include the most specific date you can find: year, month, and day if available. If only the year and month are listed, use those. If only the year is available, use just the year.
When There’s No Individual Author
Many web pages are published by organizations rather than named writers. When a government agency, nonprofit, or company is responsible for the content, use that organization’s name as the author. For example, a page on anxiety disorders published by the National Institute of Mental Health would list that agency as the author, not the broader department it falls under:
National Institute of Mental Health. (2018, July). Anxiety disorders. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders/
There’s one special rule here: if the author and the site name are the same entity, drop the site name from the citation to avoid repeating it. So if the American Psychological Association publishes a page on its own website, you would list the organization as the author and skip the site name element entirely.
If no author or organization is credited at all, move the page title into the author position. The title stays in italics, followed by the date in parentheses:
Title of page. (Year, Month Date). Site Name. https://www.example.com/page
When There’s No Date
If the page doesn’t show a publication date, replace the date with “n.d.” (short for “no date”) in parentheses:
Lastname, F. M. (n.d.). Title of page. Site Name. https://www.example.com/page
This comes up often with organizational websites, FAQ pages, and resources that are updated without clear timestamps. Use “n.d.” only after you’ve checked for a date in the page footer, the page’s metadata, and any “last updated” notices.
When to Include a Retrieval Date
Most website citations do not need a retrieval date. You only add one when the content is specifically designed to change over time and is not archived. Think of wikis, social media profiles, or database pages that update continuously. A static blog post or news article does not need a retrieval date, even though the site could theoretically edit it later.
When a retrieval date is needed, it goes right before the URL in this format:
Retrieved September 30, 2020, from https://www.example.com/page
If the page has no author and is likely to change, your full entry would combine the missing-author format with the retrieval date:
Title of page. (Year, Month Date). Site Name. Retrieved Month Date, Year, from https://www.example.com/page
In-Text Citations for Websites
The in-text citation matches whatever appears first in your reference list entry. If you have an author, cite their last name and the year: (Smith, 2022). If the author is an organization, use the organization name: (National Institute of Mental Health, 2018). If there’s no author at all, use the first few words of the title in italics, plus the year: (Anxiety Disorders, 2018). If there’s no date either, pair the title with “n.d.”: (Tutoring and APA, n.d.).
For organizations with well-known abbreviations, you can introduce the abbreviation in brackets on the first citation and use it afterward. For example, the first citation would read (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2018), and every later citation would simply be (NIMH, 2018).
Citing a Specific Part of a Web Page
Web pages don’t have page numbers, so when you’re quoting or pointing readers to a specific passage, APA gives you a few options. You can count the paragraphs manually and cite by paragraph number: (DeAngelis, 2018, para. 4). You can reference a heading or section name: (Gecht-Silver & Duncombe, 2015, Osteoarthritis section). Or you can combine both: (DeAngelis, 2018, Musical Forays section, para. 4). If a heading is long, it’s fine to abbreviate it. Use whichever approach will best help your reader locate the passage.
Your reference list entry should still point to the full page you used, not just the section you cited in the text.
Quick-Reference Examples
- Individual author, full date: Smith, J. R. (2023, March 15). How sleep affects memory. Healthline. https://www.example.com/sleep-memory
- Organization as author (same as site name): World Health Organization. (2022, June 8). Mental health in the workplace. https://www.example.com/workplace
- Organization as author (different site name): National Institute of Mental Health. (2018, July). Anxiety disorders. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.example.com/anxiety
- No author: Understanding student loans. (2021, January 10). Federal Student Aid. https://www.example.com/loans
- No author, no date: Scholarship application tips. (n.d.). University Writing Center. https://www.example.com/tips
- No author, content changes over time: Climate data dashboard. (n.d.). National Weather Service. Retrieved April 2, 2024, from https://www.example.com/climate
Formatting Details That Matter
A few small formatting rules trip people up. The reference list should be double-spaced with a hanging indent, meaning the first line of each entry is flush left and every subsequent line is indented half an inch. Page titles use sentence case and italics. Site names are written in title case but are not italicized. URLs are presented as live hyperlinks when your document format supports it, and there is no period after the URL.
When a page lists both an author and an editor, cite the author. When a page is part of a larger website and both have distinct names, include the site name as the source element. If the page title and the site name are identical, keep the title in the author or title position and omit the duplicate site name.