To cite a website, you need four core pieces of information: the author, the publication date, the title of the page, and the URL. The exact order and formatting of those pieces depends on which citation style you’re using. APA, MLA, and Chicago are the three most common, and each has its own rules for punctuation, capitalization, and what to do when information is missing. Here’s how to build a proper citation in each style.
APA Style (7th Edition)
APA is widely used in psychology, education, nursing, and the social sciences. A basic website citation in APA follows this pattern:
Author Last Name, First Initial. (Year, Month Day). Title of page. Site Name. URL
Here’s a real example from APA’s own guidelines:
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/index.shtml
A few details to note. When an organization is both the author and the site name, you don’t repeat it. The site name only appears in the source position when it differs from the author. In the example above, the National Institute of Mental Health is the author, and its parent agencies (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health) appear as the site name because they provide additional context.
Use the most specific date available. If the page shows a month and year but no exact day, use that. If the page says it was “last updated” on a certain date and that update clearly applies to the content you’re citing (not just the site template), use the updated date.
For your in-text citation, use the author’s last name and year in parentheses: (National Institute of Mental Health, 2018).
MLA Style (9th Edition)
MLA is the standard in English, literature, humanities, and many undergraduate writing courses. MLA organizes citations around what it calls “containers,” meaning the larger platform or publication that holds the content. For a website, the container is the site itself.
The general pattern for a Works Cited entry looks like this:
Author Last Name, First Name. “Title of Page.” Name of Website, Publisher (if different from site name), Day Month Year, URL.
MLA has a few URL-specific rules that differ from other styles. You can drop the “https://” from the beginning of a URL. If the page offers a permalink (often found under a “share” or “cite this” button), use that instead of the full URL, since permalinks are shorter and more stable. Also strip out any query strings, the long tails of characters that sometimes appear after a question mark in a web address.
If the page doesn’t have page numbers and you need to point readers to a specific spot, use paragraph numbers in your in-text citation with the abbreviation “par.” for a single paragraph or “pars.” for a range.
Chicago Style
Chicago is common in history, business, and some social sciences. It offers two systems, and you’ll need to know which one your instructor or publisher expects.
The notes-bibliography system uses numbered footnotes or endnotes in the text, each corresponding to a superscript number. A full bibliography at the end of the paper lists every source. This is the system most history papers use.
The author-date system works more like APA: a brief parenthetical citation in the text (author last name, year) paired with a reference list at the end. This version is more common in the sciences and social sciences.
Both systems use the same core information: author name, title, site name, publication or modification date, and URL. The difference is purely in how the citation appears in the body of your paper and whether you’re building footnotes or parenthetical references.
When Information Is Missing
Websites frequently lack a visible author, a clear publication date, or both. Every major style has rules for handling these gaps rather than leaving them out or guessing.
No Author
In APA, move the page title into the author position. Do not write “Anonymous” unless the page literally says “Anonymous” as the byline. In MLA, similarly begin the entry with the title of the page.
No Date
In APA, write “n.d.” (short for “no date”) where the year would normally go, both in the reference list and in the in-text citation. In MLA, you simply omit the date element from the Works Cited entry.
No Author and No Date
In APA, start with the title and use “n.d.” for the date: Title. (n.d.). Source. URL. Your in-text citation uses a shortened version of the title and “n.d.”
No Title
In APA, write a brief description of the content in square brackets where the title would go. For example: [Infographic on U.S. unemployment rates]. This bracketed description then stands in for the title in your in-text citation as well.
These rules can stack. If a page has no author, no date, and no title, you describe the work in brackets, write “n.d.,” and provide the source and URL. It looks unusual, but it’s the correct format.
Citing Videos and Social Media
YouTube videos, TikTok posts, and other social media content follow slightly modified rules because they involve screen names, handles, and content that can change or disappear.
In APA, use the person’s real name as the author when it’s known, and put their handle in square brackets immediately after. If only a screen name is available, use that as the author. Include a description of the format in square brackets after the title, such as [Video] or [TikTok profile].
Here’s what a TikTok video citation looks like in APA:
[@chemteacherphil]. (2021, September 17). Fighting fire with fire. #sciencetok #learnontiktok [Video]. TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/@chemteacherphil/video/7008953610872605957
For social media profiles or pages where the content is designed to change over time and isn’t archived, include a retrieval date. Write it as “Retrieved Month Day, Year, from URL.” This tells your reader when you accessed the content, since it may look different later.
Pulling It All Together
Regardless of style, building a website citation comes down to the same process. First, identify your citation style. Then gather four things from the page: who wrote it, when it was published or updated, what the page is called, and the URL. Finally, check what’s missing and apply the correct substitution rule.
A few practical tips that apply across all styles:
- Look beyond the page itself for author information. Check the byline, the “About” page, or the footer. If an organization published the page but no individual is named, the organization is the author.
- Copy URLs carefully. Paste directly from your browser’s address bar rather than typing them out. Remove any tracking parameters (the strings after a “?” that often start with “utm”) when possible.
- Record the access date while you’re on the page. Even if your citation style doesn’t require it for static pages, you’ll need it for social media and frequently updated content, and it’s useful to have in your notes if the page later disappears.
- Use your citation style’s official guide as a final check. APA’s style website, Purdue OWL for MLA, and the Chicago Manual of Style’s citation quick guide all provide free examples you can compare against your own entries.