To cite a website in MLA style, you need four core pieces of information: the author’s name, the title of the page or article, the name of the website, and the URL. These elements follow a specific order and punctuation pattern in your Works Cited entry, and a shortened version appears in your in-text citation.
The Basic Works Cited Format
A standard MLA website citation follows this sequence:
Author Last Name, First Name. “Title of the Page or Article.” Title of the Website, Publication Date, URL.
Here’s what a real entry looks like:
Deresiewicz, William. “The Death of the Artist—and the Birth of the Creative Entrepreneur.” The Atlantic, 28 Dec. 2014, theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/01/the-death-of-the-artist-and-the-birth-of-the-creative-entrepreneur/383497/.
Notice the punctuation pattern: a period after the author’s name, a period after the article title (inside the closing quotation mark), a comma after the website name, a comma after the date, and a period at the very end of the URL. Titles of individual pages or articles go in quotation marks. The website name is italicized. Abbreviate months longer than four letters (Dec., Jan., Sept.) and format dates as day-month-year.
When There’s No Author
Many web pages don’t list an individual author. When that happens, start the Works Cited entry with the title of the page instead. Do not write “Anonymous” as a placeholder.
“Mental Health Resources for College Students.” National Alliance on Mental Illness, 15 Mar. 2023, www.nami.org/example-page.
Before you skip the author, look carefully. Check the top and bottom of the article, the byline area, and any “About” section. Some pages bury the author’s name. If the content was created by an organization rather than a person, you can list that organization as the author. There is one exception: if the organization is also the publisher of the website, skip the author element and just begin with the title. This avoids listing the same name twice.
When There’s No Publication Date
If a webpage has no visible publication date, simply leave it out of your citation and move on to the URL. You may want to add an access date at the end of the entry in this situation, since it gives your reader a sense of when the content was available. Format it like this:
“About Our Mission.” Habitat for Humanity, www.habitat.org/about/mission. Accessed 10 May 2025.
MLA does not require access dates for sources from reliable, stable websites. But they’re useful when the content might change or disappear, which is common with informal or self-published pages. When you include one, place “Accessed” followed by the date at the very end of the entry.
In-Text Citations for Websites
MLA uses the author-page method for in-text citations. You include the author’s last name and a page number in parentheses. Since most websites don’t have page numbers, you typically just include the author’s last name:
(Deresiewicz)
If you mention the author’s name in your sentence, you don’t need the parenthetical citation at all:
Deresiewicz argues that the modern artist has become an entrepreneur.
When there’s no author, use a shortened version of the article title in quotation marks:
(“Mental Health Resources”)
The key rule is that whatever appears in your in-text citation must match the first element of the corresponding Works Cited entry. If the entry starts with the author’s name, use the author’s name. If it starts with a title, use a shortened version of that title. If the page uses a numbering system like numbered paragraphs, you can include that label after the author’s name (Deresiewicz, par. 4).
Citing YouTube Videos
Videos follow the same general template but have a few differences. If the primary creator is clear, list them as the author. If it’s not obvious who the creator is, start with the video title and include the uploader’s name after “uploaded by”:
“Capybara Eat Huge Pumpkin.” YouTube, uploaded by Alex Smith, 12 Jan. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YNwxZnABzA.
Even when you do list a creator as the author, you can still mention the uploading account if it adds useful context. For a full-length film or other self-contained work that happens to be on YouTube, the citation gets a two-container structure: the work’s own title comes first (italicized, since it’s a complete work), followed by its contributors, publisher, and original date. YouTube then appears as a second container with its own date and URL.
URL Formatting
Drop “https://” from the beginning of URLs in your citation. Start with “www” if the URL includes it, or just the domain name if it doesn’t. The URL goes at the end of your entry, followed by a period. If your instructor requires a DOI (a permanent digital identifier commonly used for academic journal articles), use that instead of a regular URL, since DOIs don’t break or change over time. Most general websites won’t have a DOI, so the standard URL is what you’ll use.
Keep the full URL intact. Don’t shorten it or use a link shortener. If the URL is extremely long and wraps to multiple lines, your word processor will handle the line break automatically.
Putting It All Together
Here’s a quick reference for the most common scenarios:
- Standard webpage with author: Last, First. “Article Title.” Website Name, Date, URL.
- No author: “Article Title.” Website Name, Date, URL.
- No date: Last, First. “Article Title.” Website Name, URL. Accessed Date.
- Corporate author that is not also the publisher: Organization Name. “Article Title.” Website Name, Date, URL.
- YouTube video, unknown creator: “Video Title.” YouTube, uploaded by Account Name, Date, URL.
Every citation you build is a combination of these same elements, rearranged based on what information is available. Start with the author if you have one, fall back to the title if you don’t, include the date when it exists, and always end with the URL.