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 a URL. These go into a works-cited-list entry at the end of your paper, and you pair each entry with a shorter in-text citation wherever you quote or paraphrase the source. The format is straightforward once you understand the template, but websites often lack an author or a publication date, which changes how you build the entry.
The Basic Works-Cited Entry
A standard MLA works-cited entry for a website follows this pattern:
Author Last Name, First Name. “Title of the Page or Article.” Title of the Website, Publisher (if different from the website name), Day Month Year of publication, URL.
Here’s what that looks like filled in:
Lundberg, Sarah. “How Urban Gardens Reduce Food Waste.” Green City Project, 14 Mar. 2024, www.greencityproject.org/urban-gardens-food-waste.
A few formatting details matter. The page or article title goes in quotation marks. The website name is italicized. Months longer than four letters are abbreviated (Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec.). You can drop the “https://” from the beginning of URLs unless you’re hyperlinking in a document that requires the full protocol. If a source provides 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.
When There Is No Author
Many web pages don’t name an individual author. When that happens, start the entry with the title of the page instead. Do not write “Anonymous” in the author spot.
“Mental Health Resources for College Students.” National Alliance on Mental Illness, 2 Jan. 2024, www.nami.org/college-students.
If the page was created by an organization (a government agency, a nonprofit, a university), list that organization as the author. There is one exception: if the organization is also the publisher of the website, skip the author slot entirely and start with the title. This avoids repeating the same name twice. In the example above, the National Alliance on Mental Illness is both the author and the publisher, so the entry begins with the title and lists the organization only as the website name.
When There Is No Publication Date
Some web pages don’t show when they were published or last updated. If no date exists, simply leave that element out of the entry and move on to the URL. In this situation, adding an access date at the end of the entry is a good idea, since it tells your reader when the content was available. Format it like this:
“Recycling Guidelines for Plastics.” EcoWatch Daily, www.ecowatchdaily.com/recycling-plastics. Accessed 8 May 2025.
Access dates are optional for sources that do show a publication date, but they’re especially useful when content might be altered or removed over time, which is common with wikis, social media posts, and informal or self-published pages.
In-Text Citations for Websites
Every time you quote or paraphrase information from a website, you need an in-text citation that points the reader to the correct works-cited entry. For websites, this is simpler than for books because most web pages have no page numbers.
If the source has a named author, put the author’s last name in parentheses at the end of the sentence:
Urban composting programs have diverted thousands of tons of organic waste from landfills (Lundberg).
If you already mention the author’s name in your sentence (called a signal phrase), you don’t need a parenthetical citation at all when the source has no page numbers:
According to Lundberg, urban composting programs have diverted thousands of tons of organic waste from landfills.
If the source has no author, use the title in place of a name. The first time you reference it, give the full title. After that, you can shorten it to a recognizable phrase:
Rigid plastics are more widely accepted by curbside programs than flexible films (“Recycling Guidelines for Plastics”).
Citing Articles from News Sites
An article published on a newspaper or magazine website follows the same template, but the website name is the publication’s name in italics. If the article lists a specific author, include it:
Marsh, Devon. “The Hidden Cost of Fast Fashion.” The Atlantic, 22 Sept. 2024, www.theatlantic.com/hidden-cost-fast-fashion.
The in-text citation would be (Marsh). If no individual author is credited, start with the article title and cite in-text by a shortened version of that title.
Citing Social Media Posts
For a social media post, use the account holder’s name as the author and the full text of the post (or the first words, trimmed to a reasonable length) as the title in quotation marks. The platform name serves as the website title:
NASA [@NASA]. “The Hubble Space Telescope captured a stunning image of the Crab Nebula.” Twitter, 10 Apr. 2024, twitter.com/NASA/status/1234567890.
Include the handle in brackets after the name if the account uses a screen name different from the author’s real name. Because social media content can be deleted or edited at any time, adding an access date is a smart choice here.
Citing Online Videos
For a video on a platform like YouTube, the person or organization who uploaded the video typically goes in the author position. The video title goes in quotation marks, and the platform name is italicized:
Khan Academy. “Introduction to Derivatives.” YouTube, 5 June 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=example.
If the uploader and the creator are different people, you can clarify using descriptive labels. For instance, if someone uploaded a lecture by a named speaker, you might list the speaker as the author and note “uploaded by [channel name]” in the entry.
Formatting the Works-Cited Page
All your entries go on a separate page at the end of your paper, titled “Works Cited” and centered at the top. Entries are listed in alphabetical order by whatever comes first in the entry, whether that’s an author’s last name or the first significant word of a title (skip “A,” “An,” and “The” when alphabetizing). Each entry uses a hanging indent: the first line is flush left, and every subsequent line is indented half an inch. Double-space the entire list, with no extra space between entries.
If you have two or more works by the same author, list them alphabetically by title and replace the author’s name in the second and subsequent entries with three hyphens followed by a period.