To cite a website in MLA format, you need two things: a Works Cited entry at the end of your paper and a brief in-text citation wherever you reference the source. The Works Cited entry follows a specific order of elements, and the in-text citation is typically just the author’s last name in parentheses. Here’s how to build both, step by step.
The Basic Works Cited Format
Every MLA website citation uses the same core template. List the elements in this order, and include only what’s available on the page:
- Author. Last name, First name.
- Title of the page. In quotation marks, followed by a period inside the closing quote.
- Website name. Italicized, followed by a comma.
- Publisher or sponsor. Only if different from the website name, followed by a comma.
- Publication date. Day Month Year format (e.g., 14 May 2024), followed by a comma.
- URL. Copied from your browser with the https:// or http:// removed.
A complete entry looks like this:
Schultz, Dana. “How to Make Overnight Oats.” Minimalist Baker, 3 Jan. 2023, www.minimalistbaker.com/how-to-make-overnight-oats/.
Notice a few things. The page title sits in quotation marks while the website name is italicized. The URL starts with www. rather than https://. And every major element ends with a period except those followed by commas within the entry.
When There’s No Author
Many web pages don’t list an individual author. When that happens, begin your Works Cited entry with the title of the page instead. Do not write “Anonymous” as a stand-in.
“Mental Health Resources for College Students.” National Alliance on Mental Illness, 10 Sept. 2023, www.nami.org/your-journey/college-students/.
There’s one exception worth knowing. If the page was clearly created by an organization (a government agency, a nonprofit, a university), you can list that organization as the author. However, if that same organization is also the publisher of the website, skip the author slot entirely and just start with the title. This prevents you from listing the same name twice.
When There’s No Date
If the page doesn’t show a publication date or a “last updated” date, simply leave that element out and move on to the URL. Your entry will jump straight from the website name (or publisher) to the web address. You don’t need to write “n.d.” or any placeholder.
“About Our Organization.” Habitat for Humanity, www.habitat.org/about.
How to Format URLs
Copy the full URL from your browser’s address bar, then trim the protocol (the https:// or http:// at the beginning). If the URL contains a long query string, the jumble of characters that sometimes appears after a question mark, remove that portion too, since it usually reflects your specific browsing session rather than the source itself.
Never add a hyphen or space to break a URL across lines. Your word processor may wrap it automatically, and that’s fine, but manually inserted breaks can make the link unusable for anyone trying to follow it.
Two better alternatives exist when they’re available. A DOI (digital object identifier) is a permanent code assigned to scholarly articles and some ebooks. If the source has one, use it in place of the URL, formatted as https://doi.org/ followed by the DOI number. Note that DOIs are the one case where you keep the https:// prefix. A permalink is a shortened, stable URL that some online newspapers and magazines provide. If you spot one, use it instead of the full browser URL.
In-Text Citations for Websites
MLA in-text citations point the reader to the right entry on your Works Cited page. For a website with a named author, put the author’s last name in parentheses at the end of the sentence, before the period:
Overnight oats can be prepared in under five minutes (Schultz).
If you mention the author’s name in your sentence, you don’t need a parenthetical citation at all:
Schultz notes that overnight oats can be prepared in under five minutes.
Most websites don’t have page numbers, and MLA is clear on this point: when a source has no page numbers or other part numbers (like paragraph numbers or section numbers), don’t include a number in the parenthetical citation. Just the author’s last name is enough.
In-Text Citations With No Author
When your Works Cited entry begins with the page title instead of an author name, use a shortened version of that title in your in-text citation. Put it in quotation marks to match the Works Cited format:
College students can access free counseling through many campus partnerships (“Mental Health Resources”).
The shortened title just needs to be long enough that the reader can find the right entry on your Works Cited page. Use the first few distinctive words.
Citing Social Media and Other Web Formats
MLA uses the same core template for all web content, but a few formats have quirks worth noting.
For a social media post, the author is the account holder. Use their real name if known, with the screen handle in brackets after it. The “title” of the post is the full text of a short post, or the first sentence or so of a longer one, placed in quotation marks. The container is the platform name (Instagram, X, YouTube), italicized.
For a YouTube video, the person or channel that uploaded it goes in the author slot. The video title goes in quotation marks, and YouTube is the italicized container name. Include the upload date and URL.
For a blog post, treat it like any other web page. The blog post title goes in quotation marks, and the blog name (or the larger website it lives on) is the italicized container.
Putting It All Together
Here’s a quick reference for the most common scenarios:
- Standard web page: Author. “Page Title.” Website Name, Publisher (if different), Day Month Year, URL.
- No author: “Page Title.” Website Name, Day Month Year, URL.
- No date: Author. “Page Title.” Website Name, URL.
- No author or date: “Page Title.” Website Name, URL.
On your Works Cited page, entries are alphabetized by the first word of each entry (the author’s last name, or the first significant word of the title if there’s no author). Each entry uses a hanging indent, where the first line is flush left and all following lines are indented half an inch. Double-space everything, with no extra space between entries.