How to Cite a Website in APA, MLA and Chicago (Even With No Author or Date)

To cite a website, collect the author, the date, the title of the page, the name of the site and the URL, then arrange them in your style. APA 7 puts the date after the author, MLA 9 puts it near the end, and Chicago varies by system. If the author or date is missing, move the title forward or use n.d. Examples for all three styles are below.

What you need before you cite

Every style asks for roughly the same five facts about a web page. Find them first and the formatting becomes simple.

1. Author: a person, or an organization such as a university or a government agency.
2. Date: when the page was published or last updated.
3. Title of the page: the headline of the specific page, not the site.
4. Name of the website: the larger site that holds the page.
5. URL: the address of the exact page.

Look for the author and date near the headline, at the bottom of the article, or in an "About" or "Last updated" line. All names, sites and addresses below are invented, so do not copy them into a real paper.

Cite a page, not the whole site

Most citations point to one page (an article, a report, a policy). Cite the page you used, with its own title and its own URL. Only when you refer to a website in general, with no particular page, do you skip the formal citation: just name the site and give the address in your sentence, for example, "the Riverbank University Writing Center site (www.example.edu/writing)". Check your style guide for how your class treats that case.

Quick table: the same page in three styles

Imagine one page: an article by Maria Reyes titled "How to Plan a Study Schedule", on the Campus Learning Hub site of Riverbank University, published 12 March 2025.

Notice the three differences at once: where the date sits, which title gets italics or quotation marks, and whether the URL keeps its https:// start (APA and Chicago keep it; MLA recommends dropping it).

How to cite a website in APA 7

APA 7 is an author-date style.

Template: Author. (Year, Month Day). Title of page in sentence case. Site Name. URL

• The page title is in italics, in sentence case (only the first word and proper nouns capitalized).
• Leave out the site name when it is the same as the author, as with an organization that wrote its own page.
• Do not add a retrieval date for a normal page. Add one, in the form Retrieved November 3, 2026, from URL, only if the page is designed to change over time and has no archived version.

Example, organization as author: Riverbank University Writing Center. (2024). How to cite sources in class papers. https://www.example.edu/writing/citing

In-text: (Reyes, 2025) or Reyes (2025). For a group author: (Riverbank University Writing Center, 2024).

For the full APA pattern, see the APA 7 citation guide.

How to cite a website in MLA 9

MLA follows the container idea: the page is the source, the website is the container.

Template: Author. "Title of Page." Title of Website, Publisher (if different from the site), Day Mon. Year, URL.

• Drop https:// from the URL.
• If the publisher has the same name as the site, leave the publisher out.
• An access date is optional: Accessed 3 Nov. 2026. Add it if your instructor asks, or if the page has no date at all.

In-text: (Reyes). A web page usually has no page numbers, so the author's surname alone is enough. See the full MLA format guide.

How to cite a website in Chicago

Chicago has two systems. The notes-bibliography system uses footnotes or endnotes and a bibliography. It is common in history and the humanities. The author-date system uses brackets in the text and a reference list, like APA, and is common in sciences. The Chicago Manual of Style has been revised over time, so ask which edition your course uses and compare these shapes with its examples.

Notes-bibliography, footnote:

1. Maria Reyes, "How to Plan a Study Schedule," Campus Learning Hub, Riverbank University, March 12, 2025, https://www.example.edu/learning/study-schedule.

Notes-bibliography, bibliography entry: Reyes, Maria. "How to Plan a Study Schedule." Campus Learning Hub, Riverbank University. March 12, 2025. https://www.example.edu/learning/study-schedule.

Author-date reference list: Reyes, Maria. 2025. "How to Plan a Study Schedule." Campus Learning Hub, Riverbank University. March 12, 2025. https://www.example.edu/learning/study-schedule.

Chicago generally asks for an access date only when a page has no publication or modification date. For when to choose notes over brackets, see footnotes vs endnotes.

When there is no author

Use the organization if one stands behind the page. If there is truly no author, move the title to the author position.

Do not write "Anonymous" unless the source itself is signed that way. Do not use the website name as the author unless the site is the publisher of its own page.

When there is no date

Look first for a "Last updated" or "Reviewed" line near the bottom of the page. If you cannot find any date:

• APA: write (n.d.) for "no date": Riverbank University Writing Center. (n.d.). How to cite sources. URL
• MLA: leave out the date and add Accessed 3 Nov. 2026. at the end.
• Chicago: use n.d. in place of the date and give an access date: Accessed November 3, 2026.

Social media and online news

Online news article (cite it like a periodical article, with the newspaper as the site):

• APA: Walsh, K. (2026, October 8). City library extends weekend hours. The Northfield Courier. https://www.example.com/news/library-hours
• MLA: Walsh, Karen. "City Library Extends Weekend Hours." The Northfield Courier, 8 Oct. 2026, www.example.com/news/library-hours.

Social media post (use the account's real name and handle, and quote the opening words):

• APA: Riverbank Library [@riverbanklib]. (2026, October 15). Our extended weekend hours start this Saturday. Study rooms can be booked online [Post]. Example Social. https://www.example.com/riverbanklib/post/123
• MLA: @riverbanklib. "Our extended weekend hours start this Saturday." Example Social, 15 Oct. 2026, www.example.com/riverbanklib/post/123.

Both styles have a preferred format that depends on the platform, and each style also gives guidance for cases such as a comment or a deleted post. When a social post is your main evidence, follow the exact example in your style guide.

Common mistakes

• Citing the home page instead of the specific page you read.
• Copying a long URL with tracking text, such as the part after a question mark that records where you clicked from. Delete tracking parts unless the page does not load without them.
• Using the site name as the author when a named writer is shown on the page.
• Mixing styles: APA sentence case with MLA quotation marks in one entry.
• Forgetting the date you accessed a page that has no publication date.
• Trusting a page just because it has a clean citation. Style says how to credit a source, not whether it is reliable. Prefer pages from universities, governments, established news and named experts. See primary vs secondary sources.

Checklist for each web citation

1. Did you cite the exact page, with its own title and URL?
2. Is the author a person or organization you can see on the page?
3. Is the date the publication or last-updated date, written in your style's pattern?
4. Is the page title formatted as your style needs (italics or quotation marks, sentence or title case)?
5. Does the URL work, and is it free of tracking text?
6. Does the in-text citation match the first word of the list entry?

Build the entry with the Citation Generator

The Citation Generator has APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago, Harvard and IEEE modes. For a web page, you type the author, title, site name, date and URL, and it produces a reference entry and an in-text citation. There is a field for an access date. It formats what you enter and does not open the page or check that your details are right, so verify the facts, then compare the result with your instructor's example, especially for unusual sources such as social posts.

Before you hand in the paper, a pass through the Spell Checker helps catch typos in names and titles. If you are not sure how much of your text is too close to a source, read how to avoid plagiarism, and use the Plagiarism Checker as an aid. It compares text with open sources only and is not proof either way.

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