How to cite a website comes down to capturing five pieces of metadata — author, title, site name, date and URL — plus an access date, then formatting them for your chosen style. Because web pages can change or vanish, the access date and a stable URL matter more than for print sources.
Follow the steps below, then use the worked examples in APA, MLA and Harvard.
Step 1: Record the metadata
Before you format anything, gather:
- Author — a person or, failing that, the organisation responsible.
- Title — the title of the specific page, not the whole site.
- Site name — the publisher or container.
- Date — publication or last-updated date.
- URL — the direct, stable link (a DOI or permalink if available).
- Access date — the day you viewed it.
Step 2: Identify the author or fall back sensibly
If no individual is named, use the organisation as author. If even that is unclear, move the page title to the author position. Never invent an author. Our practitioner guide to citing sources covers these fallbacks in depth.
Step 3: Format for your style
The same metadata is arranged differently in each style. Worked examples:
- APA: Smith, J. (2021, March 4). Patterns of research participation. Research Standards Hub. https://example.org/patterns
- MLA: Smith, Jane. “Patterns of Research Participation.” Research Standards Hub, 4 Mar. 2021, example.org/patterns. Accessed 19 June 2026.
- Harvard: Smith, J. (2021) Patterns of research participation. Available at: https://example.org/patterns (Accessed: 19 June 2026).
For the full APA rules behind that example, see our APA essentials guide, and for the author-date logic, Harvard referencing.
Step 4: Handle missing dates and authors
Web pages often lack a clean date or byline. Standard substitutions:
| Missing element | APA | MLA / Harvard |
|---|---|---|
| No date | (n.d.) | Omit date; rely on access date |
| No author | Use title in author position | Use organisation, then title |
| No page title | Describe content in brackets | Describe content in brackets |
The access date does real work here: it tells a reader which version of a changeable page you relied on.
Step 5: Add the in-text citation
Pair the reference with the in-text marker your style uses — (Smith, 2021) in APA and Harvard, (Smith) in MLA. Where there is no author, use a short form of the title. Numeric styles such as IEEE and AMA handle web sources with the same numbered markers they use for print.
Step 6: Verify the link is stable
Prefer a DOI or permalink over a long session URL. If the page may move, note that an archived copy exists. Consistency across all your web citations is the final check our for authors guidance recommends.
How web citation fits the wider record
Well-formed web references plug into structured metadata: controlled terms in our dictionary and contributor roles via CRediT describe the rest of an output. For more on formatting choices, see citation styles compared and the research outputs category.
Frequently asked questions
Do I always need an access date?
MLA and Harvard recommend one for web pages; APA requires it only when the content is likely to change and is not archived. When in doubt, include it.
What if there is no publication date?
Use (n.d.) in APA, or omit the date and rely on the access date in MLA and Harvard. Do not guess a date.
Should I cite the homepage or the specific page?
Cite the specific page you used. Reserve the homepage URL for when you are referring to the site as a whole.
How do I cite a page with no author at all?
Move the title into the author position, or use the organisation responsible for the site. Never fabricate authorship.
