How to Cite a Website: APA, MLA, and Chicago Formats (Plus Extensions That Help)

What information do you need to cite a website?

Every website citation needs the same core facts, no matter which style you use: who wrote it, what it's called, where it lives, and when it was published or updated. You gather these once, then arrange them differently for APA, MLA, or Chicago.

If a page is missing one of these pieces — common on news sites, wikis, or company blogs — each style has a workaround, covered further down.

Author

The person or organization credited with the page, if one is listed. Many product and company pages name no individual — use the organization instead.

Title

The exact title of the specific page or article you're citing, not the title of the whole site.

Site name

The name of the website or publisher hosting the page, when it's different from the author.

Date

The publication date, or the 'last updated' date shown near the top or bottom of the page if no publish date appears.

URL

The full, working address of the exact page you read — not the site's homepage.

Access date

The date you viewed the page. APA and MLA only ask for this when content is likely to change, such as a wiki or pricing page.

How do you cite a website in APA format?

An APA (7th edition) reference-list entry runs author, date, title, then source, in that fixed order. The in-text citation is just the author's last name and the year.

1. Identify the author. Use a person's name (Last, F. M.) or the organization's name if no individual is credited.
2. Add the date in parentheses: (Year, Month Day) for a full date, (Year) if only a year is shown, or (n.d.) if no date appears anywhere on the page.
3. Write the title of the specific page in sentence case — only the first word and proper nouns capitalized, not italicized.
4. Name the website or organization publishing the page, if it's different from the author.
5. End with the direct URL to the page. Don't add 'Retrieved from' wording or a period after the URL.

Lastname, A. A. (2025, June 3). Title of the specific web page. Site Name. https://www.example.com/page

How do you cite a website in MLA format?

MLA builds a Works Cited entry from a fixed list of core elements. MLA also treats the website as a container — the larger whole that holds the page you're citing, the same way a magazine issue contains an article, per the MLA Style Center's quick guide.

1. Author. Last name first, if one is listed; skip this element if there's no named author.
2. "Title of the specific web page," in quotation marks.
3. Website Name (the container), italicized in your paper.
4. Publisher, if it's different from the website name and adds useful information.
5. Date of publication, in day-month-year order, for example 3 June 2025.
6. URL of the exact page.

Lastname, First. "Title of the Specific Web Page." Website Name, 3 June 2025, https://www.example.com/page.

How do you cite a website in Chicago style?

Chicago offers two separate citation systems, and which one you use depends on your field, not personal preference. Check the Chicago Manual of Style's quick guide or ask your instructor if you're unsure which one your assignment expects.

Notes-bibliography system

Sources are cited in numbered footnotes or endnotes, then listed again in a bibliography. It's the older, more flexible system, preferred in the humanities — literature, history, and the arts.

Author-date system

Sources are cited briefly in parentheses in the text (author's last name and year), then listed fully in a reference list. It's preferred in the sciences and social sciences.

1. Footnote: Author First Last, "Title of Web Page," Site Name, Month Day, Year, URL.
2. Bibliography entry: Author Last, First. "Title of Web Page." Site Name. Month Day, Year. URL.
3. If no author is listed, start with the site name or organization instead, in both the note and the bibliography.
4. If the page has no clear publication date, add an access date before the URL, for example: accessed June 3, 2025, https://www.example.com/page.

How do in-text citations differ between APA, MLA and Chicago?

All three styles cite a website briefly in the sentence and save full details for the reference list or bibliography, but the exact wording changes by style and system.

What do you do when a website has no author or date?

When no individual or organization is credited, all three styles move the title into the author position and alphabetize the reference-list entry by that title. When there's no date, APA uses '(n.d.)', MLA usually drops the date element entirely, and Chicago adds an access date before the URL instead.

Can a Chrome extension cite a website for you?

Chrome has no built-in citation tool, so formatting every source by hand means checking style rules for each page one at a time. A research extension reads the page's metadata — title, author tags, publish date — and drops a formatted entry into your document or clipboard, which is faster than typing each element yourself.

These tools still stumble on pages with messy or missing metadata, so check the author, date, and title against the actual page before you submit anything.

Do you need an extension, or is copy-pasting enough?

For one or two website citations, formatting by hand from a template is fine. For a paper with a dozen or more web sources, an extension saves real time and cuts down on the copy-paste errors that come from moving details between tabs.

What mistakes should you avoid when citing a website?

• Citing the homepage URL instead of the exact page you read.
• Mixing styles — using MLA's quotation-mark title style inside an APA reference list, for example.
• Leaving out the site name when the author and the site aren't the same entity.
• Forgetting an access date on pages likely to change, like wikis or pricing pages.
• Trusting an extension's output without checking it against the page itself.