Citing a book is relatively straightforward — the required information sits neatly on the title page. Citing a website is genuinely trickier, since the needed details (author, publication date, site name) are often scattered, partially missing, or not clearly labeled at all.
Step 1: Gather the available information
Look for these elements, understanding that not every website will have all of them clearly stated:
- Author — an individual byline, or an organizational author if no individual is named
- Title of the specific page or article — not just the overall website name
- Website/publisher name — the organization running the site, if different from the author
- Publication or last-updated date — often near the top or bottom of an article, though many pages don't display one clearly
- URL — the full web address
Step 2: Handle a missing author
If no individual author is credited, use the organizational name responsible for the site as the author instead (for instance, citing "World Health Organization" as the author for an unsigned page on who.int). If neither an individual nor a clear organizational author can be identified, each style has its own convention for starting the citation with the title instead — our Citation Generator can still produce a reasonable citation by leaving the author field blank.
Step 3: Handle a missing date
Many websites, particularly reference pages, don't display a clear publication or last-updated date. APA style uses "n.d." (no date) in this situation; MLA and Chicago have their own similar conventions for an undated source. Check specifically for a "last updated" note, sometimes in small text at the page's bottom, before concluding a date is genuinely unavailable.
Step 4: Note the access date (required by some styles)
MLA and Chicago style generally recommend or require noting the date you accessed a website, since web content can change or disappear over time — unlike APA, which typically doesn't require an access date for most online sources, under the reasoning that most cited content (especially from stable, archived journal sources) is less likely to silently change.
A worked example across all three styles
Source: an article titled "Understanding Climate Models" by Jane Smith, published on the National Geographic website, March 2025, accessed March 20, 2026, at a specific URL.
APA: Smith, J. (2025). Understanding climate models. National Geographic. [URL]
MLA: Smith, Jane. "Understanding Climate Models." National Geographic, 2025, [URL]. Accessed 20 Mar. 2026.
Chicago: Smith, Jane. "Understanding Climate Models." National Geographic. Accessed March 20, 2026. [URL].
Common website citation mistakes to avoid
See our dedicated guide on common citation mistakes for a broader list, but website-specific issues include citing just the homepage URL instead of the specific article's direct URL, and forgetting to distinguish between a website's overall name and the specific publisher/organization behind it when they differ.
Generate your citation
Our free Citation Generator walks through exactly these fields for a website source — author, title, site name, URL and access date — and formats them correctly for APA, MLA or Chicago style.
Keep reading: