How to cite a website in MLA

The MLA format for citing a website is:

Author Last Name, First Name. "Title of Webpage." Name of Website, Publisher (if different from website), Day Month Year, URL.

Examples

Karlsson, Elin. "What Rural Broadband Data Actually Shows." Rural Policy Institute, 4 Aug. 2022, www.ruralpolicy.org/broadband-data.

Standard case - individual author with full first name, page title in title case and quotation marks, website name italicized, full date in day-month-year format, URL.

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MLA citation fields explained

Author

Format the author's name with last name first, followed by a comma and the first name in full: Bhatt, Reema. MLA does not abbreviate first names to initials - the author's first name is spelled out. Middle names or initials are included as the byline shows them. For two authors, list the first author with last name first and the second author with first name first, joined by "and": Bhatt, Reema, and Tomas Reyes. For three or more authors, list only the first author followed by "et al.": Bhatt, Reema, et al. If no individual author is listed, use the organization or website sponsor as the author with no inversion. Do not list "Anonymous" or "Staff" as the author when no individual byline is given.
Title of webpage

The page title in title case, enclosed in quotation marks. Capitalize all major words including those after a colon. The quotation marks treat the page as a stand-alone short work - equivalent to how MLA formats article titles within a periodical. Do not italicize the title; only longer container works (websites, books, journals) take italics.
Website name

The website's name in italics and title case, placed after the page title and a comma. The website is the page's container in MLA's container model. If the same organization is both the author and the website, list it once in the author position and omit the website name; alternatively, list the website name and omit a redundant publisher.
Publisher

The organization that publishes the website, in plain text and title case, after the website name. List the publisher only when it is meaningfully different from the website name. If the website's name and the publisher's name are essentially the same (a website called The Atlantic published by The Atlantic Monthly Group, for example), MLA permits omitting the publisher. Drop business descriptors like "Inc." and "Ltd.," but retain meaningful words like "Press" and "Publishing."
Date

The publication date of the page, in MLA's day-month-year format with the month abbreviated when longer than four letters: 15 Mar. 2021 or 3 Aug. 2022. May, June, and July are not abbreviated; January through April, August through December are. If only the month and year are known, use that: Mar. 2021. If only the year is known, use that. If no date is given on the page, omit the date and add an access date at the end of the entry (see below).
URL

The webpage's URL, ending the entry with a period. MLA 9 requires URLs in works cited entries (a change from MLA 8's optional treatment). Drop the protocol prefix (https://) when MLA's house style allows - recent MLA guidance accepts both with and without the protocol. Do not break URLs at hyphens you have added.
Access date (when needed)

Add an access date at the end of the entry, before the period after the URL, when the page has no publication date or when the content is likely to change without notice (a continuously updated dictionary entry, a continuously updated database record). Format: Accessed 14 Mar. 2024. Most webpage citations do not need an access date in MLA 9.

Examples of website citations in MLA

Page with named author and date

Karlsson, Elin. "What Rural Broadband Data Actually Shows." Rural Policy Institute, 4 Aug. 2022, www.ruralpolicy.org/broadband-data.

Standard case - individual author with full first name, page title in title case and quotation marks, website name italicized, full date in day-month-year format, URL.

Organization as author, same as website

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Tickborne Diseases of the United States." 12 June 2023, www.cdc.gov/ticks/diseases.

Because the listed author and the website are essentially the same organization, the website name is omitted to avoid redundancy. The reference moves from the author directly to the date.

Page with no listed author

"The History of Standardized Testing in U.S. Public Schools." Education Reform Institute, Oct. 2020, www.edreform.org/history-testing.

With no individual or organizational author identifiable, the page title moves to the author position. The title retains its quotation marks and title case in this position. The website name still gets italics.

Page with no date

Merriam-Webster. "Hermeneutic." Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hermeneutic. Accessed 4 Apr. 2024.

For pages with no publication date and content that updates over time (dictionary entries, statistics dashboards, continuously revised reference works), omit the date in its usual position and add an access date at the end. The access date establishes which version of the changing content you used.

Page with publisher distinct from the website

Reyes, Tomas. "Notes on Editorial Practice for Long-Form Online Work." The Margins, Halfway House Audio, 18 Jan. 2024, www.themargins.com/long-form-editorial.

When the website and the publisher are clearly distinct (a publication owned by a different parent company, an editorial site funded by a separate organization), list the publisher between the website name and the date. The publisher is in plain text without italics or quotation marks.

MLA edge cases for Website

Tricky citations don't have to be tricky. Pick a scenario to see the rule and a worked example.

Scenario 01
URL and access date - MLA 8 vs. MLA 9

This is the rule that most often catches students working from older handouts. MLA 8 (2016) made URLs optional and discouraged access dates; MLA 9 (2021) reversed both, requiring URLs and recommending access dates for undated or changeable content. If your TA or institution is enforcing MLA 8 conventions, the URL slot remains an instructor preference rather than an MLA requirement. For MLA 9, URLs are required for works cited entries from online sources; this is the current standard.

Scenario 02
Online news article on a news website

News articles are cited using the periodical-article format, not the webpage format. The article title is in quotation marks and title case (like a webpage), but the publication name (the news outlet) is italicized as a periodical, and the periodical's volume, issue, and pagination apply if printed in addition to online. Treat news articles like magazine or newspaper articles, not like generic webpages.

Scenario 03
Whole website cited as a source

To cite an entire website rather than a specific page on it, MLA's general rule is to omit a separate works cited entry when you are simply mentioning the website as a research surface. If the website itself is the substantive object of citation (a database, a curated archive, a research tool), cite the whole website with the website name in the title position (italicized): The Margins, Halfway House Audio, 2024, www.themargins.com. The author position is filled by the website's editor, sponsoring organization, or the website's name itself if no editor is identifiable.

Scenario 04
Page within a database

For a page accessed through an academic or institutional database, MLA's container model treats the database as a second container after the website. Format: Author. "Page Title." Website Name, Date, URL. Database Name, Database URL or DOI. The first container is the original publication source; the second is the database where you accessed it. This applies for content republished or hosted in databases like JSTOR, ProQuest, or specialized institutional repositories.

Scenario 05
Page with no date and no author

Move the page title to the author position and add an access date at the end: "Title of Page." Website Name, www.example.com/page. Accessed 14 Mar. 2024. The page title in this position retains quotation marks and title case. Two missing fields require both substitutions in their respective slots.

Scenario 06
Wikipedia entry

Cite Wikipedia entries using the standard webpage format with the entry title in the author position (Wikipedia entries have collaborative authorship and are not credited to individuals). Use the date of the specific revision you used (accessible through the "View history" tab) and a permalink URL containing oldid= for that revision: "Coastal Redevelopment." Wikipedia, 12 Mar. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Coastal_Redevelopment&oldid=1213094782. The permalink ensures that your reader sees the same version of the entry you cited.

Scenario 07
Page that has been moved or updated

If a page has been moved to a new URL or substantively updated since you cited it, MLA's general rule is to use the URL where the page lived when you accessed it, with an access date documenting when that was. If the URL is no longer accessible, the citation should still reflect what you used; do not silently substitute a different URL. The Wayback Machine can be used to provide access to an archived version, in which case cite the archive directly with its archive URL.

MLA in-text citations

In-text citation format

MLA uses author-page in-text citations, with parenthetical references that match the author and page reference in the works cited list. Webpages typically have no page numbers, so the parenthetical contains only the author or shortened title.

Paraphrase

Broadband access in rural counties remains uneven across regions (Karlsson).

Direct quote with no page numbers

Karlsson describes the gap as "a structural underinvestment, not a market signal." In-text quotes from webpages typically do not include paragraph numbers in MLA - unlike APA, MLA 9 does not require numerical reference for direct quotes from unpaginated sources. If your text is long enough that more precise navigation matters, mention the section in your prose: "In her methodology section, Karlsson describes…"

Author named in the sentence

When the author's name appears in the sentence introducing the quotation or paraphrase, the parenthetical citation can be omitted entirely for unpaginated webpages, since the only information the parenthetical would contain (the author) is already in the sentence. For paginated sources, the parenthetical still contains the page number even when the author is named.

Organization as author

(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) - for organizations, MLA permits abbreviation in subsequent citations after the first full mention: first citation (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), subsequent citations (CDC). Mention the abbreviation in your prose on first reference if you plan to use it.

No author - shortened title

("History of Standardized Testing") - when the title sits in the author position, the in-text citation uses a shortened version of the title in title case and quotation marks. Plain-text titles in the works cited list use quotation marks in-text; italicized titles use italics in-text instead.

References

Works Cited
  1. Modern Language Association. <em>MLA Handbook</em>. 9th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2021.
  2. MLA Style Center. "Works Cited: A Quick Guide." Modern Language Association, style.mla.org/works-cited-a-quick-guide.
  3. MLA Style Center. "Citing a Website in MLA." Modern Language Association, style.mla.org/works-cited/works-cited-a-quick-guide/citing-a-website.

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