How to Cite a Website in MLA (MLA 9)

MLA doesn't have a separate rule for each kind of source. Every Works Cited entry uses the same core elements in the same order, and you leave out the ones your source doesn't have. For a web page, the MLA website citation format uses six of them. If you'd rather not assemble it by hand, the MLA Citation Maker builds the entry from a URL. Once you know the order, how to cite a website in MLA comes down to finding each detail on the page.

The MLA website citation format as a template

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Page." Name of Website, Publisher, Day Month Year, URL.

What makes a website a container

In MLA, a container is the larger work that holds your source. The article is the source, so its title goes in quotation marks. The website holds it, so the website's name goes in italics. That's why the MLA 9th edition website citation format looks like a journal article entry: both have a source inside a container. The MLA Style Center's quick guide to works cited explains containers in more depth.

MLA 8 vs. MLA 9

The website entry didn't change between MLA 8 (2016) and MLA 9 (2021). If your syllabus says "MLA 8," the same entries work. Older MLA 7 entries included the medium "Web." and an access date every time; MLA 9 uses neither by default.

Most mistakes in the MLA website citation format come from copying the wrong detail from the page. Here's where to look for each element and how to write it.

Author

Write one author last name first: Wu, Katherine J. For two authors, reverse only the first name: Smith, Ana, and Luis Ortiz. For three or more, give the first author and "et al." An organization can be the author when it wrote the page and someone else published it.

Title of the page

Use the headline of the specific page or article, in title case and quotation marks. Don't use the text in the browser tab if it adds the site's name, as in "About Sleep | Sleep | CDC."

Website name and publisher

The website name goes in italics. MLA leaves out the publisher when it's essentially the same as the website name, so Smithsonian Magazine needs no separate publisher. Add one when it differs, as with the National Park Service behind the Yellowstone National Park site. Platforms that host content they didn't create, such as YouTube, are not publishers.

Date

Use the most specific date the page shows, written day month year, with months longer than four letters abbreviated: 24 Feb. 2020, 2 Apr. 2024, 15 May 2024. If the page shows "updated," cite the date of the version you read.

URL

Copy the URL from your browser. MLA allows you to drop "https://"; many instructors prefer the full address so it stays clickable, so follow your syllabus. If the page lists a DOI or a permalink, use that instead, since it won't break.

Many web pages have no byline, so knowing how to cite a website with no author in MLA is essential. A missing byline doesn't make a page anonymous in MLA terms: you simply start the entry with the title.

Start with the title

"About Sleep." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 15 May 2024, https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/about/index.html.

Never write "Anonymous" or "n.a." in the author slot. When you alphabetize, the entry goes under its first word, ignoring "A," "An" and "The."

When an organization wrote it

If a government agency, company or nonprofit wrote the page and also runs the website, MLA starts with the title and names the organization once, as the website or publisher. That's why the CDC page above doesn't list the CDC as author. If the organization wrote the page but someone else published it, put the organization in the author slot.

Check the bottom of the page

Before you decide there's no author, scroll to the end. News sites and blogs often place the byline below the article, and some university pages list a writer or a reviewer in the footer. A reviewer isn't an author, so leave a "medically reviewed by" name out.

Plenty of web pages, especially government and organization pages, show no publication date. Leave the date out of the entry rather than guessing, and don't write "n.d." (that's APA). The MLA website citation format simply skips the date.

When to include an access date

MLA 9 treats the access date as optional. Add it when the page has no publication date, as in the National Park Service example, or when the page is likely to change or vanish: a wiki page, a social media post, a product page or a live news update. Write it at the end: Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.

When to leave it out

If the page shows a publication or update date, you don't need an access date. Some instructors want one on every web source anyway. If Mr. Johnson's ENGL 1301 syllabus says to include access dates, add them to all your web entries.

Copyright dates

A copyright line in the footer, such as "© 2026," usually applies to the whole site, not the page. Don't use it as the page's date unless it's the only date and it clearly covers the page.

Most of the time you cite one page, because your quote or fact came from that page. Citing a whole website is rare and only makes sense when you refer to the site in general.

One page or article

Cite the page in the standard MLA website citation format: its title in quotation marks, then the website in italics. This is also how to cite an article on a website in MLA, such as a magazine or newspaper story you read online.

A whole website

Put the site's name in italics as the title, with no quotation marks, then the publisher, date if there is one, and URL:

Purdue Online Writing Lab. Purdue University, https://owl.purdue.edu. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.

How to cite a government website in MLA

Government pages follow the same pattern. Use the agency's site name as the website, and add the parent agency as publisher when it differs, as with the NICHD page published by the National Institutes of Health. Leave out the author when the agency is both author and publisher.

Online newspapers, magazines and journals

A newspaper or magazine article online is cited like any web page, with the publication as the website. A scholarly journal article you found online keeps its volume, issue and page numbers, plus a DOI if it has one.

Social media and video platforms follow the MLA website citation format, with a few extra details. These templates show the order; fill in only what the post shows.

Social media posts

Account Name or @handle. "Full text of a short post, or a description of an untitled image." Platform Name, Day Month Year, time if helpful, URL.

Use the account's display name if it's a real name, and the handle if that's all there is. For a short post, the whole text serves as the title. Social media posts change and disappear, so an access date is a good idea.

YouTube and other video sites

If the person or channel that made the video also uploaded it, put that name in the author slot. If someone else uploaded it, put the creator first and add "uploaded by" and the uploader's name after the platform. Give the video's title in quotation marks, the platform in italics, the upload date and the URL. YouTube is not the publisher, because it didn't make the video.

Comments

Begin with the commenter's name or username, then "Comment on" and the title of the page in quotation marks, the website, the date and time, and the URL.

The MLA in-text citation for a website points to the Works Cited entry, so it uses the entry's first word. For a website, that means the author's last name or a short title, and usually nothing else.

No page numbers

Web pages have no page numbers, so a website citation usually ends with the name: (Wu). Don't count paragraphs or screens. If the page numbers its paragraphs or sections, you can cite them: (Wu, par. 4).

No author

Use a shortened title in quotation marks, starting with the first word of the entry: ("About Sleep") or ("Media Advisory"). This is the MLA in-text citation for a website with no author, and the most common one for organization pages.

Signal phrases

Name the author or organization in your sentence, and you may not need parentheses at all: According to the National Park Service, wolves returned to Yellowstone in 1995. For quoting a website in MLA, put the citation after the closing quotation mark and before the period. The full rules are in our guide to the MLA in-text citation, including videos with time stamps.

Teachers see the same website errors in nearly every research paper. Each MLA website citation example below pairs an error with its fix.

Is the site worth citing?

Formatting can't fix a weak source. For a research paper, prefer pages from government agencies, universities, established publications and professional organizations, and check who wrote the page and when. If you can't tell who's responsible for a page, look for a better source.

Let the tool do the commas

Paste the URL into the citation maker above to get a draft entry with the page's metadata filled in. It marks missing details for review, because many pages hide their author or date. Check the fields against the page, then copy the result. The web page form has no publisher field, so when the publisher differs from the website (such as the National Park Service), add it after the website name in the copied entry. Or open the full MLA citation generator to keep a saved list.

Once you know how to cite a website in MLA, remember that every website you cite in a research paper gets its own entry on the Works Cited page, mixed in alphabetically with your books and articles. Web sources aren't grouped separately.

Order and layout

Sort entries by their first word: author's last name, or the title when there's no author. Ignore opening quotation marks and the words "A," "An" and "The." Double-space everything and use a 0.5-inch hanging indent. The MLA Works Cited page guide walks through the setup in Word and Google Docs, and the Alphabetizer sorts a typed list for you.

Annotated lists

If your assignment asks for a summary of each website, see the guide to the MLA annotated bibliography. More guides are on the citation guides hub.

Build the list as you research

Instead of formatting each page by hand, use the free MLA citation maker: paste a link, check the author, title and date, and add the entry to a saved list that sorts itself and downloads as a Word file.