How to Cite a Website in APA 7th Edition (With Examples)

To cite a specific webpage in APA 7th edition, record who wrote the page, when that content was published or meaningfully updated, the page title, the website name when needed, and the URL. Then add a matching author–date citation wherever you use information from that page in your paper.

The standard reference format is:

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of webpage. Website Name. URL

In-text citations normally look like (Author, Year) for a paraphrase and (Author, Year, para. 4) for a quotation from a page without printed page numbers. The exact formatting depends on what information the page actually supplies. The examples below show how to handle those differences without inventing missing details.

APA 7 Website Citation: The Quick Reference

The American Psychological Association’s own webpage examples distinguish among personal writers, government agencies, organizational authors, and live pages that need retrieval dates.

How to Cite a Website in APA 7: Six Steps

1. Make sure the source is actually a webpage

Opening something in your browser does not automatically make it a “website” source. A journal article displayed online is still a journal article. A downloaded government report should ordinarily be treated as a report, even if its address ends in .pdf. A YouTube clip follows the video-reference pattern.

Use the basic webpage format when no more specific category applies. This prevents a surprisingly common error: stripping journal details such as volume, issue, and DOI from an academic article simply because you accessed it through a website.

2. Identify the author

Look near the headline, page footer, or author biography. When an individual is credited, write the surname first, followed by initials. If a university, public agency, nonprofit organization, or company is responsible instead, use its full organizational name.

Do not assume the website brand is always the author. A credited writer on a university blog remains the writer for that specific post. Conversely, a page produced by an agency without a named individual can properly list the agency as the author.

If no reliable author of either kind can be identified, move the page title into the author position; do not fill the gap with “Anonymous” unless the source expressly identifies its author that way.

3. Choose the right date

Use the most specific publication date attached to the specific webpage. A date may include a year, month, and day; if only the year is given, use only the year. APA’s June 2026 guidance also explains that a clearly attributable substantive update date can be used, but a date labeled only “reviewed” does not mean the text was revised.

Do not borrow a copyright year from a website-wide footer and pretend it is the publication date of the article. If the webpage offers no identifiable publication or update date, write (n.d.), meaning “no date.”

4. Write the page title in sentence case and italics

For an ordinary standalone webpage, italicize the page title. In sentence case, capitalize the first word, the first word after a colon or dash introducing a subtitle, and proper nouns. The site’s displayed headline may have Every Important Word Capitalized; your reference does not have to reproduce that capitalization.

For instance, a page called “How Students Find Reliable Online Sources” would become How students find reliable online sources in the reference. This is a hypothetical title, not a claim about a real publication.

5. Add the website name, if different from the author

The website name is normally written after the title, without italics. However, when the author is the website organization, the website name is omitted rather than repeated.

An entry beginning World Health Organization. does not need another World Health Organization. after the title when both refer to the same organization. This rule is illustrated by the APA Style group-author examples.

6. Finish with the direct URL and check whether retrieval information is needed

Link to the particular webpage you consulted rather than the website homepage. A working direct link helps another reader recover your source. You ordinarily do not write “Retrieved from” before an ordinary, stable webpage URL.

For a page intended to keep changing and lacking a fixed archived version—such as a live population clock—add Retrieved Month Day, Year, from before the URL. Retrieval dates are the exception, not a requirement for every website reference.

APA Website Citation Examples for Common Situations

These examples use real citations published by citation-style authorities where noted. The explanations show which piece of information performs which job.

Example 1: Webpage with an individual author

The APA Style website presents the following real-world pattern:

Mantel, B. (2025, April 24). How to be a caregiver for someone with multiple sclerosis. AARP. https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/health/info-2025/multiple-sclerosis-care-plan/

Parenthetical in-text citation: (Mantel, 2025)

Narrative in-text citation: Mantel (2025)

The writer is named, the date belongs to the article, and AARP is its hosting publication. The reference gives a direct path to the page. Notice that the reference list includes the day and month, whereas the ordinary in-text citation uses the year.

Example 2: Webpage written by an organization

The APA Style reference examples include this organization-authored page:

World Health Organization. (2018, May 24). The top 10 causes of death. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the-top-10-causes-of-death

In-text citation: (World Health Organization, 2018)

The website name is not repeated after the title because the organization is also the site’s name. Use the authoring organization rather than substituting its domain name or an unnamed staff member.

Example 3: Website page with no author

When there is genuinely no identifiable author, start with the webpage title. Here is a fictional formatting example only; the example URL is a placeholder and is not a research source:

Choosing sources for a research paper. (2024, March 8). Student Resource Hub. https://example.org/research-sources

In-text citation: (Choosing Sources, 2024)

The title moves to the front because no author is available. For a webpage whose title is italicized in the reference, italicize the shortened title in the in-text citation as well. If the source instead is an article within a larger periodical or other container, follow the title formatting of that source category.

Example 4: Webpage with no publication date

Suppose a college writing center publishes a page credited to the organization but shows no date. The following is an invented demonstration, not an actual published page:

Example College Writing Center. (n.d.). Avoiding unsupported claims in essays. https://example.org/writing/claims

In-text citation: (Example College Writing Center, n.d.)

The absence of a date does not automatically make a retrieval date necessary. Add one only when the page is designed to change over time and no archived, stable version is available.

Example 5: Live webpage that needs a retrieval date

The official APA examples use a changing statistics page:

U.S. Census Bureau. (n.d.). U.S. and world population clock. U.S. Department of Commerce. Retrieved January 9, 2020, from https://www.census.gov/popclock/

That is an illustration quoted as a citation example from APA’s guidance; January 9, 2020 is the date used in APA’s sample, not the date you should copy into your paper. If you consult the page yourself, substitute your actual retrieval date and verify its current URL and source information.

How to Write APA 7 In-Text Citations for Websites

Every source you paraphrase or quote normally needs an in-text citation linked to a corresponding reference list entry. For a standard authored webpage, use the writer’s surname and the year of publication.

The last two rows use illustrative details. Replace them with the actual information from your source.

How do you quote a webpage without page numbers?

APA direct quotations require a location so readers can find the quoted wording. For many webpages, that means a paragraph number instead of a page number. If a page has clear section headings, you may use a heading, or a heading plus a paragraph number within that section.

For example, the following is an illustrative citation layout—not a claim that an author published the accompanying words:

• (Rivera, 2024, para. 6)
• (Rivera, 2024, Methods section)
• (Rivera, 2024, Methods section, para. 2)

Count paragraphs carefully from the source actually being cited; do not invent a page number based on where content appears on your screen. If you are paraphrasing the whole source rather than pinpointing a quote, an author and year are ordinarily sufficient.

What if the organization has an abbreviation?

If you plan to cite a long organizational name repeatedly, introduce an easily recognized abbreviation the first time. For example, a first parenthetical citation could use (American Psychological Association [APA], 2026) if that year actually belongs to the work cited. Later citations can use (APA, 2026). The reference list still spells out the organization’s full name.

Avoid creating abbreviations for organizations you mention only once. A shortened form should help the reader, not force them to memorize an unnecessary acronym.

When You Do Not Need an APA Reference for a Website

There is an important difference between pointing someone to a website and borrowing information from a particular webpage.

If you simply write that your university provides student services through a portal and give the portal’s homepage URL in parentheses, you are directing readers to a site as a whole. APA generally does not require a separate reference entry for that mention.

If you discuss a particular statistic, policy, study summary, or statement on a page within that site, cite that individual page with a normal reference and in-text citation. If you use two different pages on the same site, you may need two references—even though their domain names match.

This distinction is confirmed by the University of Alberta Libraries and the University of Queensland Library.

Mistakes That Make an APA Website Citation Incorrect

Using the copyright footer as the article date. A site footer may change each year regardless of when the specific content was written. Check article metadata and byline dates first.

Putting the website name where the individual author belongs. If a reporter, researcher, or named writer is credited, the site hosting the page is not automatically the writer.

Repeating a group author as the website name. For a group-authored page whose site has the same name, include the name once.

Adding a retrieval date everywhere. Most stable webpages do not need one. A changing unarchived page may.

Citing a research article as a generic webpage. If the source has journal metadata and a DOI, use the journal article reference pattern; the browser address does not determine the source type.

Dropping the in-text citation. A correct-looking reference list cannot replace credit beside the material used in your writing.

Trusting automatically captured metadata without checking it. Browsers and citation generators may pick up an unrelated date, a page category rather than the title, or the website name rather than a credited writer. Compare the final result with the source.

A 60-Second Check Before You Submit

Read the webpage and your reference side by side. Verify that the author genuinely wrote the cited page, the date belongs to that content, the title uses APA capitalization, the website name appears only if appropriate, and the URL leads to the page. Then find each place where your paper uses information from that source and make sure the in-text citation matches the reference.

For direct quotations, add the most precise reliable locator available. If you cannot find an author or date, use the correct missing-information convention instead of making one up.

Conclusion

The main skill in citing a website in APA 7 is choosing the correct source details before formatting them. Most specific webpages follow the author–date–title–site–URL pattern, but the author can be an organization, the date may be unavailable, and the website name sometimes disappears because it duplicates the author. A retrieval date is reserved for appropriate changing content. When the source is actually a journal article, video, report, or newspaper article, use the more specific APA category. Once you have the right reference, add its matching author–date citation to the passages that rely on it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I cite a website in APA 7 when there is no author?

First, check whether an organization is responsible for the specific content; if so, use that organization as the author. If there is truly no identifiable personal or group author, begin the reference with the webpage title. In the text, cite a short form of the title and the year. Match the title’s italics or quotation marks to the source category instead of inserting “Anonymous” by default.

Is the date I accessed a website required in APA 7?

Usually not. Use the date the particular webpage was published or substantively updated when it is available. Include a retrieval date when a page is specifically designed to change over time and no stable, archived version is available. A live population clock is a useful example. Do not confuse the retrieval date with the source’s publication date.

Do I have to cite a website if I only mention its name?

Not necessarily. When you refer to an entire website in general—for example, directing classmates to an institution’s home page—you can give the URL in the text without making a reference list entry. Once you paraphrase a claim or quote text from a specific webpage, you normally need both the page reference and an in-text citation.

Can I use the same APA format for a PDF, YouTube video, and webpage?

No. APA references depend on the underlying type of work, not simply whether it was found online. A PDF may be a report, journal article, or another work; a YouTube video has its own video format. Classify the source first, then use the reference pattern for that category. This keeps information such as the journal volume, video uploader, or report publisher from being lost.