How to cite a website in mla example

Citing a website in MLA

How to create an MLA website citation:

When citing a website, you’re often actually citing a specific page on a website. You’re not actually citing the entire website.

Here is the most common way to cite a page on a website:

  • Start the citation with the name of the author who wrote the information on the page. If there isn’t an author listed, do not include this information in the citation. Start the citation with the title.
  • The title of the individual page is placed in quotation marks, followed by a period.
  • Next, place the name of the website in italics, followed by a comma.
  • If the name of the publisher matches the name of the author or the name of the title, do not include the publisher’s information in the citation.
  • The date the page or website was published comes next.
  • End the citation with the URL or DOI. When including the URL, copy the URL directly from the address bar or link in your browser window.

Last name, First name of author. “Title of Web Page.” Title of Website, Publisher, Date published, URL.

Rothfeld, Lindsay. “Smarter Education: The Rise of Big Data in the Classroom.” Mashable, 3 Sept. 2014, mashable.com/2014/09/03/education-data-video/#hViqdPbFbgqH.

You can usually leave out http:// or https:// from URLs unless you want to hyperlink them. For DOIs, use http:// or https:// before the DOI: https://doi.org/xx.xxxx/xxx.xxxx.xxxx.

If you’re still confused and feeling the urge to type “How to cite a website MLA” into Google, try out our free generator at the top of this page. Our citation generator MLA site is easy to use!

If the user’s handle and real name are similar, you may include the real name and leave out the handle as long as a URL is also included. If the user’s real name and handle are different, include the hand in brackets after the real name.

Tweets:

Gates, Melinda. “Today, Bill and I were deeply humbled to accept France’s Legion of Honour award on behalf of all our foundation’s partners and grantees.” Twitter, 21 Apr. 2017, twitter.com/melindagates/status/855535625713459200.

Facebook:

Sandler, Adam. “California Strong celebrity softball game this Sunday at Pepperdine. All proceeds go to the victims of the wildfires and shooting in Thousand Oaks.” Facebook, 11 Jan. 2019, www.facebook.com/Sandler/.

Instagram:

Mizuhara, Kiko [@I_am_kiko]. “@vivi_mag_official shot by my sis @ashley_yuka.” Instagram, 25 June 2020, www.instagram.com/p/CB27SYahBpo.

MLA Citation Generator | Website | Books | Journal Articles | YouTube | Images | Movies | Interviews | PDFs

To cite an entire website as a works-cited entry, enter the editor(s) Last Name, First Name (If available), Website Title (in italics), publisher (If available), publication date, and URL (without “https://”).

Example

John Buchan Society, John Buchan Society, 2013. www.johnbuchansociety.co.uk/.

To cite a webpage as a works-cited entry, enter the author’s Last Name, First Name (If available), Title of the page (in quotation marks), Website (in italics), publication date, and URL (without “https://”).

Example

“Whales Likely Impacted by Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” The Ocean Cleanup, 10 Apr. 2019, theoceancleanup.com/updates/whales-likely-impacted-by-great-pacific-garbage-patch/.

Author

It can sometimes be difficult to find out who the author of a website is. Remember that an author can be a corporation or group, not only a specific person. Author information can sometimes be found under an "About" section on a website.

If there is no known author, start the citation with the title of the website instead.

Title

Capitalize the first letter of every important word in the title. You do not need to capitalize words such as: in, of, or an. Do not use all-caps (except for words like USA where each letter stands for something), even if the words appear that way on the article.

If there is a colon (:) in the title, include what comes after the colon (also known as the subtitle).

Publisher

The publisher or sponsoring organization can often be found in a copyright notice at the bottom of the home page or on a page that gives information about the site. When the page is authored and published by the same corporation/group/organization, begin your citation with the section title. 

According to p. 42 of the MLA Handbook, publisher information may be omitted for:

  • periodicals (journals, magazines, newspapers)
  • works published by an author or editor
  • web sites whose title is the same as the name of the publisher
  • a web site not involved in producing the work it makes (e.g. user-generated content sites like YouTube)

Date

The best date to use for a website is the date that the content was last updated. Otherwise look for a copyright or original publication date. Unfortunately this information may not be provided or may be hard to find. Often date information is located on the bottom of the pages of a website.

If you do not know the complete date, put as much information as you can find. For example, you may have a year but no month or day.

Access Date

Date of access is optional in MLA 9th edition. If no publication date is included, we recommend including the date you last accessed the site.

How do you cite a website example?

Author last name, First name. “Page Title.” Website Name, Day Month Year, URL.

What is MLA citation example?

MLA in-text citation style uses the author's last name and the page number from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken, for example: (Smith 163). If the source does not use page numbers, do not include a number in the parenthetical citation: (Smith).

How do you in Cite text a website?

Cite web pages in text as you would any other source, using the author and date if known. Keep in mind that the author may be an organization rather than a person. For sources with no author, use the title in place of an author. For sources with no date use n.d. (for no date) in place of the year: (Smith, n.d.).

How do you cite a website in MLA with no author?

When no author is listed, you may omit the author information from the MLA citation for the website and begin, instead, with the title (Handbook 108). “Title of Web Page.” Title of Website, Publisher, date published in day month year format, URL.