How to Cite a Website in MLA Format | 9th Edition Rules

• Jun 12, 2024
• 4 min read

• Tags: Citations and References, MLA Citations, MLA Style

Whether you’re writing a paper or crediting people on your blog, you should know how to write a website citation in MLA style. While there are several tools to create an MLA citation for a website, they’re not perfect. Even the best of tools make errors, and you should know the right format to be able to spot them.

As your resident academic experts, we’ll break down everything about citing a website in MLA format. We’ll take a look at the basic format and add corresponding MLA website citation examples. With this, we’ve included some quick tips, so you’ll never forget how to cite websites in MLA format!

How to cite a website in MLA format

Web pages don’t always have a clearly defined author or other publishing details. Plus, writers and organizations frequently update web content to keep it fresh and relevant. So, your MLA format citation for a website may become outdated by the time it reaches the instructor’s desk!

The rules of academic writing present a solution: Just mention the date of accessing the source in your MLA website citations! Let’s take a closer look.

Here’s an MLA format citation for a website:

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of the Article.” Title of the Website, Sponsor or Publisher, Date Month Year (of publication), URL. Accessed Date Month Year(optional).

Jones, Dave. “The Many ‘Nothings’ in King Lear.” Shakespeare Quarterly, Globe Theatre, 15 Mar. 2023, www.citationguide.com/article123. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.

Note that the sponsor or publisher is mentioned only if they’re a separate entity from the website. 

Here are some quick tips to remember the format of an MLA citation for websites:

• Memorize the core sequence: author, article, website, and date.
• In case the article or web page title has an italicized part, keep the italicization intact.
• If there are other contributors, such as editors or translators, include their names after the website title.
• If the source is part of a numbered sequence, list the issue and/or volume numbers.
• Always use the Day Month Year format while writing dates, unless told otherwise by your instructor.
• Include the full URL without adding “http://” or “https://”.
• Adding the date of access isn’t compulsory, but it’s a good practice to follow.

Let’s take a look at some variations of this format with relevant MLA website citation examples.

Variations of MLA website citation format

1. Website article with an editor

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of the Article.” Title of the Website, edited by Editor’s First Name Last Name, Publisher, Date Month Year, URL. Accessed Date Month Year.

Roseth, Isabel. “‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’: A Series in Review.” The Justice, edited by Brynne Rao, 02 Apr. 2024, www.thejustice.org/article/2024/04/percy-jackson-and-the-olympians. Accessed 21 May 2024

(Roseth)

2. Website article with no author

“Title of the Article.” Title of the Website, Publisher, Date Month Year, URL.

“Exploring America in the Early Nineteenth Century.” History.org, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2020, www.history.org/exploring-early-america.

In-text citation: (Exploring America)

The MLA in-text citation for a website with no author is a shortened version of the article title. This should correspond with the first few words of your entry in the MLA Works Cited list.

3. Website article with multiple authors

First Author’s Last Name, First Name, and Second Author’s First Name Last Name. “Title of the Article.” Title of the Website, Publisher, Date of publication, URL.

Zuckerman, Jocelyn C., and Siddharth Kara. “For Your Phone and EV, a Cobalt Supply Chain to a Hell on Earth.” Yale E360, 30 Mar. 2023, e360.yale.edu/features/siddharth-kara-cobalt-mining-labor-congo. 

(Zuckerman and Kara)

In case there are three or more authors, simply add “et. al.” after the first author’s name. Here’s an MLA citation example for a website:

Lee, Shanta, et al. “Metamorphoses: ‘Erysichthon’ by Ovid And…” Poetry Foundation, 23 November 2021, www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/161670/poem-guide-erysichthon-by-ovid-and-shanta-lee. Accessed 17 May 2024. 

(Lee et al.)

4. Website with no date

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of the Article.” Title of the Website, Publisher, n.d., URL.

Lee, Harper. “To Kill a Mockingbird: A Reflection on the Novel.” Classic Literature Insights, n.d., www.classicliteratureinsights.com/to-kill-a-mockingbird-reflection.

(Lee)

Note: Add “n.d.” to indicate that the date of publication is not available.

5. Web page with a corporate author

Corporate Author. “Title of the Web Page.” Title of the Website, Publisher, Date of Publication, URL.

American Heart Association. “Understanding Heart Health.” Heart.org, 03 Mar. 2022, www.heart.org/understanding-heart-health.

(American Heart Association)

Remember, an MLA citation for a website mentions a publisher only if they’re a separate entity from the group author and website!

6. Citing an entire website in MLA format

Title of the Website. Publisher or Sponsor of the Site (if separate from website), Date Month Year. URL. Accessed Date Month Year.

Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/. Accessed 21 May 2024. 

(Poetry Foundation)

If you refer to a website directly in your narrative, you don’t have to write a separate MLA in-text citation for the website:

According to the NASA website, space exploration continues to…

7. Multiple pages from the same website

When citing multiple pages from the same website, use shortened titles in your in-text citations to differentiate them:

(Author’s Last Name, “Title of the Web Page”)

Page 1: (Payne and Rowland, “War in Sudan”)

Page 2: (Payne and Rowland, “Plight of Dafur”)

Always remember to double-check all your website citations in MLA style and their corresponding in-text citations. That way, you’ll be able to spot any missing entries and add them promptly. This concludes our guide on how to cite a website in MLA format. We hope you found it useful!

The key to accurate MLA citation for websites is attention to detail. Just remember the sequence and put the punctuation marks where they’re supposed to go. If you’d still like an academic expert to review your citations, PaperTrue’s paper editing services have your back.

Want to keep reading about citations and formatting? Here are some resources that could help:

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Prasanna

Prasanna is on a little break from academia and spends his time compiling fiction writing tips. He enjoys poetry, mythology, and drawing lotuses on any surface he can find.