Citing a journal article is mechanical - author, year, title, journal, volume, pages. Citing a web page is where students actually get stuck, because the four things a reference needs are often the four things the page does not display. Every major style has rules for these gaps, and they differ.
Below are the patterns and worked examples for APA 7, MLA 9, Harvard and Chicago, plus the awkward cases: missing authors and dates, PDFs, social media, videos and AI chatbots.
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Inizia a scrivereThe Four Patterns Side by Side
APA 7
Reference: Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of page in sentence case. Site Name. https://url
Example: World Health Organization. (2024, March 12). Physical activity fact sheet. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity
In text: (World Health Organization, 2024)
Note: when the author and the site name are identical, APA omits the site name to avoid repetition.
MLA 9
Works Cited: Author Last, First. "Title of Page in Title Case." Site Name, Day Month Year, URL.
Example: Okonkwo, Amara. "Why Cities Are Rethinking Parking Minimums." CityLab, 4 Feb. 2025, www.citylab.com/parking-minimums.
In text: (Okonkwo)
MLA omits "https://" and uses a shortened URL form. Page numbers are dropped when the source has none.
Harvard
Reference: Author (Year) Title of page. Available at: https://url (Accessed: Day Month Year).
Example: Eurostat (2025) Household energy consumption statistics. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/energy (Accessed: 11 August 2026).
In text: (Eurostat, 2025)
Harvard is not a single standard - Cite Them Right Harvard is the most widely taught variant, but institutions publish their own. Check your department's guide before trusting any generator.
Chicago (notes-bibliography)
Note: 1. Amara Okonkwo, "Why Cities Are Rethinking Parking Minimums," CityLab, February 4, 2025, https://www.citylab.com/parking-minimums.
Bibliography: Okonkwo, Amara. "Why Cities Are Rethinking Parking Minimums." CityLab. February 4, 2025. https://www.citylab.com/parking-minimums.
Chicago's author-date system uses a parenthetical citation instead, formatted much like Harvard.
When There Is No Author
First check harder: the author may be at the foot of the page, in a byline image, or in the page metadata. If there genuinely is none, the organisation that publishes the site becomes the author. Only if there is no identifiable organisation either does the title move into the author position.
| Style | Reference starts with | In text |
|---|---|---|
| APA 7 | Title of page in italics, then date | ("Shortened Title of Page," 2024) |
| MLA 9 | "Title of Page." | ("Shortened Title") |
| Harvard | Organisation name, or title if none | (Site Name, 2024) |
| Chicago | Title, or the site name as author | (Site Name 2024) |
When There Is No Date
- APA 7: use n.d. in place of the year, in both the reference and the in-text citation: (Author, n.d.). Add a retrieval date only if the content is designed to change, such as a live statistics dashboard or a wiki.
- MLA 9: simply omit the date. MLA discourages access dates but permits them where the source is undated or unstable.
- Harvard: use (no date), and rely on the mandatory access date.
- Chicago: use n.d. and include an access date in the note.
A copyright year in the footer is a reasonable fallback for a site-level date, but it is not a page date - do not present it as one for a page whose content clearly postdates it.
Awkward Cases
A PDF hosted on a website
Cite it as the document type it is - a report, a working paper, a government publication - not as a web page. Include the publisher and the URL. A PDF of a journal article is cited as a journal article with its DOI, never as a website.
Social media post
APA 7: Author, A. A. [@handle]. (2025, June 3). First 20 words of the post [Post]. Platform. URL
Keep the original spelling and any emoji, and describe attached media in square brackets, for example [Image attached].
Online video
APA 7: Channel Name. (2024, September 9). Video title [Video]. YouTube. URL
The uploader goes in the author position, even when the speaker on screen is someone else. Timestamps replace page numbers when quoting: (Channel Name, 2024, 14:22).
AI chatbot output
APA 7 treats it as software: OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com
MLA 9 puts the prompt in the title position: "Describe the symbolism of the green light in The Great Gatsby" prompt. ChatGPT, 14 Mar. version, OpenAI, 14 Mar. 2025, chat.openai.com.
Both styles expect the full prompt and output to be reproduced in an appendix, because the exchange is not retrievable by anyone else. Check your institution's AI policy first - some prohibit citing chatbot output as a source entirely.
Practical Rules That Save Time Later
- Archive anything that might move. Save a copy through a web archive service and cite the archived URL for pages likely to change or disappear. Examiners cannot verify a dead link.
- Prefer a DOI or permalink over a search URL. Long session URLs with query parameters break within weeks.
- Do not hyperlink references in the body text of a thesis unless your style guide asks for it. Plain text URLs survive PDF conversion more reliably.
- Record the access date at the moment you read the page, not when you assemble the bibliography. Reconstructing them later is guesswork.
- Check generator output. Reference managers routinely mis-assign site names as authors and pull the wrong date from a page's metadata.
FAQs About Citing Websites
Do I need an access date?
Harvard and Chicago require one. APA 7 requires it only for content designed to change over time. MLA 9 makes it optional and recommends it for undated or unstable sources.
How do I cite a specific quote from a web page with no page numbers?
APA suggests a paragraph number, a section heading, or both: (Author, 2024, Methods section, para. 3). MLA omits the locator entirely if the source has no stable divisions.
Should the URL be a clickable link?
APA 7 accepts either live hyperlinks or plain text, as long as it is consistent throughout. In printed theses, plain text is safer.
How do I cite a whole website rather than a page?
APA and MLA both say that a mention of an entire site with its URL in the running text needs no reference-list entry. Add an entry only when you are citing specific content.
Is Wikipedia citable?
It is a tertiary source, and most departments do not accept it in a thesis. If you must cite it, APA recommends using the permanent link to the archived version of the page, since the live article will change.
Web sources are the most common place a reference list falls apart, usually because the details were collected long after the page was read. Capture author, title, site, date and URL the first time you open a page, and the formatting takes a minute.