How to Cite a Website in APA 7 (2026): Examples & Templates

Citing a website in APA 7 trips up more students than almost any other reference type — and for good reason. Unlike a journal article, a webpage can lack an author, carry no visible date, use a title that reads like a navigation label, and disappear behind a paywall or redirect overnight. Knowing exactly how to cite a website in APA 7 means knowing which field to substitute when information is absent, how the seventh edition changed the rules from the sixth, and how a reference-list entry maps to its matching in-text citation. The APA Style website makes those rules explicit — but this guide translates them into copy-paste-ready examples for every common scenario.

Whether you are citing a government health page, a news article, a social media post, or a wiki entry, the steps below walk through the correct format with worked examples. Every entry follows APA Publication Manual, Seventh Edition (American Psychological Association, 2020) and the guidance published on the Purdue OWL APA electronic sources page.

The APA 7 Website Citation Formula

APA 7 applies a single, consistent template to any standalone webpage or document that lives on a website rather than in a periodical:

Each element has a precise rule that differs meaningfully from APA 6. The table below maps every field to its formatting requirement and its fallback when that field is absent:

Step-by-Step Examples: How to Cite a Website in APA 7

The five scenarios below cover the situations you will encounter most often. Each example shows the reference-list entry followed by the correct in-text citation.

1. Webpage with a known individual author

This is the most straightforward case. List the author’s surname and initials, the full publication date if it appears on the page, the page title in italics with sentence case, the hosting site in roman type, and the direct URL.

Reference list entry:

In-text citation: (Nguyen, 2024) — parenthetical, or Nguyen (2024) argues that… for the narrative form.

2. Webpage with no author

When no individual or group author is credited anywhere on the page, move the page title to the author position. The title keeps its italics and sentence case in both the reference list and the in-text citation.

Reference list entry:

In-text citation: (Cognitive behavioural therapy, 2023). If the title is long, shorten it to the first few meaningful words inside the parentheses — always italicised to signal it stands in the author slot.

3. Webpage with no date

Use (n.d.) in place of the year. Because content with no date is more likely to change without notice, APA 7 recommends adding a retrieval date for these sources.

Reference list entry:

In-text citation: (World Health Organization, n.d.)

4. Government and institutional websites

When a government agency, university, or established organisation is the sole author and also hosts the page, the author name and the site name would be identical — so omit the site name to avoid redundancy (APA 7, §9.29). This applies to CDC pages, NIH documents, university library guides, and similar institutional sources.

Reference list entry:

In-text citation (first mention): (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2024). On all subsequent mentions: (CDC, 2024). Spell out the full name on the first in-text citation, then use the abbreviation throughout.

5. Online news articles

Treat an online news article exactly like a standard webpage citation. The newspaper or outlet name serves as the site name in roman type. Do not italicise the outlet name.

Reference list entry:

In-text citation: (Patel & Morrison, 2025) — use an ampersand inside parentheses, the word “and” in a narrative sentence: Patel and Morrison (2025) report that…

APA 7 In-Text Citations for Websites

Every reference-list entry must have a matching in-text citation, and vice versa. The author-date rule applies to websites exactly as it does to books and journal articles.

Parenthetical vs. narrative form

• Parenthetical: Recent guidance confirms this approach (Nguyen, 2024).
• Narrative: Nguyen (2024) confirms that this approach is supported by current evidence.

Both forms are equally acceptable. Choose based on whether you want to foreground the author or the content of the sentence.

Direct quotations: locating the passage without page numbers

Web pages rarely carry page numbers. When you quote word-for-word, APA 7 (§8.28) offers three locating options:

• Paragraph number: (Nguyen, 2024, para. 4)
• Section heading: (Nguyen, 2024, “Why Sleep Debt Accumulates” section)
• Timestamp (for audio/video): (Nguyen, 2024, 3:45)

If none of these apply — for instance, on a very short page with no headings — omit the locator entirely and simply cite the author and year.

No author: italicise the title in the parenthetical

The italicised shortened title in the parenthetical signals to the reader that a title-as-author reference is being cited: (Cognitive behavioural, 2023). Match the italics to the reference list every time.

Multiple works by the same author in the same year

Append lowercase letters alphabetically by title: (Smith, 2024a) and (Smith, 2024b). Carry the same letters through to the reference list entries.

Precise in-text citations begin working from the very first sentence of your paper. A well-structured introduction that places sources correctly before any argument is made will carry citations naturally — see How to Write an Introduction Step by Step (2026 Guide) for a practical framework that pairs well with accurate APA referencing.

Special Cases: Social Media, YouTube & Wikipedia

Social media posts

Cite social media posts as you would a webpage. The author is the account holder — use their real name followed by their handle in square brackets. Because posts can be deleted, APA recommends archiving the post (e.g., via the Wayback Machine) if you intend to cite it in a long-lived document.

Reference list entry (X/Twitter post):

For Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, substitute the platform name. Quote or summarise the first 20 words of the post in italics as the title.

YouTube and other online videos

Use the channel name as the author. Add [Video] in square brackets directly after the title, before the period.

Wikipedia articles

APA 7 (§10.3) treats Wikipedia as a reference work comparable to an encyclopaedia entry. Because Wikipedia articles change continuously, you must include a retrieval date. Most academic instructors and institutional style guides discourage citing Wikipedia as a primary source — use it to orient yourself toward peer-reviewed literature, not as a citable authority.

Common APA 7 Website Citation Mistakes to Avoid

• Title case where sentence case is required. APA 7 uses sentence case for article and webpage titles in the reference list — capitalise only the first word of the title, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns. “The Benefits of Regular Exercise” in APA 7 becomes The benefits of regular exercise.
• Keeping “Retrieved from” out of habit. APA 7 removed this prefix for stable URLs. Delete it. Only reinstate the phrase “Retrieved [date] from” when the source is designed to change or has no archive (wikis, live dashboards).
• Placing a period after the URL. The URL is the terminal element of a reference — no full stop follows it, ever. Readers need a clean URL to copy.
• Leaving the URL as a clickable hyperlink. In submitted papers and dissertations, remove the blue underline by right-clicking and clearing the hyperlink — APA requires plain text in the reference list.
• Listing the site name in the author slot. The site name belongs in the source position (after the title), not first. If a named individual authored the page, that person comes first.
• Duplicating author and site name. When the organisation that authored the page also hosts it (CDC, WHO, university libraries), omit the site name to avoid “Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
• Using the homepage URL instead of a deep link. Cite the most direct, stable URL for the specific page — not the root domain. “https://www.cdc.gov” is not a usable citation location for a specific fact sheet.

Frequently Asked Questions