How to Cite a Website in APA (With Examples)

The APA 7th edition format for a web page, broken down with real examples — and the common mistakes to avoid.

Citing a website in APA trips a lot of students up, because the format changes depending on whether the page has a named author, a date, or an organisation behind it. The good news: once you know the basic pattern, every variation is a small tweak of the same four pieces of information.

The basic APA 7 website format

An APA 7 reference for a web page follows this order: Author, Year, Title of the page, Site name, and URL.

FormatAuthor, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of the page. Site Name. https://www.example.com/page

Example — page with an authorSmith, J. (2024, March 12). How memory works during exams. Study Science. https://www.studyscience.org/memory-exams

When there is no author

Plenty of web pages don't name an author. In that case, move the title to the front of the reference.

Example — no authorReferencing styles explained. (2023). University Library. https://library.example.edu/referencing

When an organisation is the author

If a company, university or government body published the page and no individual is named, use the organisation as the author.

Example — organisation as authorWorld Health Organization. (2025, January 8). Healthy study habits. https://www.who.int/healthy-study

When there is no date

Use (n.d.) — short for "no date" — where the year would normally go.

Example — no dateGreen, T. (n.d.). A short history of paper. Paper Facts. https://www.paperfacts.com/history

The in-text citation

In the body of your assignment, APA uses an author–date format: (Author, Year). For the first example above, that's (Smith, 2024). With no author, use a short version of the title in quotation marks: ("Referencing Styles Explained," 2023).

Common mistakes to avoid

Italicising the wrong part. For a standalone web page, the page title is italicised; the site name is not.
Adding "Retrieved from." APA 7 dropped this — just include the URL on its own.
Forgetting the hanging indent. In your final reference list, the second and later lines of each entry are indented.

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Frequently asked questions

What if the web page has no author?

Start the reference with the title of the page, followed by the date, site name and URL.

What if there is no date?

Use (n.d.) in place of the year, which stands for 'no date'.

Do I need to include the access date?

For most stable web pages, APA 7 does not require an access date. Include one only if the content is designed to change over time, like a wiki.

This guide explains the general APA 7 format. Always check your unit's official style guide, as some sources and disciplines have variations.

How to cite a website in APA (with examples)