How to Cite a Website in MLA
MLA 9 formats a web page citation as Author. "Title of Page." Site Name, Date, URL. — the page in quotes, the site in italics. Here's each piece and the edge cases, or paste the URL into the generator and copy the result.
The format
Author Last, First. “Title of the Page.” Site Name, Day Mon. Year, URL. Accessed Day Mon. Year.
Alvarez, Maria. "How memory consolidation works during sleep." Science Daily, 18 Mar. 2024, https://www.sciencedaily.com/memory-consolidation-sleep. Accessed 1 June 2026.
Step by step
- Author — inverted: Alvarez, Maria. Use the byline; organizations keep their full name. No individual or organization credited? Skip straight to the title.
- Page title — in "quotation marks," Title Case.
- Site name — italicized: Science Daily. Use the publication's name, not the domain.
- Date — day-month-year with abbreviated months: 18 Mar. 2024. Use what the page provides, even just a year.
- URL — the specific page's address. MLA permits dropping https://, but including it is never wrong.
- Access date — Accessed 12 June 2026. — recommended when the page lacks a date or changes over time.
The edge cases
No author: start with the title — "Title of Page." Site Name, Date, URL. Author same as site name (a Mayo Clinic page by Mayo Clinic): skip the author and start with the title. No date: lean on the access date — "Title." Site Name, URL. Accessed 12 June 2026. Citing a whole website (rare): italicized site name in the author-or-title position, publisher and year if known, URL.
In-text citation
Web pages rarely have page numbers, so the citation is the author alone: (Alvarez) — or the first words of the title in quotes when no author exists: ("How Memory Consolidation Works"). Don't invent page or paragraph numbers. Full patterns: MLA In-Text Citations.
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Go Premium — $5/monthFrequently asked questions
- Is the access date required in MLA?
- Recommended, not required — use it when the page has no publication date or its content changes. Our generator includes it so you're covered; your instructor can always strike it.
- Quotation marks or italics for the page title?
- Quotation marks for the page (it lives inside a container); italics for the site name. A standalone whole website is italicized.
- How is this different from citing a website in APA?
- MLA: Title Case in quotes, date near the end, author's full first name. APA: sentence case italics, date right after the author, initials only. Compare side by side in How to Cite a Website in APA.
- What about an article from an online newspaper?
- Same pattern — the newspaper is the italicized container: Alvarez, Maria. "Title." The New York Times, 18 Mar. 2024, URL.