AcadFundu

Publisher: AcadFundu · Last updated: 3 November 2026

To cite a webpage in APA 7, give its author, publication or content-update date, italicized page title, website name and URL. In your writing, cite the same author and year. Start with the individual-author example below, then use the later examples if the author is an organization or information is missing.

These examples follow APA Style’s webpage guidance. The Pew Research Center and NASA examples use real sources. Examples with an example.org address are fictional practice references.

1. A webpage with one individual author

The Pew Research Center page used here has a clear byline and publication date. Use that person’s surname and initials, rather than replacing them with the website’s name.

Parenthetical: (Schaeffer, 2021). Narrative: Schaeffer (2021).

The title is in sentence case and italics; the site name is not italicized. In-text citations use the year without the month and day. See APA’s author and title elements and author–date citation rules.

Copy-paste template

Replace every bracketed field. Write initials with their periods, such as K. or A. R.; include a middle initial only if the source supplies one. This plain-text template cannot retain italics when pasted: italicize the page title in your document.

[Surname], [Initials] ([Year], [Month] [Day]). [Page title in sentence case]. [Website Name]. [URL]

In-text template: ([Surname], [Year]) or [Surname] ([Year]). Use a year-only or month-and-year date when that is all the source provides; do not fill missing parts with guesses.

2. A webpage written by an organization

When the organization is responsible for the page, it can be the author. If its name is also the website name, include it once, at the beginning. This practice example assumes that Example Learning Centre is both the credited author and site name.

In text: (Example Learning Centre, 2024). There is no repeated site name after the title. If author and site have different names, keep both, as in the NASA example next. APA’s organizational-author example shows this distinction.

3. A trickier real page: NASA’s byline and two dates

Source metadata inspected: 1 November 2026. This is a dated worked example. Recheck the NASA Science page if you use a later version.

APA’s date guidance uses a last-update date when it applies to the content; a review date or general copyright year does not establish a revision. Here, the update label is attached to this page, but we have not established which sentences changed.

If the update appears purely technical or cosmetic, its relevance is unclear, or your course explicitly asks for the original publication date, confirm with your instructor or course style guide before choosing. Do not silently treat a general timestamp as evidence that the source’s content changed.

Parenthetical: (NASA Webb Mission Team, 2026). Narrative: NASA Webb Mission Team (2026).

A retrieval date is not an automatic addition for every website. APA requires one for unarchived content designed to change, such as a live counter. The inspection date above documents this lesson; it is not a retrieval date added to this article’s reference.

4. No identifiable author or no date

Check for a responsible organization before deciding that the author is missing. If none can be established, the title takes the author’s position. If no usable date is available, use n.d.. Do not use Anonymous unless the source is signed that way. These are separate decisions in APA’s missing-information guidance.

Practice case: Assume a demonstration page has no attributable author or content date, even after checking its About information. Study Skills Demo is only its site label in this exercise.

In text: (Recording a Lab Observation, n.d.). The title remains italicized, but uses title case in the in-text citation. If an author is present and only the date is missing, retain the author and replace the date with n.d..

Two or more authors

Keep authors in the order credited on the source. For two authors, invert both names in the reference and place an ampersand before the second. In narrative text, write “and.” These are reference-list author rules and in-text rules, not interchangeable formats.

[Surname 1], [Initials], & [Surname 2], [Initials] ([Year], [Month] [Day]). [Page title in sentence case]. [Website Name]. [URL]

• Two-author parenthetical: ([Surname 1] & [Surname 2], [Year]).
• Two-author narrative: [Surname 1] and [Surname 2] ([Year]).
• Three or more authors in text: ([First author’s surname] et al., [Year]) from the first citation, subject to APA’s ambiguity exceptions.

The reference entry still lists all authors up to 20; et al. does not replace that list. For 21 or more authors, follow the linked APA author-element instructions.

Italics, hanging indents and order

In a webpage reference, italicize the page title, not the author, date, website name or URL. Use sentence case while retaining proper names. APA’s title rules explain the formatting.

In your assignment’s reference list, alphabetize entries by the first element—usually the first author’s surname, or the title when no author exists—and double-space them. Apply a 0.5-inch hanging indent: first line flush left, later lines indented. The formatted reference boxes above demonstrate the indent; plain-text templates need document formatting after pasting.

Before you finish: source type and quotations

A PDF may contain a report, book or journal article. Choose the reference category that fits the work, rather than treating a file extension as a citation style.

For a direct quotation from an unpaginated webpage, use a real locator such as a section heading and counted paragraph. Do not substitute a print-preview page number. Purdue OWL explains these locators.

Finally, match each in-text author and year to its reference, remove template placeholders, and reopen the cited URL. If your assignment uses Harvard, follow the separate Harvard website-referencing guide. The academic resources hub links to other study guides.