What if there is no publication date?

In APA style, write n.d. (no date) in place of the year. In MLA style, you may simply omit the date and include the date you accessed the page instead. An access date is especially useful for undated pages because it anchors your citation in time.

Do I need to include the date I accessed the page?

In APA 7, only add a retrieval date when the content is designed to change over time and is not archived — dictionary entries, social feeds, live statistics. In MLA 9, an access date is optional but commonly recommended for web sources. When in doubt, including one costs nothing and adds clarity.

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How to cite a website (APA & MLA), and why to save a copy

Q: What if the web page has no author?

Use the organisation as the author (for example, a company, agency or publication). If there is truly no author at all, both APA and MLA move the page title into the author position. Never invent an author, and never leave the citation without a responsible party if one is identifiable.

Q: Is a URL by itself a citation?

No. A bare URL identifies a location, not a source — it says nothing about who wrote the content, when, or under what title, and it breaks permanently if the page moves. A proper citation carries author, date, title and site name, so the source can still be identified even after the link dies.

Citing a web page has a problem that citing a book never had: the page can be edited, moved, or deleted after you cite it. So a good web citation does two jobs — it follows the format your style guide expects, and it leaves enough of a trail that the source can be found again even if the link dies. Here is how to do both.

The pieces every citation needs

Whatever the style, you are assembling the same four or five facts. Collect them before you worry about commas and italics:

Author — a person if named; otherwise the organisation behind the site.
Date — the publication or "last updated" date shown on the page.
Title — of the specific page or article, not the whole site.
Site name — the publication or website it lives on.
URL — and, when the content changes over time, the date you accessed it.

APA style (7th edition)

The APA pattern for a web page is:

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of the page. Site Name. URL

A worked example, citing one of our own guides:

Fully Torqued Applications. (2026, July 7). How to save any webpage as a PDF. Fully Torqued Applications. https://www.fullytorquedapplications.com/guides/how-to-save-a-webpage-as-pdf.html

Notes: when the author and the site name are the same organisation, APA drops the site name to avoid repeating it (shown kept above for clarity — drop it in your own work). If the content is designed to change and is not archived, add "Retrieved July 12, 2026, from" before the URL.

MLA style (9th edition)

The MLA pattern is:

Author. "Title of the Page." Site Name, Day Month Year, URL.

The same example in MLA:

Fully Torqued Applications. "How to Save Any Webpage as a PDF." Fully Torqued Applications, 7 July 2026, www.fullytorquedapplications.com/guides/how-to-save-a-webpage-as-pdf.html.

Notes: MLA drops "https://" from URLs, and an access date at the end ("Accessed 12 July 2026.") is optional but a good habit for pages that may change.

When pieces are missing

No author: use the organisation. If there is genuinely none, the title moves into the author's position.
No date: APA uses n.d. in place of the year; MLA omits the date and leans on the access date instead.
No page title: rare, but describe the page in plain text without italics or quotation marks.
Long, messy URL: prefer the cleanest stable address for the page. Avoid pasting tracking parameters (the ?utm_... clutter) into a citation.

Link rot: why you should save a copy

Web pages do not sit still. Studies of legal opinions and academic journals keep finding that a large share of cited links stop working within a few years — the page moves, the site redesigns, the company disappears. The wording can also change silently, leaving you citing a sentence that no longer exists. The professional habit is simple: the moment you cite a page, save your own dated copy of it. A PDF is ideal — it preserves the full text and layout, it is searchable, and the file's name can carry the date you captured it. If a reader, editor or examiner ever challenges the citation, you can show exactly what the page said when you used it.

Try it in your browser

Our URL to PDF Converter turns the page you are citing into a clean, dated PDF in one step — no sign-up, nothing installed. Pair it with the citation formats above and your sources stay verifiable forever.

Open the URL to PDF Converter →

Frequently asked questions

What if the web page has no author?

Use the organisation as the author. If there is truly none, both APA and MLA move the title into the author position. Never invent one.

Do I need the date I accessed the page?

APA 7: only for content designed to change (feeds, live stats, wikis). MLA 9: optional but commonly recommended. Including one costs nothing and anchors your citation in time.

Is a URL by itself a citation?

No — a URL is a location, not a source. It names no author, date or title, and it dies if the page moves. The citation exists so the source survives the link.