MLA Format Works Cited For Websites Example | Cite Fast

Web sources can feel slippery. A page may have no page numbers, dates may change, authors may sit in a footer, and the page you read may live inside a bigger site with menus and sidebars. If you need a mla format works cited for websites example you can follow every time, treat the web page as the source, then list the site that contains it. Less stress and fewer rewrites overall.

Website Works Cited Parts At A Glance

Piece	What To Write	How It Usually Ends
Author	Last name, First name (or group name)	Period.
Page Title	Title of the web page in quotation marks	Period inside quotes.
Website Name	Title of the website in italics	Comma.
Publisher	Sponsor/publisher only if it differs from the site name	Comma.
Publish Date	Day Mon. Year (use month abbreviations)	Comma.
URL	Stable link (often without https://)	Period.
Access Date	Accessed Day Mon. Year (use when a page may change)	Period.
Extra Detail	Version, section, or container details when shown	Comma or period.

How MLA Website Citations Work

MLA 9 uses a consistent order called the “core elements.” You list the details that identify the item you used, then you list the container that holds it. On a website, the page is the item and the site is usually the container.

That mindset clears up a common mix-up: most Works Cited entries are not for “a website” as a whole. They’re for a specific page, article, report, or post that you actually read and used in your writing.

The Default Web Page Template

Here’s the standard structure for a web page entry. Keep the slot order, then fill in what your page provides.

Author Last, First. “Title of Web Page.” Website Name, Publisher, Day Mon. Year, URL. Accessed Day Mon. Year.

You won’t always use every slot. If there’s no author, you start with the title. If the publisher matches the website name, you can leave the publisher out. Your goal is a clear trail that lets a reader land on the same page you used.

MLA Format Works Cited For Websites Example With Step Checks

Use this workflow each time you cite a website page. It keeps your entries steady, and it reduces last-minute fixes when you paste links or swap sources.

Step 1: Collect The Page Details

• Copy the page title from the headline or page header.
• Check for an author line near the title, near the top, or in the footer.
• Find a publish date. If you see both “posted” and “updated,” choose the date that matches the version you used.
• Copy a stable URL. If the site provides a permalink, use that instead of a share link.

Step 2: Build The Author Slot

When a person is credited, list the last name first, then the first name: Nguyen, Mai. Keep middle initials only if the page uses them.

When the author is an organization, list the organization name as the author: United Nations. If there is no author at all, don’t force one. Start with the title and move on.

Step 3: Set The Title And Container

Put the page title in quotation marks. Put the website name in italics. That visual split helps your reader spot the page you used and the site that hosts it.

If you’re unsure about the slot order, check MLA Style Center’s Works Cited quick guide. It lays out the core elements and their order in a way you can apply to web pages, articles, and online reports.

Step 4: Add The Publisher Only When Needed

Many websites list a publisher or sponsor, but you don’t always need it in the citation. If the publisher is the same as the website name, leave the publisher out. If a site is hosted by a larger sponsor with a different name, include that sponsor in the publisher slot.

Step 5: Write The Date In MLA Form

Use day-month-year when the page shows a full date. MLA often uses month abbreviations such as Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., and Dec. If the page gives only a year, use just the year.

If you can’t find a date, skip it. A missing date is common on older pages and on some reference pages. In that case, an access date does more work than a guessed date.

Step 6: Finish With The URL And Access Date

End the entry with the URL, then a period. Many MLA guides present the URL without http:// or https://, while the link still works in digital documents. Pick one style and keep it consistent across your list.

Add an access date when the page is likely to change, when no publish date is listed, or when your instructor asks for it. Purdue OWL’s page on MLA electronic sources shows the common web slots in one place and is useful when you’re double-checking a tricky entry.

One Complete Website Entry You Can Copy

Here’s a full works cited entry for a typical article page. Replace the names, date, and URL with your own source details.

Hamilton, Jon. “Think You’re Multitasking? Think Again.” National Public Radio, 2 Oct. 2008, www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95256794. Accessed 15 Dec. 2025.

How To Handle Missing Or Messy Website Info

Real sites don’t always give you neat metadata. MLA doesn’t ask you to invent missing parts. It asks you to record what you can verify, in the standard order.

No Author Listed

Start with the page title, then keep the rest of the slots in order.

“Title of Web Page.” Website Name, Day Mon. Year, URL. Accessed Day Mon. Year.

No Date Listed

Skip the date and add an access date. If you can spot an “updated” stamp, you can use that date as your date slot, then still add an access date if your class expects it.

Group Author And Website Name Repeat

If the group author is the same as the website name, you can list it once, then move to the title. This avoids repeating the same words back-to-back, which can look clunky on a Works Cited page.

Two Authors Or More

With two authors, list the first author last name first, then the second author in normal order: Last, First, and First Last. With three or more, many MLA formats use the first author followed by et al.

Pages With Titles That Don’t Match The Browser Tab

Use the title on the page itself, not the shortened tab title. If a page has a headline and a separate section label, use the headline as the title of the source.

URLs That Stay Clean And Useful

Website links often carry tracking strings that make citations ugly and unstable. A clean MLA URL is readable, points straight to the source, and is less likely to break.

Quick URL Cleanup Rules

• Prefer a permalink over a share link.
• Delete tracking parameters that start with things like ?utm_ when the page still loads without them.
• Avoid URL shorteners for Works Cited entries.
• Use a DOI in place of a URL when a DOI is provided on the page.

In-Text Citations For Website Pages

In MLA, the in-text citation points to the first element of the Works Cited entry. For a web page, that first element is often the author name, since page numbers are not stable on most websites.

If there is no author, use a short form of the title in quotation marks. Keep the short form close to the start of the Works Cited entry so the match is easy to spot at a glance.

Common Website Situations In One Table

Use the table below as a set of ready patterns. Choose the row that matches your page, then swap in your details.

Website Situation	Works Cited Entry Pattern	In-Text Cue
Standard page with author and date	Last, First. “Page Title.” Site, Day Mon. Year, URL.	(Last)
Page with no author	“Page Title.” Site, Day Mon. Year, URL.	(“Short Title”)
Page with no date	Last, First. “Page Title.” Site, URL. Accessed Day Mon. Year.	(Last)
Organization as author	Organization Name. “Page Title.” Site, Day Mon. Year, URL.	(Organization Name)
Online newspaper article	Last, First. “Article Title.” Newspaper Name, Day Mon. Year, URL.	(Last)
Blog post on a site	Last, First. “Post Title.” Blog Name, Day Mon. Year, URL.	(Last)
Page with an updated stamp	Last, First. “Page Title.” Site, Updated Day Mon. Year, URL. Accessed Day Mon. Year.	(Last)

Formatting The Works Cited Page In MLA

Once your entries are built, format the Works Cited page itself. This step is short, yet it’s where many papers lose points because a pasted citation breaks spacing or indentation.

• Start the Works Cited list on a new page at the end of your paper.
• Center the heading “Works Cited” at the top of the page.
• Double-space the whole list with no extra blank lines between entries.
• Use a hanging indent: first line flush left, later lines indented.
• Alphabetize by the first element of each entry.

Clean Checks Before You Turn It In

Run this quick pass on each web citation. It catches the most common website mistakes without slowing you down.

Punctuation Checks

• Period after the author slot.
• Period inside the closing quotation mark of the page title.
• Comma after the website name.
• Comma after the date when a date is present.
• Period at the end of the URL.

Consistency Checks

• Use one date style across the list.
• Use one URL style across the list.
• Keep page titles in title case as they appear on the page.

Matching Checks

Scan your in-text citations and make sure each one points to a Works Cited entry that starts with the same first element. If an in-text citation uses a short title, make sure your Works Cited entry starts with that same title.

When you cite two pages from the same site, make sure each entry uses its own page title and URL. That detail stops confusion when citations point to different pages that share one site name in your paper.

When A Citation Generator Needs A Fix

Citation tools can save time, but they often grab the wrong date, pull a tracking-heavy URL, or skip the website name. Treat generator output as a first draft, then rewrite the entry with the core elements order.

Here is the phrase again in plain text so you can search your draft and compare it to your finished entry: mla format works cited for websites example. If you see it in a placeholder note, replace it with a real entry built from the templates above.