To quote a website in an essay, put the borrowed words in quotation marks and add an in-text citation right after them, then list the full source in your Works Cited or References page. The in-text citation uses the author’s last name (or the article title if there is no author); websites usually have no page numbers, so you leave the page number out. In MLA that looks like (Rivera), in APA like (Rivera, 2024). The exact format depends on which style your class uses, but the logic is the same in all of them: mark the quote, credit it briefly in the text, and give the full details at the end.
Step 1: Quote the exact words
Copy the wording exactly and wrap it in double quotation marks. If you change anything, you are no longer quoting. Use quotes for phrasing worth preserving; if you only need the idea, paraphrase instead and still cite it. Introduce the quote with a signal phrase so it does not sit in your essay unannounced, for example: As Rivera notes, “the shift happened faster than regulators expected.” For the full technique, see how to introduce a quote.
Step 2: Add the in-text citation
Immediately after the closing quotation mark, add a brief citation in parentheses, then the sentence’s period. What goes inside depends on your style:
MLA: the author’s last name, no comma, no page number if the site has none, (Rivera). If there is no author, use a shortened version of the title in quotation marks, (“Climate Rules”).
APA: the author’s last name and the year, separated by a comma, (Rivera, 2024). For a direct quote, APA asks for a location if one exists; web pages rarely have page numbers, so you can cite a paragraph number instead, (Rivera, 2024, para. 3), or omit it if the page is short.
The in-text citation is deliberately short because its only job is to point the reader to the full entry at the end.
Step 3: Build the full citation at the end
The complete source goes in your Works Cited (MLA) or References (APA) list. A basic web page looks like this:
MLA: Rivera, Ana. “Climate Rules Are Changing.” Policy Now, 12 Mar. 2024, policynow.org/climate-rules.
APA: Rivera, A. (2024, March 12). Climate rules are changing. Policy Now. https://policynow.org/climate-rules
Include the author, the page title, the site or publisher, the date, and the URL. If there is no date, MLA simply omits it and APA uses (n.d.). For the style-specific breakdowns, see how to quote a website in MLA and how to cite a quote from a website in MLA and APA.
What to do when there’s no author or date
Missing information is normal on the web, and each style has a fallback. No author: use the article title in the in-text citation and move it to the front of the full entry. No date: MLA leaves it out, APA writes (n.d.). No page or paragraph number: cite by author alone in MLA, and in APA give a paragraph number or a section heading if the reader would otherwise struggle to find the quote. The goal is always the same, give the reader enough to locate the exact source.
Common mistakes
The frequent errors are pasting a quote with no citation at all, citing the website’s homepage instead of the specific page you quoted, and adding a page number that does not exist because the site has none. Also avoid quoting long stretches of a web page when a sentence would do; graders read block after block of quotation as padding. Quote sparingly, cite precisely, and make sure every in-text citation has a matching entry in your list. For the broader rules, see how to cite a quote.
FAQ
Do you need a page number when quoting a website?
Usually not, because web pages rarely have them. In MLA, cite the author alone. In APA, you can give a paragraph number (para. 3) for a direct quote if the page is long, or omit it if it is short.
How do you quote a website with no author?
Use the article’s title instead of an author’s name, in quotation marks and shortened, in the in-text citation, and put the title at the start of the full entry.
Where does the citation go, right after the quote or at the end of the sentence?
Right after the closing quotation mark, before the sentence’s final period. The full source details go in the Works Cited or References list at the end of the essay.
What’s the difference between MLA and APA here?
MLA uses (Author) and omits the year in text; APA uses (Author, year). Both drop page numbers for most web pages, and both require a full entry in the end list.
Leave a Reply