Add Website Citations in Your MLA Paper Using Our Free Guide
Are you sure you you want to delete all the citations in this list?
Citing Websites With MLA Citation Style
The MLA reference formatting style was first published in 1977 by the Modern Language Association. It was developed out of the MLA Style Sheet from 1951 under the original title “MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations,” later changed to “MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.”
It’s most commonly used as an academic style guide for secondary school, undergraduate, and university students and teachers in humanities, literature, modern languages, and other related disciplines.
As a scholarly writing citation guide, MLA has specific requirements for citing websites as sources. If you want to avoid making citation mistakes and committing accidental or even deliberate plagiarism, you need to learn how to cite websites using MLA.
Formatting website references with MLA
Like most other citation styles, MLA has several essential elements you’ll need to use in all your references. When citing websites, you’ll need to include the following in the order of appearance:
- Author:
- Include the full name of the author, not just their initials. Start with their last name, followed by a comma, then their first name. If there are two authors, name them both in alphabetical order. If there are multiple authors, name the first one and follow it up with “et al,” then finish with a full stop.
Finally, if there is no author, start your citation with the page title in quotes. If there’s only a corporate author, use the corporate name as you would the author’s name.
- Page title:
- When citing a website, you’ll rarely be citing the entire site. Instead, you’ll likely be citing a page, so you’ll need to include its title. Put the page title under quotation marks, then follow it up with a period.
- Website name:
- After stating the page title, put the name of the website in italics and follow it up with a comma.
- Publisher name:
- Only include the publisher’s name if it doesn’t match the author’s name or the website, and follow it up with a comma.
- Date:
- Write the date published in the order of – date, month, then year.
- URL:
- Finally, finish the reference by including the URL of the page you’re citing. Leave out the http://www. or the https://www. from the URL. Only include it in DOI.
In practice, if you’d like to cite the article “Mediterranean Diet 101: A Meal Plan and Beginner’s Guide” written by Kris Gunnars and Rachael Link for the website Healthline, your citation would look like this: Gunnars, Kris, and Link, Rachael. “Mediterranean Diet 101: A Meal Plan and Beginner’s Guide.” Healthline, 25, Oct. 2021, healthline.com/nutrition/mediterranean-diet-meal-plan.
In case any information is missing from the website, leave it out without changing the order of the citation elements.
In-text website citations with MLA
In-text website citations with MLA are relatively straightforward and concise. You only need to include the author’s name, although additional elements such as page or line numbers could also be included if necessary.
With citations in prose, mention the author’s full name the first time, and only use the last name afterward. In practice, using the same example as above, you would use the following in-text citation:
- According to Kris Gunnars and Rachael Link, the Mediterranean diet could help support brain function. Gunnars and Link also claim that it could promote heart health.
Alternatively, you could use parenthetical citations and use only the author’s last name at the end of your sentence (before the full stop) in parenthesis:
- Mediterranean diet could help support brain function (Gunnars and Link).
If there are no authors, you can use the italicized page title instead. If the title is lengthy, don’t be afraid to shorten it:
- According to Mediterranean Diet 101…
- The Mediterranean diet could help support brain function (Mediterranean Diet 101).
Keep your in-text citations short and concise; your readers will be able to find your sources in your references list at the end of your paper.
MLA website citation generator
MLA website citations can be confusing, but you’ll need to follow the guidelines. Otherwise, you could be accused of committing plagiarism, which would harm your academic career.
To ensure that your citations are clear, concise, and accurate, use our MLA website citation generator. Within a few clicks, you’ll receive an automatic citation of any website and save yourself the headache.
Give our MLA website citation generator a try and ensure that your paper is authentic and plagiarism-free.
- Instructions Followed To The Letter
- Deadlines Met At Every Stage
- Unique And Plagiarism Free