Formatting a Web Page Entry in MLA 9

First: is it really a web page?

Use a web page entry only for content that lives on a website and isn't something else first. If you read a journal article in your web browser, it's still a journal article, so cite it as one. The same goes for an e-book, a news article, or a video: cite each as what it is.

Now, let's create a web page entry.

What to find first

For a web page, try to find:

• The author
• The title of the page
• The website's name
• The date it was published or last updated
• The URL

For our made-up web page, we found:

Author

Jane Y. Lin

Title

Exploring Cryptid Migration Patterns

Website

National Institute for Cryptozoological Studies

Date

July 12, 2022

URL

https://www.nics.org/articles/cryptid-migration

Step by step

1. Author's name

As with every entry, start with the author's last name, then the first name:

Lin, Jane Y.

What to do when no author is listed comes a little further down.

2. Title of the page

The page lives inside a website, so its title goes in quotation marks, in title case, with a period inside:

“Exploring Cryptid Migration Patterns.”

3. Name of the website

The website is the container, so its name is italicized, followed by a comma. That's the site's name, which isn't always the text in the URL. Look at the top of the page or the copyright line at the bottom.

National Institute for Cryptozoological Studies,

4. Publisher

If a different organization runs the site, its name goes here, after the website. When the website's name and the publisher's name are basically the same, as they are here, leave the publisher out so the name isn't repeated.

5. Date

Give the date as specifically as the page does, day first, followed by a comma:

12 July 2022,

MLA shortens months longer than four letters: Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. May, June, and July stay as they are. If the page shows only a year, use the year.

6. URL

Last, add the URL, without the https:// at the front, followed by a period:

www.nics.org/articles/cryptid-migration.

7. Access date (optional)

If the page has no date, or its content is likely to change, add the date you looked at it at the very end:

Accessed 17 July 2025.

It's optional otherwise, unless your instructor asks for one.

No author?

If no person is listed as the author, there are two possibilities.

First, the organization that runs the website may be the author. In MLA, when an organization is both the author and the publisher, skip the author and start the entry with the page title. The organization's name shows up later, as the website or the publisher.

Second, there may be no author at all. Again, start with the title:

“Exploring Cryptid Migration Patterns.” National Institute for Cryptozoological Studies, 12 July 2022, www.nics.org/articles/cryptid-migration.

Either way, the entry is alphabetized by its title, and your in-text citation uses a shortened title.

The finished entry

1. AuthorLast name, then first name.
2. Page titleQuotation marks, title case.
3. WebsiteItalic, title case. The publisher is left out when it matches.
4. DateDay, month, year.
5. URLNo https://, and a period at the end.

And that's it: you've cited a web page.

Quick checklist

• It's really a web page, not an article, book, or video you happen to be reading online
• Author reversed, or the entry starts with the title
• Page title in quotation marks; website name in italics
• Publisher only when it's different from the website
• Date day, month, year, with long months shortened
• URL without https://, followed by a period
• An access date for undated or changing pages, or when your instructor asks

How PERRLA handles web pages

PERRLA can build a web page entry from its link. Paste the URL and PERRLA looks the page up and fills in the entry, organization authors included.

Related MLA 101 lessons

• Formatting a journal article entry: the article in quotation marks, the journal in italics, the numbers, and the DOI.
• Formatting a book entry: the author's full name, the italic title, the publisher, and the year.
• In-text citations: author and page with no comma, and when et al. applies.
• Adding Works Cited entries: the nine core elements, containers, and the one template behind every entry.
• All 18 lessons in MLA 101