Website: Turabian Note and Bibliography Entry

First: is it really a website?

Use the website form only for content that was published as a webpage and doesn't fit another type. If you read a journal article in your browser, it's still a journal article, so cite it as one (Lesson 11). The same goes for an online newspaper or magazine article, or a book you read online.

Now, let's cite a webpage.

What to find first

For a webpage, find:

• The author, if a person is named
• The title of the page
• The name of the website
• The owner or sponsor of the site, if it's different from the site's name
• The date the page was published or last updated
• The URL

Here's our made-up webpage (the author, organization, and URL are invented for this lesson):

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

In the note, first name first, followed by a comma:

Jane Y. Lin,

In the bibliography, inverted, followed by a period:

Lin, Jane Y.

No person named? See No author? below.

2. Page title

In quotation marks, with headline-style capitals:

“Exploring Cryptid Migration Patterns,”

The page title is in quotation marks, not italics, the opposite of APA.

3. Website name

Plain type (not italic), headline-style capitals:

National Institute for Cryptozoological Studies,

If the site's owner or sponsor has a different name than the site itself, give the owner too, after the site name.

4. Date

The date the page was published, written Month Day, Year:

July 12, 2022,

If the page shows only a revision date, write last modified before it: last modified March 3, 2024,

5. URL

At the end, followed by a period:

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

No date?

If you can't find when the page was published or last updated, give the date you accessed it instead, with the word accessed. In the note: accessed July 17, 2025, and in the bibliography: Accessed July 17, 2025. If the page does have a date, you don't need an access date.

No author?

Many webpages are written by an organization with no person named. In the note, start with the page title. In the bibliography, start with the organization that owns the site, so the entry has something to alphabetize by.

Here's a real example, a World Health Organization fact sheet dated October 7, 2026:

1. “Obesity and Overweight,” World Health Organization, October 7, 2026, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight.

World Health Organization. “Obesity and Overweight.” October 7, 2026. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight.

The organization is both the site's name and its owner, so its name appears only once in each.

The finished note and entry

Here are the full note and the shortened note every time after, as they sit at the foot of the page, and the entry, as it sits in the bibliography:

1. AuthorFirst name first in the note, inverted in the bibliography.
2. Page titleQuotation marks, headline-style capitals.
3. WebsitePlain type, headline-style capitals.
4. DatePublished or last updated; an access date only when there's no date.
5. URLAt the end, followed by a period.
6. Shortened noteA webpage has no page numbers, so the shortened note is just the author and the title. A title of four words or fewer stays whole.

Quick checklist

• It's really a webpage, not an article or book you happen to be reading online
• Page title in quotation marks; site name in plain type
• Owner added when it differs from the site name
• Publication or update date, or an access date when there's none
• URL last, with a period after it

How PERRLA handles websites

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

Related Turabian 101 lessons

• Journal article: note and bibliography entry: quoted title, journal, volume, issue, pages, and the DOI.
• Book: note and bibliography entry: author, italic title, place, publisher, and year.
• Footnotes: full notes, shortened notes, and where the number goes.
• How notes and the bibliography work together: the same source, written as a note and as an entry.
• All 18 lessons in Turabian 101