PERRLA/Guides/APA 7/Blog post

How to Cite a Blog Post in APA 7

An APA 7 blog post reference lists the author, the full date in parentheses (year, month, and day), the post title in sentence case, the name of the blog in italics, and the post's URL. Blog posts follow the journal article pattern, so the italics go on the blog's name, not on the post title. The in-text citation is the author's last name and the year: (Coltrera, 2025).

The format

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of the blog post. Name of the Blog. https://xxxx

PERRLA APA Experts · Updated October 21, 2026
Checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

Paste the post's URL into PERRLA's reference search. PERRLA recognizes many blog posts, including Substack and Medium posts and pages that sit on a site's blog, and fills in the author, the date, the post title in sentence case, and the blog's name, then puts the finished reference on your references page in order, with the italics on the blog name.

Give three things a quick look before you move on. The author: if the byline says Guest Author or Admin, change it to the person the post names as its writer. The date: make sure it matches the date on the post, and if the post shows a "last updated" date, use that one. The blog name: match the name on the blog's masthead (Harvard Health Blog, not Harvard Health). If a post comes in as a Website reference, add it by hand as a Blog so the italics land on the blog's name.

Adding one by hand? Choose Blog, then A blog entry. Add each Author, or use Group Author (Organization) for an organization or Username (screen name) for a writer known by a handle. Fill in the Blog Entry Title, the Blog Name, the Publication Date, and the URL (Web address). Type the title in sentence case: if you type it in title case, PERRLA offers a Fix it for me link that switches it for you. Leave Blog Publisher and Retrieval Date empty: an APA 7 blog post reference uses neither.

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same reference by hand.

The parts of the reference

1. Author

Start with the writer's last name, a comma, and their initials. Two authors are joined with an ampersand (&); with three to 20, separate them with commas and put the ampersand before the last one. Leave off credentials like RN, MD, or PhD.

Jetelina, K., & Nirenberg, E.

Credit the person who wrote the post. A medical reviewer isn't an author, and neither is a generic byline like Guest Author, Admin, or Staff when the post names its real writer at the end. If an organization wrote it, its name is the author. If the writer goes by a handle, give their name and then the handle in square brackets; if you only know the handle, use the handle alone, exactly as it's spelled. With no author at all, the post title moves into the author spot.

2. Date

Give the full date the post went up, in parentheses: the year, a comma, then the month spelled out and the day. Put a period after the closing parenthesis.

(2026, August 26).

If the post shows a "last updated" date, use it instead of the date it was first published. If there's no date anywhere on the post, write (n.d.).

3. Post title

Write the title of the post in sentence case: capitalize the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns. Don't italicize it or put it in quotation marks. Keep acronyms like IV in capitals.

The personalities of veins: What thousands of IV starts have taught me.

A title that ends in a question mark keeps it, with no period added.

4. Blog name

Write the name of the blog in italics, in title case, as the blog writes it on its masthead. Put a period after it. This is the part students most often get backward: the blog's name is italic, the post title is not.

AJN Off the Charts.

For a Substack newsletter, the publication's name is the blog name: Your Local Epidemiologist. For a post on Medium that isn't in a Medium publication, use Medium.

5. URL

End with the full URL of the post itself, not the blog's home page. Don't put a period after it, and don't write "Retrieved from" in front of it.

https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/your-guide-to-fall-2026-vaccines

Blog posts don't need a retrieval date. They stay up as written, so the date you read the post doesn't go in the reference.

Examples

A blog post with one author

A Harvard Health Blog post on heat and older adults, written by the blog's editor and medically reviewed by a physician. The writer is the author. The reviewer doesn't go in the reference.

  • Parenthetical citation(Coltrera, 2025)
  • Narrative citationColtrera (2025)

A blog post with a "last updated" date

Timothy McAdoo's post on the APA Style blog, first published April 7, 2023, and last updated September 15, 2025. The reference uses the update date, the same date APA's own "Cite This Webpage" box gives for the post. The citation points to the second paragraph, since blog posts have no page numbers.

  • Parenthetical citation(McAdoo, 2025, para. 2)
  • Narrative citationMcAdoo (2025, para. 2)

A guest post with a generic byline

A post on AJN Off the Charts, the blog of the American Journal of Nursing. The byline reads Guest Author, but the note at the end names the writer: Courtney Desy, BSN, RN, OCN, an oncology infusion nurse. She's the author, and her credentials stay out of the reference.

  • Parenthetical citation(Desy, 2026)
  • Narrative citationDesy (2026)

A Substack post with two authors

A post from Your Local Epidemiologist, the public health newsletter on Substack, by epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina and Edward Nirenberg. A Substack post is cited like any blog post: the newsletter's name is the blog name. Two authors are both named in every citation.

  • Parenthetical citation(Jetelina & Nirenberg, 2026)
  • Narrative citationJetelina and Nirenberg (2026)

In-text citations

An APA 7 in-text citation for a blog post gives the author's last name and the year only. The month and day stay in the reference.

  • One author: (Coltrera, 2025) or Coltrera (2025)
  • Two authors: both names every time, joined by & inside parentheses and by and in your sentence: (Jetelina & Nirenberg, 2026) or Jetelina and Nirenberg (2026)
  • Three or more authors: the first author's last name and et al., starting with the first citation.
  • A quote: blog posts have no page numbers, so count paragraphs and add the number: (McAdoo, 2025, para. 2). On a long post with headings, you can name the heading and count paragraphs from there instead.
  • No author: use the first few words of the post title, in title case and in quotation marks, then the year: ("Title of the Post," 2024).
  • No date: write n.d. in place of the year: (Author, n.d.).
  • Two posts by the same author in the same year: add a, b, and so on after the year, in the order the titles fall alphabetically: (Author, 2026a).

A narrative citation puts the author's name in your sentence and the year in parentheses right after it: Desy (2026) compared some veins to a grape that slides away from a fork.

Common mistakes

  • Extreme heat endangers older adults: What to know and do. Harvard Health Blog.Extreme heat endangers older adults: What to know and do. Harvard Health Blog.A blog post follows the journal article pattern, not the webpage pattern. The blog's name is italic, like a journal name, and the post title is plain.
  • Coltrera, F. (2025).Coltrera, F. (2025, July 16).Blog posts take the full date: year, month, and day. Only the in-text citation shortens it to the year.
  • Author, G. (2026, September 22).Desy, C. (2026, September 22).Guest Author, Admin, and Staff are placeholders, not names. When the post names its writer, usually in a note at the end, that person is the author.
  • Desy, C., BSN, RN, OCN. (2026, September 22).Desy, C. (2026, September 22).APA 7 leaves credentials and titles out of the author element. That goes for Dr., RN, MD, and PhD in a byline.
  • McAdoo, T. (2023, April 7).McAdoo, T. (2025, September 15).When a post shows a "last updated" date, the reference uses it. APA's own suggested reference for this post uses the 2025 update date.
  • Your Guide to Fall 2026 Vaccines.Your guide to fall 2026 vaccines.Post titles take sentence case in the reference, even when the blog shows them in title case. Only the blog's name takes title case.

Quick checklist

  • The writer as the author, with no credentials, not the reviewer or a Guest Author byline
  • The full date in parentheses: year, month, and day
  • The last-updated date when the post shows one, or n.d. when it has no date
  • Post title in sentence case, not italic
  • Blog name in title case and italic
  • The post's own URL, with no period after it and no retrieval date

Questions students ask

Is a blog post cited like a webpage in APA 7?

Almost, with one important difference. A blog post follows the journal article pattern, so the blog's name goes in italics and the post title stays plain. On a regular webpage it's the other way around: the page title is italic and the site name is plain.

How do I cite a Substack or Medium post in APA 7?

Cite it as a blog post. The writer is the author, the post's date and title come next, and the newsletter's name goes in italics as the blog name, followed by the post's URL. For a Medium post that isn't part of a Medium publication, use Medium as the blog name.

What if the blog post has no author?

First check whether an organization wrote it: a post on a hospital's or a nonprofit's blog with no personal byline usually has the organization as its group author. If there's truly no author, move the post title to the front, before the date. In the text, use the first few words of the title in quotation marks, in title case, with the year.

Do I need a retrieval date for a blog post?

No. APA 7 uses retrieval dates only for pages built to change over time, like a live data dashboard. A blog post stays as written, so the reference ends with its URL. If the post was revised, use its last-updated date.

How do I cite a comment on a blog post?

A comment gets its own reference. The commenter is the author, the comment's date comes next, then the first 20 words of the comment and a bracketed note naming the post it responds to, then the blog's name and a link to the comment. See the guide to citing a comment on an article or post.

How do I cite a whole blog instead of one post?

When you mention a blog in general, APA 7 doesn't ask for a reference entry. Name the blog in your sentence and put its URL in parentheses. If you quote or use an idea from a specific post, cite that post instead.

Can I cite a blog post in a nursing or research paper?

It depends on the assignment. Many instructors accept blogs from professional sources, like a journal's blog or an academic health publisher, for background or for a clinician's perspective, but not as evidence in place of research. Check your rubric, and when a post cites a study, find and cite the study itself.

Rules checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), Sections 8.14, 8.17, 8.22, 8.28, 9.8, 9.11–9.17, 9.19, 9.34–9.35, and 10.1, and the APA Style website's blog post reference examples. Example sources verified on each post itself: bylines, author notes, dates, and blog mastheads; the APA Style post through its own "Cite This Webpage" box.

PERRLA builds the blog post reference from its URL, with the full date and the italics on the blog's name.

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