APA How To In-Text Cite A Website | Simple In-Text Patterns

Use an author name with a year in parentheses or in the sentence, and add a page or paragraph number only when you quote directly from a webpage.

APA website in-text citations look short on the page, but small details matter for grades, feedback, and reader trust. Once you know the pattern, every online source can drop into place without breaking the flow of your paragraph.

Why APA Website In-Text Citations Matter

APA style uses an author surname and year in the body of your paper to show which source backs each idea. For webpages, that short signal tells your reader who wrote the content, when it appeared, and where to look in the reference list.

The official APA Style site describes this as an author–date citation system that applies in the same way to books, journal articles, reports, and websites.

APA In-Text Citation For A Website: Basic Pattern

Most APA website citations appear in one of two forms. A parenthetical citation places author and year together at the end of a sentence inside brackets. A narrative citation places the author name in the sentence itself and the year in brackets right after the name.

For a standard webpage with a person as author, a parenthetical citation looks like (Lopez, 2023). A matching narrative version would read Lopez (2023) argues that students benefit from clear models. In both forms, the in-text citation tells your reader who wrote the webpage and when it was published or last updated.

When you refer to an entire webpage in general, author and year alone are enough. When you quote a specific sentence or statistic from a website, add a locator inside the same brackets. Many webpages have no page numbers, so APA allows paragraph numbers or section headings in that slot.

APA How To In-Text Cite A Website Step By Step

The core APA website pattern stays the same, but real pages on the internet vary in layout and detail. A short step sequence for each source keeps your citations consistent so your reader can scan them quickly.

Step 1: Identify The Author Or Group

Look first for a person or group that clearly takes responsibility for the webpage content. This could be a named writer, an editorial team, or an organization such as a government department or professional body. If a person is listed, use the surname in your in-text citation. If only a group appears, treat that group name as the author.

APA Style notes that group authors such as large agencies or associations should appear in full the first time, with a shortened form in later citations when the abbreviation is well known. You might write “Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2022)” on first mention and then “CDC (2022)” once the shortened form is clear.

Step 2: Find The Year Or Use n.d.

Next, scan the webpage for a publication or last updated date. Many sites place this near the top of the page or at the bottom near copyright information. If you see a full date, use the year only inside your in-text citation. If you see no date at all, write n.d., short for “no date,” in the year position.

The official APA guidance on basic citation principles explains that the year is always part of an in-text citation, even for undated web content. With websites that change over time, this year usually matches the date shown in the reference list entry so your reader can connect the two parts easily.

Step 3: Pick Parenthetical Or Narrative Style

After you know the author and year, decide how you want the citation to sit in the sentence. Parenthetical citations keep everything in brackets, which fits when you care more about the idea than the source name. Narrative citations weave the author into the sentence itself, which fits better when you want to stress who said something or compare several authors.

Both forms follow the same rules for punctuation. In parenthetical citations, the comma goes between the surname and the year, and the closing bracket sits just before the full stop or other end punctuation. In narrative citations, the year in brackets follows directly after the author name with no extra words in between.

Step 4: Add A Locator For Direct Quotes

When you quote from a website word for word, APA expects a locator in addition to the author and year. If the page has numbered paragraphs or clearly labeled sections, use those labels in your citation. If the content is a PDF or another document with page numbers, treat those pages in the usual way by adding p. or pp. before the number.

APA Style guidance on quotations and locators explains that these details help your reader find the exact line you borrowed. A citation for a direct quote from a webpage might look like (Lopez, 2023, para. 4) or Lopez (2023, “Study Tips” section, para. 2).

Paraphrasing Versus Quoting From A Website

Many assignments ask you to paraphrase website information instead of lifting long blocks of text. Paraphrasing means restating the idea in your own words while still showing where it came from.

Say that you read a webpage on online study habits by Lopez from 2023. A paraphrased sentence might look like this: Students who build small, daily study routines tend to remember more over time (Lopez, 2023). You could also write Lopez (2023) notes that short, regular study sessions often beat last minute cramming in effectiveness.

Quoting from a website follows the same basic pattern but adds quotation marks and a locator. A short quote might read Lopez (2023, para. 5) writes that “short bursts of focus add up over a semester.” A parenthetical version would look like “Short bursts of focus add up over a semester” (Lopez, 2023, para. 5).

Website Scenario	Parenthetical In-Text Citation	Narrative In-Text Citation
Single author webpage	(Lopez, 2023)	Lopez (2023)
Two authors webpage	(Lopez & Patel, 2022)	Lopez and Patel (2022)
Three or more authors webpage	(Lopez et al., 2021)	Lopez et al. (2021)
Organization as author	(World Health Organization, 2020)	World Health Organization (2020)
No named author, clear group author	(American Psychological Association, 2019)	American Psychological Association (2019)
No date on webpage	(Lopez, n.d.)	Lopez (n.d.)
No author and no date	(“Study Skills Checklist,” n.d.)	The article “Study Skills Checklist” (n.d.)

How To Handle Missing Information In APA Website Citations

Websites vary in quality and detail. Some provide clear authors and dates, while others give little information about who wrote the content or when it appeared. APA sets patterns for these situations so that you can still create in-text citations that make sense.

No Author Listed

When a webpage shows no personal or group author, move the title into the author position. In text, that means your citation starts with a shortened version of the title placed inside quotation marks, followed by the year or n.d. One example might be (“Study Skills Checklist,” 2021) or “Study Skills Checklist” (2021) in narrative form.

Keep the shortened title clear enough that your reader can match it to the reference list entry. Drop opening words like “A,” “An,” or “The” and keep the main terms that distinguish that webpage from others on your list.

No Date Given

If a website gives no date anywhere on the page, write n.d. in the date position. An in-text citation would look like (Lopez, n.d.) or Lopez (n.d.) explains the study method in detail. The reference list entry will also use n.d., showing that you checked and no date was available.

Undated sources are common for support pages, help files, and some blog articles. Using n.d. in both in-text citations and references tells your reader that the missing date belongs to the source, not to your note-taking.

No Page Numbers On The Webpage

Most websites do not show page numbers, so APA allows other types of locator when you quote. Paragraph numbers, section headings, or time stamps from media players can all work. You might cite a quote as (Lopez, 2023, para. 8) or as (Lopez, 2023, “Results” section, para. 2) if the page has distinct sections.

If the webpage is a PDF document that opens in a browser, treat it like a normal print source for locator purposes. In that case an in-text citation for a direct quote might read (Lopez, 2023, p. 14). What matters most is that your reader can find the passage quickly by following the details you give.

Common Problem	Weak Citation	Better APA Website Citation
Only the URL is mentioned in text	“I found this on www.example.com.”	(Lopez, 2023)
Author given, date missing from citation	(Lopez)	(Lopez, 2023)
Website name used instead of author	(StudyHub, 2023)	(Lopez, 2023)
No locator for a direct quote	(Lopez, 2023)	(Lopez, 2023, para. 5)
Title used even if an author exists	(“Study Skills Checklist,” 2023)	(Lopez, 2023)
Missing commas or brackets	(Lopez 2023)	(Lopez, 2023)
Multiple websites with same author and year	(Lopez, 2023)	(Lopez, 2023a) and (Lopez, 2023b)

APA Website In-Text Citation Checklist

Before you submit a paper that uses online sources, run through a short checklist for each website you cite in the text. Consistent citations show careful research habits and keep your writing tidy.

• Check that every idea drawn from a website has an in-text citation with an author or title and a year or n.d.
• Match each in-text citation to a full reference list entry with the same author or title and year.
• Add a locator such as a paragraph number or section name whenever you quote directly from a webpage.
• Use group authors such as agencies or associations by their full name at first, then by abbreviation if APA allows it.

The American Psychological Association provides many website examples in its webpage on a website reference examples. For extra practice with sentence-level models, the Purdue OWL APA in-text citation basics page walks through more samples. Once you understand the basic author and date approach and keep website details aligned between in-text citations and references, citing websites in APA turns into a repeatable writing habit instead of a source of last minute stress in daily writing.