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Writing and Citing: APA 7th Edition: Websites

A guide to help users create citations using American Psychological Association Style, 7th edition.

Basic Format

Basic Format:

Author Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial. (Year, Month day). Title of website: Subtitle. Website owner/publisher. URL

Example:

Gentile, K. (2025, May 25). Mote doubles program record with 28,000 snook released to support Florida fisheries. Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium. https://mote.org/news/mote-doubles-program-record-with-28000-snook-released-to-support-florida-fisheries/

If citing an access/retrieval date:

Make sure to include the date of retrieval if you think the information may change.

Author Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial. (Year, Month day). Title of website: Subtitle. Website owner/publisher. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from URL

Example:

Gentile, K. (2025, May 25). Mote doubles program record with 28,000 snook released to support Florida fisheries. Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium. Retrieved December 3, 2025, from https://mote.org/news/mote-doubles-program-record-with-28000-snook-released-to-support-florida-fisheries/

Website, Organization as Author:

Organization name. (Year, Month day). Title of website: Subtitle. URL

Example:

World Health Organization. (2022, December 7). Arsenic. Retrieved December 3, 2025, from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/arsenic

Website, No Author:

When you cannot find an author for the webpage that you are using, start the citation with the title of specific page.

Page title: Subtitle. (Year, Month day). Title of Website: Subtitle. URL

Note: For more information about citing resources with missing information check out the APA Style Guide.

Example:

Florida governor's records. (2025). Florida Memory Project. https://www.floridamemory.com/discover/historical_records/governor-records/

Blog Post:

Author Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial. (Year, Month Date). Title of post. Publisher. URL

Example:

Collins, A. (2025, December 3). Seaweed aquaculture in Florida? A farmer’s perspective. University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Science. https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/manateeco/2025/12/03/seaweed-aquaculture-in-florida-a-farmers-perspective/

Basic Format:

Websites are cited in-text same as many other resources, in the author-date format.

(Author Last Name, date) -parenthetical

Author Last Name (date) ... -narrative

Example:

(Gentile, 2025)

According to Gentile (2025) ...

Website, Organization as Author:

(World Health Organization, 2022)

According to the World Health Organization (2022) ...

Website, No Author:

For websites with no author, use the Title-date format.

("Title", date) -parenthetical

"Title" (date) -narrative

Example:

("Florida governor's records", 2025)

As noted in the "Florida governor's records" (2025) ...

Reliable Websites

Types of reliable websites: 

Many reliable resources published by the government, educational institutions or organizations do not have a specific author. In this case, the organization that published the resource becomes the author. 

Government website: 

Features of a government website:

  • URL ends in .gov 
  • Website information is overseen by the government 
  • Official communication of a government organization 

Name of Organization. (Date). Title of specific page. Sponsoring Organization (if applicable). URL or DOI 

Example:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019, September 22). Lung cancer screening guidelines and recommendations. U.S. Department of Health. https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/lung/pdf/lung-cancer-screening-recommendations-508.pdf 

Educational website: 

Features of an educational website:

  • URL ends in .edu 
  • Website information is overseen by an educational institution 
  • Mostly offers non-biased academic information

Name of Educational Institution. (Date). Title of specific page. URL 

Example:

State College of Florida. (2020). Institutional research. https://www.scf.edu/Administration/InstitutionalResearch/default.asp 

Organizational website: 

Features of an organizational website:

  • URL ends in .org 
  • Website information is provided by an organization (non-governmental) 
  • Information contained must be evaluated for bias toward organization’s mission 

Name of Organization. (Date). Title of specific page. URL 

Example:

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). (2019, November). Global framework on transferable skills. https://www.unicef.org/media/64751/file/Global-framework-on-transferable-skills-2019.pdf  

Many reliable resources published by the government, educational institutions or organizations do not have a specific author. In this case, the organization that published the resource becomes the author. 

(Organization, date). -parenthetical 

Organization (date) -narrative 

Example:

For organization names that can be abbreviated, all in-text citations following the first are shortened to the abbreviation only, followed by the year. For example:

First in-text citation: (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2019). 

All subsequent in-text citations: (CDC, 2019).