How to Format APA 7 Citations for Websites (Step by Step)

Almost every student assignment requires citing a website at some point — a news article, a government report, a blog post, a Wikipedia entry used as background. APA 7 has a specific structure for web sources, and the small details (the period placement, the 'Retrieved from' rule, the DOI vs URL distinction) are where most points are lost.

The basic structure

• Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of the page. Site Name. URL
• If the author is the same as the site name, omit the site name: Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of the page. URL
• If there is no date, use (n.d.): Author, A. A. (n.d.). Title of the page. Site Name. URL
• If there is no author, start with the title: Title of the page. (Year, Month Day). Site Name. URL

A worked example

A blog post on ForgePlug about JSON formatting, published August 16, 2026, by the ForgePlug Team:

• ForgePlug Team. (2026, August 16). How to format JSON when debugging API responses. ForgePlug. https://www.forgeplug.com/resources/format-json-when-debugging-api-responses
• Notice: Author name (last, initials), date in parentheses, sentence-case title (only first word and proper nouns capitalized), site name, period, then the full URL.

The details that trip students up

• Titles are sentence case — only capitalize the first word and proper nouns. 'How to Format JSON When Debugging API Responses' becomes 'How to format JSON when debugging API responses'.
• No 'Retrieved from' before the URL in APA 7 — this was an APA 6 rule. APA 7 just lists the URL directly after the site name.
• The access date is only required when the content may change over time (like a wiki page): Retrieved August 21, 2026, from https://...
• If a DOI exists, use it instead of the URL: https://doi.org/10.xxxx. DOIs are preferred because they're permanent.
• Every line except the first is indented 0.5 inches (hanging indent) in the reference list.

In-text citation

APA uses author-date citations in the text. For the ForgePlug article above:

• Parenthetical: (ForgePlug Team, 2026)
• Narrative: ForgePlug Team (2026) explains that formatting adds whitespace...
• If you quote directly, add a page number: (ForgePlug Team, 2026, p. 3). For web pages without page numbers, use the paragraph number: (ForgePlug Team, 2026, para. 3).