How to cite a website in Harvard
A web page or online article. Author-date style widely used in UK universities. Many local variants exist.
Quick answer
To cite a website in Harvard, include the author(s), year, title, and container or publisher details. A concrete example is below.
Example
Purdue Online Writing Lab (2024) What is a citation? Available at: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/using_research/index.html (Accessed: April 21, 2026).
This example is rendered with the official CSL definition for Harvard. For the exact style required by your journal, paste your references into DEEPNOTIS and pick that style from the dropdown — the app covers 2,800+ variants.
What you need
For a website, Harvard expects these fields at minimum:
- Author or organization
- Year of publication
- Page title
- Website / organization name
- URL
- Access date (some styles)
Common mistakes
- Citing a dynamic page without an access date — crucial because the content can change.
- Using the URL as the title. The title is the page heading; the URL is a separate field.
- Mixing bibliography formatting with in-text citation rules. Reference-list entries and in-text cites follow different patterns — use the style's official guide for both.
- Forgetting the DOI. When a DOI exists, most styles now require it (usually as a full https://doi.org/… URL).
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Last updated: 5 May 2026