How to Quote a Website in APA 7: Locators and Block Quotes

To quote a website in APA 7, put the words in quotation marks and give the author, the year, and a locator in place of the page number: a paragraph number (para. 4), a section heading (Transmission section), or both. A quotation of 40 words or more drops the quotation marks and becomes an indented block.

Most guides stop at "use para." This one works through a real webpage, the World Health Organization's mpox fact sheet, and shows what to do when the obvious locator does not fit. It covers lists that break your count, headings too long to repeat, a video embedded in the page, and a quote that already contains quotation marks or someone else's citation. It also shows which edits to a quotation APA allows without comment and which need an ellipsis, brackets, or a note.

The APA 7 rule for quoting a webpage

Every direct quotation in APA 7 needs three things in the citation: the author, the year, and the exact location of the words. For print, the location is a page number. A webpage has no pages, so Section 8.28 of the Publication Manual (7th ed.) asks you to give the reader another way to find the passage. The UT Arlington library's APA guide answers the question in one line: if page numbers are not provided, use paragraph numbers with the abbreviation para.

Format (short quotation, parenthetical):

"Quoted words" (Author, Year, para. #). "Quoted words" (Author, Year, Heading section). "Quoted words" (Author, Year, Heading section, para. #).

Format (short quotation, narrative):

Author (Year) wrote that "quoted words" (para. #).

The reference list entry does not change because you quoted. It is the ordinary webpage reference, with no page or paragraph number in it. The Atlantic Technological University guide is explicit: if a source has no page numbers, such as a webpage or an online newspaper article, do not include a page number in the reference entry. The locator lives only in the in-text citation.

For the page used throughout this post, the reference is:

World Health Organization. (2024, August 26). Mpox. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/monkeypox

The author and the site are the same organization, so the site name is left out. Our APA 7 website citation guide covers that rule and the rest of the reference format. This post is about the in-text side: what goes after the year when you quote.

Choosing a locator when the page has no page numbers

You have four options, and the right one depends on the shape of the page. Pick the one that gets a reader to the passage fastest.

A paragraph number. Count the paragraphs from the top of the page, even though the site does not number them, and write para. and the number. The University of Auckland's APA 7 guide puts it plainly: if there are no page numbers, count the paragraphs. This works on a short page, such as a blog post or a press release, where counting from the top is quick and unambiguous.

A section heading. If the page is divided by headings, name the heading and add the word "section": (World Health Organization, 2024, Transmission section). Auckland's guide prints the heading as it appears, without quotation marks, when it is short.

A heading plus a paragraph number. On a long page, count from the nearest heading instead of from the top: (World Health Organization, 2024, Transmission section, para. 1). This is the locator to reach for on most fact sheets, guidance pages, and long explainers. The UTA guide gives the pattern as (Beutler, 2000, Conclusion, para. 1), and the Auckland guide's version adds "section" after the heading. Either is readable; pick one and keep it the same through the paper.

A shortened heading in quotation marks. When a heading is too long to repeat, shorten it and put the short form in quotation marks. Auckland's example: Carers UK (n.d.) stated that obtaining additional support "would help you to juggle work and care" ("Getting support for you" section, para. 1).

Two rules sit above all four. If the webpage does show numbers, use them: a PDF hosted on a website usually has real page numbers, and then you write p. as you would for print. And if the page carries an embedded video or audio clip and you quote the speaker, the locator is a time stamp, covered under special cases below.

Why the WHO page needs a heading

The WHO mpox fact sheet opens with a "Key facts" heading followed by bullet points, then an "Overview" heading with four paragraphs. Count "from the top" and you hit a question the manual does not answer: do the bullet points count as paragraphs? A heading removes the question. "Overview section, para. 1" points to one paragraph no matter how anyone counts bullets.

The same problem shows up inside a section. Under "Treatment and vaccination," the third paragraph is a single line that introduces a bulleted list of high-risk groups. Counting that line as paragraph 3 and skipping the bullets puts the sentence about antivirals at paragraph 5. No APA rule settles how to count a list. The defensible choice is to count the lead-in line as a paragraph, skip the bullets, and apply that the same way every time you quote the page.

Short quotations and block quotations

The 40-word line decides the format. Count the words you are actually quoting, not the whole paragraph they come from.

Under 40 words, the quotation runs inside your sentence in double quotation marks. The citation goes after the closing quotation mark and before the sentence's final punctuation. From the UTA guide's description of the manual's rule: place the citation parentheses after the closing quotation marks and before the punctuation.

The fact sheet notes that "most people fully recover, but some get very sick" (World Health Organization, 2024, Overview section, para. 1).

40 words or more, the quotation becomes a block. The UTA guide lists the steps, citing pages 272-273 of the manual: omit the quotation marks, start the block on a new line, indent the whole block half an inch from the left margin, keep it double-spaced, and put the citation after the final punctuation mark. A second paragraph inside the block gets an extra half-inch indent on its first line.

Here is the WHO page's paragraph on stigma, 68 words, as a block quotation:

The World Health Organization (2024) frames stigma as a public health problem:

>

> Stigma and discrimination for any disease are never acceptable. Stigma linked to mpox can undermine public health efforts or prolong a disease outbreak, as people may be more reluctant to come forward and seek care and treatment. For mpox, stigma, discrimination and racism have been particularly directed against communities initially most affected by the disease, namely men who have sex with men, trans people and gender diverse communities. (Stigma and discrimination section, para. 1)

Notice three things. The author and year are in the lead-in sentence, so only the locator follows the block. The locator sits after the final period, with no period after the parentheses. And the block keeps WHO's punctuation exactly, including the missing serial comma in "stigma, discrimination and racism."

If you name nobody in the lead-in, the full citation goes after the block instead: (World Health Organization, 2024, Stigma and discrimination section, para. 1). The Edgewood College library guide shows both versions with print sources. Our APA paper format guide covers the margins and line spacing the block sits inside.

Worked examples

Each example below gives the in-text citation. The reference entry for a WHO quotation is the one shown at the top of this post; for the others, it is an ordinary webpage reference.

1. Parenthetical quote with heading and paragraph

Close contact can include "being face-to-face with someone who has mpox" (World Health Organization, 2024, Transmission section, para. 1).

The Transmission paragraph is 64 words long, too long to quote whole without a block. Quoting the seven words you need keeps it inside your sentence.

2. Narrative quote, with a change of capital letter

The World Health Organization (2024) states that "to date, there is no proven effective antiviral treatment for mpox" (Treatment and vaccination section, para. 5).

The original sentence begins "To date." Lowercasing the first letter so the quote fits your sentence is one of the changes APA allows without any mark, under Section 8.30. The paragraph number follows the list-counting choice explained above.

3. Paragraph number only, on a short page

The Morling College guide gives this form for a source without page numbers:

"Be sure to address an issue between you and a student or between two students as quickly as possible" (Alber, 2012, para. 11).

A paragraph count alone works here because the page is a single article without many headings. On a page the length of the WHO fact sheet, para. 11 would send a reader counting through bullet points.

4. Shortened heading

A heading like NIMH's "Why is NIMH studying anxiety disorders?" is a full question. To shorten it, keep enough words to find it and put them in quotation marks: ("Why is NIMH studying" section, para. 1). Auckland's Carers UK example above follows the same pattern.

5. Group author named in your sentence

According to the World Health Organization (2024), "people with multiple sexual partners are at higher risk of acquiring mpox" (Transmission section, para. 2).

When the author appears in your sentence, the year follows it straight away and the locator moves to the end of the quotation. The organization's name is the author; you do not add "WHO" in brackets unless you will cite it again and want the abbreviation.

6. No date on the page

Write n.d. where the year goes. Auckland's example: "product and services exports are a valuable addition to New Zealand's food and fibre exports" (New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, n.d., Agribusiness section, para. 2). Before you settle on n.d., check the top and bottom of the page for a published or updated date. Our guide to citing a source with no date in APA 7 covers where dates hide and why a footer copyright year does not count.

7. No author on the page

When neither a person nor an organization is credited, the title moves into the author position. For a webpage, whose title is italic in the reference, the title stays italic in text: (Title of the Webpage, 2024, para. 3). For an article on a newspaper or magazine site, the title goes in quotation marks instead. Our guide to citing an article from a website in APA 7 explains which format a news page takes.

8. A PDF on a website

A report or handout saved as a PDF usually has printed page numbers. Use them: (Author, Year, p. 12). The para. method exists for pages that lack numbers, so a PDF that has them is cited like print. If the PDF has no page numbers either, fall back to headings and paragraphs.

Changing a quotation: what needs a mark

A quotation has to match the source word for word, and the punctuation has to match too. APA allows a short list of changes, and Sections 8.30 and 8.31 split them into two groups. The SNHU library's FAQ sums it up: changes are permitted if the meaning stays the same and you follow those two sections.

No explanation needed (8.30). You can change the first letter of the quotation to upper or lower case, as in example 2 above. You can change some punctuation marks, such as the mark at the end of the quotation, so it fits your sentence. And inside a short quotation, the source's double quotation marks become single ones, covered in special cases below.

Explanation needed (8.31). Everything else gets a visible mark:

• Omitted words take an ellipsis, three spaced periods (. . .). Use four (a period, then the ellipsis) when the cut crosses the end of a sentence. From the WHO page: "Mpox spreads from person to person mainly through close contact . . . including members of a household" (World Health Organization, 2024, Transmission section, para. 1). The cut removes "with someone who has mpox," and the sentence still says what WHO said.
• Do not open or close a quotation with an ellipsis. The TCS Education System guide says to begin and end the quotation where the source text begins and ends, unless the original itself has an ellipsis there. The quotation marks already tell the reader the words come from inside a longer text.
• Added or replaced words go in square brackets, never parentheses. The WHO Overview's second paragraph says "It is an enveloped double-stranded DNA virus," which loses its meaning out of context. Quoted, it becomes "[The monkeypox virus] is an enveloped double-stranded DNA virus" (World Health Organization, 2024, Overview section, para. 2).
• Errors in the source stay as they are, followed by [sic] in square brackets. Do not correct the error inside the quotation.
• Your own emphasis is italicized and followed by [emphasis added]: "to date, there is no proven [emphasis added] effective antiviral treatment for mpox."

A regional spelling is not an error. WHO writes "diarrhoea" and "tattoo parlours"; quote them as written, with no [sic]. The same goes for a site's house style, such as WHO writing "100 000" with a space.

Special cases

The quote already contains quotation marks

Inside a short quotation, the source's double quotation marks become single so your outer pair stays clear. The University of Manitoba guide gives the rule: replace the original double quotation marks with single quotation marks. In a block quotation, which has no outer marks, the source's double quotation marks stay double.

The quote contains someone else's citation

Keep the citation in the quotation. The Morling College guide, citing page 276 of the manual, says to include embedded citations within the quotation and not to add those works to your reference list unless you cite them as primary sources elsewhere in your paper. Health and policy pages often cite studies inline, so this comes up more on websites than students expect.

You want to quote a person the webpage quotes

News pages and organizational sites often quote an expert or a spokesperson. You read the quote on the webpage, so the webpage is your source. Name the speaker in your sentence and cite the page with "as cited in," which Morling's guide gives as the wording for a source you read secondhand: Dr. Rivera (as cited in Author, 2024, para. 6) said that "quoted words." The reference list gets the webpage only. An interview quote seldom comes with its own date, so there is usually no second year to give.

A video embedded in the page

If the words you quote are spoken in a video on the page, replace the paragraph number with a time stamp for the start of the quotation. Auckland's guide uses the form (Burton, 1992, 9:03) for videos, TED talks, and similar media. If the video is the source, it gets its own reference; our YouTube citation guide covers that case.

Paragraphs that are already numbered

Some webpages number their paragraphs: legal decisions, standards, and some policy documents. Use the printed numbers instead of counting yourself. The UTA guide's fallback, closest heading plus paragraph, is for the case where the paragraph number is not visible.

The page changes after you quote it

Webpages get edited. If the passage you quoted is gone the next time you check, your quotation still has to match the version you read, and the reference date is the one that version carried. A retrieval date belongs only to pages designed to change, such as a live data dashboard; the APA 7 website guide explains when to add one. If an instructor may check your quotes, save a PDF of the page the day you quote it.

Quoting your own research participants

Participants you interviewed are not a website, but students sometimes ask about them alongside web sources. Auckland's guide says these quotes are not included in the reference list or cited as personal communications; you state in the text that the words come from participants and use a descriptor that does not identify the person, such as Participant A.

Common mistakes and how to avoid them

Writing a page number that is not there. "p. 1" for a webpage tells a reader you invented a page. Use para., a heading, or both.

Putting the locator in the reference entry. The paragraph number belongs in the in-text citation only. The reference stays the ordinary webpage reference.

Leaving the locator off a direct quote. A paraphrase can go without one. A direct quotation from a webpage needs a locator every time, the same as a page number on a book quote.

Counting from the top of a long page. On a page with bullet lists, sidebars, and a dozen headings, "para. 23" sends a reader on a hunt, and two people will count it two ways. Name the heading and count from there.

Placing the period before the citation in a short quote. In a short quotation the period follows the parentheses: "...very sick" (World Health Organization, 2024, Overview section, para. 1). The period comes before the citation only in a block quotation.

Keeping quotation marks around a block. A block quotation has no outer quotation marks. The indent marks the quotation.

Correcting the source. Fixing a typo or swapping British for American spelling is a change APA does not allow. Leave a real error and add [sic]; leave a regional spelling alone.

Adding a date or URL to the in-text citation. The month, day, and URL belong in the reference. In text, the year is enough: (World Health Organization, 2024, Transmission section, para. 1).

Quick-reference table