Published October 16, 2020. Updated August 15, 2021.

If you need to reference a website in Harvard referencing style, this guide will get you started! It covers many different types of websites and some of the issues you may encounter when referencing material on the internet. The examples follow the guidelines set out in the 11th edition of Cite them right by Richard Pears and Graham Shields but this guide is not affiliated with the text.

Here’s what you’ll find in this guide:

• Important considerations for citing websites

• How to reference a website with an organisation as the author

• How to reference a website with an author

• How to reference a website with no author

• How to reference a website with no date

• How to reference a social media post

• How to reference a blog post

If you’re citing sources, the Chegg Writing Harvard referencing generator is a helpful resource. Help protect your paper against accidental plagiarism with the Chegg Writing plagiarism checker and citation generator.

Important considerations for citing websites

One issue that comes with referencing websites is that material on the Internet is constantly changing and can disappear rapidly and without notice. With this in mind, it is important to gather all the information you need to cite a website when you access it. Make sure to write down the following:

• The date you accessed the website. That way, the reader will know if the website has been edited or removed since you viewed it.

• The URL of the source. URLs can also change, so it is helpful to provide your reader with all the information that might help them locate it if the URL changes.

• Evaluate if the website is credible. Anybody can post a web page, so it is important to thoroughly vet any website you want to cite.

Missing information

Another issue that comes up when referencing websites is missing information, such as no author listed, no publication date, etc.

Some of the examples below will give you more information on what to do in these scenarios. Simply try to give as much information as you can while still referencing the source.

Here are solutions to a few scenarios:

• No author --> Use the website Name/Publisher OR the page title.

• No author and no title --> Use the URL.

• No date --> Write 'no date".

It is important to keep in mind that if a website is missing several of these elements, it may not be an appropriate website to reference in academic writing.

Information you'll need

For citing websites in the Harvard referencing style, you’ll generally need the following information:

• Author or organisation responsible for creating the content

• Publication year

• Web Page/Website title

• URL

• Date accessed

Depending on the type of website, you may need to include other information such as the day and month the content was uploaded, or the title of the blog or newspaper in which the content was published. The next sections will give you examples of different types of websites and web content and help you to cite them in the Harvard referencing style.

How to reference a website with an organisation as the author

Many websites will have organisations or corporate bodies instead of individual authors. To reference a website that has an organisation as the author, simply use the name of the organisation in the place of the author in both the in-text reference and the full reference.

In-text reference template & example:

No paragraph indicator is needed unless you are using a quote. If you use a quote, include the location of the quotation. Because websites usually don’t have pages, you can abbreviate ‘paragraph’ as ‘para.’ and point the reader to the specific paragraph you are referencing.

Full reference template and example:

How to reference a website with an author

For citing websites that have authors, the in-text citation process is very simple and just uses the author’s last name and year separated by a comma, in round brackets: (Author Surname, Year).

In-text reference template and example:

(Author Surname, Year published)

Abundant Permaculture helps its members learn how to raise chickens and build mobile chicken coops (Rhodes, 2020).

Full reference template and example:

How to reference a website with no author

Most of the time, if there is no author, you will be able to find a corporate body or organisation responsible for the website. If not, you may use the page title in the place of the author.

In-text reference template and example:

(Page title, Year)

(6 facts about the 4th of July, no date)

Full reference template and example:

How to reference an online dictionary or encyclopedia entry (no author)

Common sources without known authors include dictionary entries and encyclopaedia pages. They do follow slightly different rules as there is an organisation associated with their creation.

In-text reference template and example:

(‘Page title’, Year)

(‘Rachel Carson’, 2020)

Full reference template and example:

How to reference a website with no dates

Referencing a website with no publication date is easy. You just replace the publication date with the phrase ‘no date’. Do make sure to still include an access date though.

In-text reference example:

Biltmore has its own conservation department and seeks to ‘preserve and present Biltmore House in an authentic manner relevant to George Vanderbilt’s time’ (The Biltmore Company, no date, para. 3).

Full reference example:

How to reference a social media post

To reference social media posts, you’ll need the following information:

• Author of post

• Full date posted

• Title of post or excerpt from post

• Social media platform

• URL

• Date of access

Harvard style referencing for social media varies according to the different platforms. There are also differences when citing posts versus pages. Additionally, if the post is private (e.g., a private Facebook post), Harvard style recommends using the main social media platform page (e.g., www.facebook.com) as the URL. This section of the guide will cover three common social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) and how to reference them.

Facebook

Here’s an example of how to cite a Facebook page:

In-text reference templates and example:

If there is an author: (Author Surname, Year)

If no clear author is named: (Page title, Year)

According to their Facebook page, the Chatham Rabbits will play their final outdoor concert of 2020 on September 19 (McCombie and McCombie, 2020).

Full reference template and example:

Twitter

In-text references for Twitter follow the same format as Facebook and use the following information:

• author name

• year posted

For Twitter, the author should be clear and you may use the Twitter handle as the author if needed.

For the full reference, the full text of the tweet is used as the title. If the tweet is very long, you can use an ellipsis to shorten it. You can put the Twitter handle of the author in square brackets following the author’s name in the full reference.

Full reference example (Twitter):

Instagram

For Instagram posts, you’ll use the name of the Instagram account holder or the poster as the author in both the in-text and full references. This is important in the case of an Instagram takeover where the poster might not be the same as the account holder. In general, however, the account holder will be the author.

In full references for Instagram posts, the main citation difference is that the post title is placed in single quotation marks in the full reference. Here’s an example:

Full reference example (Instagram):

How to reference a blog post

Referencing a blog post is similar to referencing a website. The main difference is that you’ll also need to include the website title and the day and month the post was posted. If the author uses an alias, use the alias in your reference.

In-text reference template and example:

(Author Surname/Alias, Year)

(Elliott, 2020)

Full reference template and example:

For more style basics, read this Harvard referencing in-text citations guide and this article on formatting Harvard referencing style papers.

Works Referenced:

Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2019) Cite them right: the essential referencing guide. 11th rev. edn. London: Red Globe Press.