How to Bluebook Cite a Website: Format, Dates, and Archiving

To Bluebook cite a website, list the author, the page title in italics, the website name in large and small capitals, the date in parentheses, and the URL, then add a bracketed archive link at the end. Rule 18.2.2 governs this direct-citation format in the 22nd Edition, and every element carries specific punctuation and typeface requirements that journals and courts will flag if you get them wrong.1The Bluebook Online. The Internet

Check for a Print Version First

Rule 18.2.2 only applies to content that exists solely online. Before citing a webpage directly, check whether the same material appears in print. If it does, cite the print version under the relevant print rule and append the URL at the end if it helps the reader find the source. The website-citation format described here is for material that has no print equivalent.1The Bluebook Online. The Internet

What You Need Before You Start

Pull these five pieces of information off the page itself:

  • Author. A byline if one exists. If not, the organization responsible for the content. If the only identifier is a username, use that.
  • Page title. The headline of the specific page, usually the main heading or browser tab title.
  • Website name. The site that hosts the page, abbreviated per Table 13.
  • Date. A publication or posting date that refers to the content itself. If none exists, you will fall back to “last visited.”
  • URL. Copied exactly from the address bar, and not styled as a live hyperlink in the finished document.

If the page title and the website name are identical, drop the website name to avoid repeating yourself.

The Citation Format

Assemble the elements in this order:

  • Author name in regular roman type, followed by a comma.
  • Page title in italics, followed by a comma.
  • Website name in large and small capitals, with no comma after it.
  • Date in parentheses, placed directly after the website name with no intervening punctuation.
  • A comma after the closing parenthesis, then the URL.

A finished citation reads:

John Smith, Understanding Federal Grants, U.S. Dep’t of Educ. (Jan. 15, 2025), https://www.ed.gov/example-page

There is no period after the URL. The Bluebook omits it so the link stays clean if a reader copies and pastes.2University of Cincinnati. Bluebook Citation 101 – Academic Format: Internet Citation The 22nd Edition also dropped “available at,” which earlier editions required before URLs.

Picking the Right Date

Rule 18.2.2(c) sets a strict hierarchy:

  • Publication or posting date. Always the first choice when it clearly refers to the content you are citing.
  • Last updated or last modified date. Use this if no publication date appears but the page shows a modification date.
  • Last visited date. The option of last resort, used only when the page carries no other date at all.3Georgia State University College of Law Library. Bluebooking Tips and Resources – Internet Citations

Pick one date according to that order. A common mistake is stacking a publication date and a “last visited” date in the same citation.

For blogs and social media, add a timestamp when one is available: (Sept. 4, 2025, 2:57 PM). Timestamps distinguish multiple posts made the same day.

The Archive Requirement

The 22nd Edition made archiving mandatory. Rule 18.2.1(d) requires that every online source you cite be captured in a permanent format, either through a service like Perma.cc or as a PDF saved on file.2University of Cincinnati. Bluebook Citation 101 – Academic Format: Internet Citation Law review editors will reject citations without a working archive link.

The archived URL goes in brackets at the very end of the citation, after the live URL:

Eric Goldman, When Should Search Engines Ignore Court Orders To Remove Search Results?, Tech. & Marketing L. Blog (Sept. 4, 2013), http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2013/09/when_should_sea.htm [https://perma.cc/U2AN-2TXE]

Blog Posts and Social Media

Blogs get slightly different treatment. Both the post title and the blog name are italicized, matching how the Bluebook handles newspapers and magazines. If the blog sits inside a larger site with its own identity, include both names. A blog citation looks like:

Jane Doe, New Trends in Privacy Law, Tech Law Insights (Mar. 12, 2025, 10:30 AM), https://www.example.com/blog/privacy-trends [https://perma.cc/XXXX-XXXX]

For social media, put the author’s verified real name first, then the handle or username in parentheses so readers can locate the account even if the display name changes. If no real name is discernible, use the username alone as the author. That is the rule, not a workaround.

Pinpoint Citations

Pinpoint cites to a specific passage inside a website are narrower than with print. You can only pinpoint when the document itself carries a page number, as in a PDF that preserves original pagination. Scroll position, screen number, and browser-generated paragraph counts do not qualify. For a standard webpage without internal pagination, a pinpoint reference is not available.

PDFs and Digital Copies of Print Documents

Not everything you find online counts as a website. If a PDF reproduces a printed document exactly, cite it under Rule 18.2.1, not 18.2.2. Three categories fall under the print-equivalent rule:

  • Authenticated documents, meaning files that bear a certificate or logo from a government entity verifying the document is complete and unaltered.
  • Official versions, meaning documents designated “official” by a state or federal body even if no print version exists.
  • Exact copies, meaning PDFs that retain the print version’s page numbers and formatting.

Cite any of these under the print rule and append the URL if the print source is hard to find.1The Bluebook Online. The Internet Documents pulled from Westlaw or LexisNexis do not qualify, because those platforms do not preserve original pagination; commercial databases follow Rule 18.3 instead.

Short-Form References

Once the full citation appears in a footnote, later references shorten. If the immediately preceding footnote cites the same website and nothing else, use id. For sources cited earlier but not immediately before, use supra with the author’s last name, or the page title if there is no author, followed by the footnote number of the original full citation. Website content is treated like secondary authority for these purposes.

Academic Versus Practitioner Format

Everything above follows the Whitepages format used in law review articles and academic writing. Court filings and legal memoranda follow the Bluepages, which simplify typeface conventions. The most visible difference is that practitioner format typically does not use large and small capitals for the website name. Check Bluepages Rule B18 before switching between contexts, because the typeface rules diverge in ways that are easy to miss.