Learning how to cite a blog post correctly is essential because blogs sit in a gray zone between a casual web page and a formal published article, and each citation style treats them a little differently. A blog post citation needs five core pieces of information: the author, the publication date, the title of the post, the name of the blog, and the URL. The tricky parts are deciding whether the post title takes sentence case or title case, knowing when a blog counts as something else entirely (like a news article), and getting the in-text form right. This guide walks through the blog post citation in APA 7th, MLA 9th, and Chicago 17th editions, with worked examples and the most common mistakes to avoid.
What Counts as a Blog Post?
A blog post is a dated entry published on a website that is organized as a blog, typically with a named author, a comments section, and a reverse-chronological feed. Think of a personal writing blog, a company’s content marketing blog, or an academic researcher’s WordPress site. The key signals are an individual post title, a clear posting date, and a blog name that is distinct from the post itself.
Because blogs share features with several other source types, it helps to know what a blog post is not before you cite one. If you are unsure whether your source is really a blog, our general guides on how to cite sources and what is a citation explain the underlying logic that applies to every format.
Blog Post vs. News Article
A news article comes from an established news organization (a newspaper, magazine, or wire service) and is usually edited and fact-checked by staff. It is cited with the news outlet as the source and often a section name. A blog post, by contrast, reflects the views of an individual or organization publishing on its own platform. When the content lives on a recognized news site, treat it as a news article instead. See how to cite a newspaper article and how to cite a magazine article for those rules.
Blog Post vs. Standard Web Page
A standard web page is undated content such as an “About” page, a product page, or a static informational article with no individual author or post date. A blog post almost always has a byline and a publication date. If your source lacks both an author and a date and is not part of a blog feed, cite it as a web page using how to cite a website instead. When pieces really are missing, our guides on citing a source with no author and citing a source with no date show the substitutes.
How to Cite a Blog Post in APA
In APA 7th edition, the reference begins with the author’s last name and initials, followed by the full date in parentheses, the title of the post in sentence case (only the first word and proper nouns capitalized, not italicized), the blog name in italics, and the URL. APA does not require the word “Blog” in the entry unless it is part of the blog name. For in-text citations, use the author and year; for three or more authors, use the first author plus “et al.”
Okafor, R. (2024, March 12). Why slow writing makes for better arguments. The Draft Desk. https://www.example.com/slow-writing
In-text: (Okafor, 2024)
Notice that the blog name is italicized while the post title is not, the same pattern APA uses for an article inside a larger work. You can build this entry field by field with the APA citation generator, and the broader rules are covered in our APA format guide and APA in-text citations guide.
How to Cite a Blog Post in MLA
MLA 9th edition uses the container system. The author appears as Last, First; the post title goes in quotation marks in title case; the blog name is the container, italicized; and the entry ends with the date and the URL (with “https://” removed). Remember the MLA rule that all prepositions are lowercased in titles regardless of length. The in-text citation is just the author’s last name, with no comma and no date, plus a page number only if one exists (blog posts rarely have them).
Okafor, Rachel. “Why Slow Writing Makes for Better Arguments.” The Draft Desk, 12 Mar. 2024, www.example.com/slow-writing.
In-text: (Okafor)
In the title above, “for” is lowercased because it is a preposition, even though it appears in the middle of the title. To assemble a works-cited entry automatically, use the MLA citation generator, and review formatting in our MLA format guide, MLA works cited page guide, and MLA in-text citations guide.
How to Cite a Blog Post in Chicago
Chicago 17th edition offers two systems. In notes-bibliography style, you provide a full footnote the first time, a shortened note afterward, and a bibliography entry. The post title is in title case and quotation marks, and the blog name is italicized. Chicago suggests adding the word “blog” in parentheses after the blog name if it is not obvious. In the author-date variant, the date moves up next to the author.
Bibliography: Okafor, Rachel. “Why Slow Writing Makes for Better Arguments.” The Draft Desk (blog), March 12, 2024. https://www.example.com/slow-writing.
First note: 1. Rachel Okafor, “Why Slow Writing Makes for Better Arguments,” The Draft Desk (blog), March 12, 2024, https://www.example.com/slow-writing.
Shortened note: 2. Okafor, “Why Slow Writing.”
If your instructor uses the author-date variant, the in-text citation would read (Okafor 2024) and the reference-list entry would move the year forward. The full mechanics are in our Chicago style guide, and you can generate either format with the Chicago citation generator or the closely related Turabian citation generator.
Sentence Case vs. Title Case at a Glance
The single biggest source of error in blog post citations is capitalization of the post title. APA uses sentence case: capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns. MLA and Chicago use title case: capitalize the principal words but lowercase articles, coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions. So the same post becomes “Why slow writing makes for better arguments” in APA and “Why Slow Writing Makes for Better Arguments” in MLA and Chicago. Keep this difference in mind whenever you switch styles, and see APA vs MLA and citation styles explained for more on these contrasts.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
A few errors show up again and again in blog post citations:
- Italicizing the wrong element. Italicize the blog name, never the post title. The post title goes in quotation marks (MLA, Chicago) or plain text (APA).
- Mixing up case styles. Do not use title case in an APA entry or sentence case in MLA. Match the style you are using.
- Treating a news blog as a personal blog. If the content is published by a recognized news outlet, cite it as a news article, not a blog post.
- Forgetting the date. Blogs are dated sources. Use the full posting date, and use “n.d.” (APA) or “n.d.” / “Accessed” conventions when no date is available, as explained in our in-text citations guide.
- Citing a comment as the post. A reader comment is a separate source type from the post itself.
Getting these details right also protects you from accidental plagiarism, since a precise citation makes clear which ideas are yours and which you borrowed. See how to avoid plagiarism for more.
Final Thoughts
Citing a blog post comes down to five elements, author, date, post title, blog name, and URL, arranged according to your style’s rules for case and italics. APA favors sentence case and italicizes the blog name; MLA and Chicago use title case with the post title in quotation marks. Once you can tell a blog post apart from a news article or a static web page, the rest is just plugging the pieces into the right slots. When you want to save time and avoid formatting slips, run your source through the APA, MLA, or Chicago generator, and use our guide to citing a website for any source that turns out not to be a blog after all.