Are Website Titles Italicized?
MLA treats a website title as the title of an independent work and italicizes it; the web address or URL itself is not the title and is normally set in roman type. Distinguish the website title from an individual webpage title and from the site’s web address; other style systems may specify different treatment.
In MLA style, italicize the title of a website, but do not italicize a URL merely because it points to that site.
Key details
Important caveats
Scope Boundary
Distinguish the website title from an individual webpage title and from the site’s web address; other style systems may specify different treatment.
Further guidance
Example
MLA-style invented example: *Green City Guide* is the website title, while greencity.example is the web address. Italics apply to the title, not automatically to the URL.
Practical Application
In MLA style, italicize the title of a website as an independent work. Keep the URL in roman type because the address is not the site title.
Reader Check
Check whether the words you are styling are the site’s actual title, an individual page title, or merely the domain/URL. Those are different elements.
Recommendation
In MLA style, italicize the title of a website, but do not italicize a URL merely because it points to that site.
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
- How should I style a web address like google.com? (opens in a new tab)Modern Language Association · MLA guidance distinguishing a website title from its URL and styling a website title as an independent work in italics.