This page is a how-to guide detailing a practice or process on the English Wikipedia.

Shortcuts: WP:WBM WP:WAYBACK

This page gives information about using the Wayback Machine to cite archived copies of web pages used by articles. This is useful if a webpage has changed, moved, or disappeared; links to the original content can be retained.

Any link to the Wayback Machine starts with http://web.archive.org/web/. This is followed by a date reference, and then the URL of the site. For example:

• http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.wikipedia.org
  • this links to all versions of the main page of Wikipedia. The asterisk is a wild card for all dates.
• http://web.archive.org/web/20020930123525/http://www.wikipedia.org
  • this links to the version of the main page of Wikipedia on the date on September 30, 2002 at 12:35 pm (and 25 seconds). the date format is YYYYMMDDhhmmss
• http://web.archive.org/web/2/http://www.wikipedia.org
  • this links to the most current version of the main Wikipedia page. While this is possible, it is discouraged; the most recent version is subject to change, defeating the purpose of using the archive.

See also: Advanced URL locator hints and tips - Internet Archive

[edit] Wayback templates

{{wayback}} can create these links for you; use the 'url' and 'date' parameters to specify the URL and date. For example:

• {{wayback|url=http://www.wikipedia.org}}
  → Archive copy at the Internet Archive

Note that the date parameter defaults to '*'.

[edit] Cite templates

{{cite news}}, {{cite study}}, and {{cite web}} support the archiveurl parameter

• {{cite web |url=http://www.wikipedia.org |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20020930123525/http://www.wikipedia.org |archivedate=2005-07-06 |title=Wikipedia Main Page |accessdate=2002-09-30 }}
  → "Wikipedia Main Page". Archived from the original on 2005-07-06. http://web.archive.org/web/20020930123525/http://www.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 2002-09-30. 

[edit] See also

• {{dead link}}
• Wikipedia:Linkrot
• Wikipedia:Using WebCite