Guide · Updated · By William Lodge
How to Archive a Web Page as Evidence (Before It Disappears)
Preserve web pages reliably with archive.today, the Wayback Machine, and SingleFile — and document captures so they hold up later.
Web pages change and vanish. Posts get deleted, prices change, statements are quietly edited. If something matters to your research, archive it the moment you find it — not after you've finished reading.
Use more than one method
Every archiving method has gaps, so serious researchers capture important pages at least two ways: a public archive (independent, shareable, timestamped by a third party) and a local copy (complete, under your control).
1. Public archives
The Wayback Machine (web.archive.org) is the largest web archive. Use "Save Page Now" at web.archive.org/save to capture a page on demand. It's excellent for normal web pages and lets anyone view the capture later with a timestamp.
archive.today takes a static snapshot plus a screenshot, and often handles pages that the Wayback Machine struggles with, such as some social media posts. It gives you a short, durable link.
Public archives have limits: they can't capture content behind a login, they may miss dynamically loaded content, and some sites block archivers. Always open the capture and check it actually contains what you need.
2. Local copies
SingleFile is a browser extension that saves a complete page — text, images, styles — into a single HTML file that looks exactly like what you saw. It captures the page as rendered in your browser, including content loaded after page load.
Also useful:
- Full-page screenshots — built into Firefox and Chrome developer tools. Include the URL bar and system clock where possible.
- Print to PDF — quick and widely accepted, though layouts can break.
- Video — for content that changes on interaction, a screen recording scrolling through the page is often clearest.
3. Document every capture
An archive is only as useful as its record. For each capture, log:
- The original URL and the archive URL.
- Date and time (with time zone) of capture.
- The method and tool used.
- Who captured it and why.
For legal or professional use, also record a cryptographic hash (such as SHA-256) of each local file so you can show it hasn't changed since capture.
4. Use archives to look back in time
Archives work in reverse, too. Browse the Wayback Machine calendar for a URL to see how a page changed, recover deleted pages, or find old contact details and staff lists. Combined with search operators, archives are one of the most powerful free OSINT sources.
More tools: Web search & archives.
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