Introduction to HTML

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the standard language used to create and structure content on the web. Every website you visit is built on HTML — it defines the structure and meaning of web content.

HTML uses elements represented by tags to structure content. A tag is enclosed in angle brackets like <tagname>. Most elements have an opening tag and a closing tag.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <title>My First Page</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello, World!</h1>
    <p>This is my first HTML page.</p>
  </body>
</html>

💡

<!DOCTYPE html> tells the browser you are using HTML5. Always include it as the very first line of your HTML file, before anything else.

Key HTML structure parts:

<html> — The root element wrapping all content
<head> — Contains meta information (not visible on page)
<body> — Contains all visible page content
<title> — Sets the browser tab title
<meta charset="UTF-8"> — Ensures proper text encoding for all languages

Watch & Learn

A recommended video to watch alongside this chapter.

More “Introduction to HTML” videos on YouTube

Elements & Tags