Introduction to HTML

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. It's not a programming language — it's a markup language, used to describe the structure of content on a webpage.

What HTML does

A browser reads an HTML file and uses it to decide what to display: this text is a heading, this is a paragraph, this is a link. The words themselves are your content; the HTML tags around them describe what each piece is.

A basic HTML document

Every HTML page follows the same basic skeleton. Try editing the heading text below and watch the result update:

Try it yourself
Result

What each part does

  • <!DOCTYPE html> tells the browser this is a modern HTML document.
  • <html> wraps the entire page.
  • <head> holds information about the page that isn't shown directly, like its title.
  • <body> holds everything visitors actually see on the page.
Note: the browser tab's title comes from <title>, not from anything inside <body> — you won't see it change in the result above since this preview doesn't show a tab.
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