In this article, we will review the very basics of HTML. If you’re brand new to building websites, this tutorial will help you to get up and running!

What is HTML?

HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) is a standard markup language for creating web pages and web applications. It is used to structure and format content on the web and is the foundation of most websites.

A Simple HTML Document

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Page Title</title>
</head>
<body>

<h2>Heading Content</h2>
<p>Paragraph Content</p>

</body>
</html>

This can be explained as follows:

HTML element basics

Note: The content inside the

section will be displayed in a browser. The content inside the title element will be shown in the browser’s title bar or in the page’s tab.

What is an HTML Element?

HTML is comprised of elements, each element is defined by a start tag, some content, then an end tag, like so:

Your content…

The HTML element is everything from the start tag to the end tag, for example:

<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>

Web browsers display HTML pages

The purpose of a web browser (Chrome, Firefox, etc) is to read HTML documents and display them on the page.

Of course, a browser does not display the HTML tags, but uses them to render the document:

HTML rendered in the browser

How can you create an HTML page?

To get started with HTML, you will need a text editor and a web browser. There are many options for both, but some popular choices include Notepad (for Windows) or TextEdit (for Mac) as a text editor, and Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox as a web browser.

To create an HTML document, you will need to save your text file with the .html file extension. Then, you can start writing HTML code by enclosing your content in HTML tags. Use this code to create your first webpage!

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>

<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>

</body>
</html>

To view the HTML page in your web browser, simply open the HTML file from the file menu of your web browser.


Tim profile image

A little about me..

Hey, I’m Tim! 👋

I’m a freelance business owner, web developer & author. I teach both new and experienced freelancers how to build a sustainable and successful freelancing business. Check out my Complete Guide to Freelancing if you'd like to find out more.

While you're here, you can browse through my blogs where I post freelancing tips, code tutorials, design inspiration, useful tools & resources, and much more! You can also join the newsletter, or find me on X.

Thanks for reading! 🎉