Introduction to HTML

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the language that describes the structure of a web page. It tells the browser "this is a heading", "this is a paragraph", "this is an image". Every website you have ever visited is built on HTML.

HTML is not a programming language. It has no loops or logic. It is a markup language: you wrap content in tags to give it meaning.

The three languages of the web

In this track you focus on HTML. CSS and JavaScript have their own tracks.

Your first page

Here is a complete, minimal HTML document:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>My First Page</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello, world!</h1>
    <p>This is my very first web page.</p>
  </body>
</html>

Let's break it down:

• <!DOCTYPE html> tells the browser this is a modern HTML5 document.
• <html lang="en"> is the root element. The lang attribute says the page is in English.
• <head> holds information about the page (title, character set, links to CSS). It is not shown in the page body.
• <title> is the text shown in the browser tab.
• <body> holds everything visible on the page.
• <h1> is a top-level heading and <p> is a paragraph.

Try it yourself

Edit the text below and watch the result update.

<h1>Hello, world!</h1>
<p>This is my very first web page.</p>
<p>Change this text to say something about yourself!</p>

How the browser reads HTML

When you open a page, the browser downloads the HTML file, reads it from top to bottom, and builds a tree of elements called the DOM (Document Object Model). It then paints that tree onto the screen. Later, CSS styles the tree and JavaScript can change it.

Summary

• HTML describes the structure and meaning of content.
• A page has a <head> (info about the page) and a <body> (visible content).
• Tags like <h1> and <p> wrap content to tell the browser what it is.