HTML documents are made up of elements called tags, which define the presentation of the web page. Most tags in an HTML document must be followed somewhere in the file with a closing tag. For example:
This is an opening tag:
<blockquote>This is a closing tag:
</blockquote>
Note that the difference between these two tags is only the presence of a forward slash after the opening bracket of the tag. The forward slash is what makes this a closing tag.
Nearly every HTML page is written in this basic format:
<html>
<head>
<title>Page Title</title>
</head>
<body>
The main part of the document goes here.
</body>
</html>
Every HTML document must include the opening <html> tag at the top of the file, and the closing </html> tag at the very end of the file.
Beneath the opening html tag you'll find the <head> section. Here you will place your web page keywords, description, and page title. Some of the tags associated with the head section are:
- <head></head>
These tags open and close the head section. Your keyword, description, and title tags must be placed between these tags. - <title></title>
The title of your web page will go between these tags. The title you include here will appear at the top of the browser window when someone views your web page, and will also appear when someone creates a bookmark this page. - <meta>
You can use meta tags to describe your site and help search engines catalog your web page. Learn more.
The body of the page your page content, including text, images, and links appears after the closing head tag. With the opening <body> tag, you can also set a background image or color for your page, as well as the color of your text and HTML links. For example:
<body bgcolor="#000000" text="#ffffff" link="#0000ff" vlink="#800080">
The best way to learn HTML is to use it. For help learning and practicing HTML, please check out some recommended third-party HTML resources.