What is HTML?

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is a simple markup coding language used to layout content on a webpage. You use HTML programming language to tell web browsers how to display text, headings, images and other multimedia in the layout you want your users to see it in. HTML is platform-agnostic, meaning it can display web pagespages on any platform whether it’s Windows, MacOS, Linux or a mobile device operating system.

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What does HTML stand for?

HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language. To understand what is HTML programming and its many different elements and attributes, let’s break down the three words that make up the HTML acronym into their individual parts:

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What is Hypertext?

Hypertext is ‘non-linear’, meaning that it links the specific text to other typically related text (often by turning the text into an ). This creates a network of connected words that you can move between in any order and whenever you wish. In other words, it acts as the basis for all web navigation on the internet as well as creating the foundations for how to create a webpage successfully.

 

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What is Markup?

Markup is in essence a style guide (like those used by newspapers or magazines to standardise the layout of their content). Using HTML syntax, markups tell web browsers how to present or organise a web page’s content.

What is Language?

HTML programming language is how you communicate your instructions – aka your markups – so a web browser can actually understand how you want your content to be laid out. HTML’s language is simple to learn but offers genuinely powerful feature sets to bring content to life on the internet.

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Better together

Bring those three words together and you have the building blocks of HTML basic structure and HTML basic code: a simple but powerful language used by most site creators to generate static pages. When deployed correctly, HTML presents content in a way that readers can view and follow easily, and offer links to other content on the internet for effortless and quick navigation.

How are CSS, Javascript and HTML markup related?

While HTML helps you generate the layout for web pages – in effect, acting as the skeleton for all content – HTML syntax can also be enhanced with two other elements to make content attractive and more interactive. For instance, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) allows you to move beyond HTML basics, enabling you to add enhanced details about how content is displayed on a web page from spacing to fonts.

Meanwhile, Javascript can be deployed to add dynamic elements. For example, it lets you deliver deeper interactivity, creating a more immersive and user-friendly experience for site visitors, again optimising the existing structure of HTML tags.

How to use HTML

To HTML markup your content, you create an HTML file and import the content before using HTML tags to arrange the content’s text, images and more.

3 HTML tags to rule them all

These are the three HTML markup tags that must be featured in any pages you create:

<html>

This acts as the foundation of every HTML-created page on the web, summarising all other elements used and defining the page’s HTML base structure. Each page will start and end with <html>.

<head>

This contains the meta data that the webpage uses. It’s not actually visible to visitors on the page but documents vital information such as meta data for SEO, stylesheets and more. This information is used by search engines’ web crawlers.

<body>

This contains the content that the visitor will actually see on the web page including any text, images, links, and more.

Most common HTML tags

To format the content within <body>, you still rely on a structure of HTML tags to state how you would like information to be presented onscreen. For example:

<h1>

This denotes the webpage’s first level heading, i.e. the main title. You can deploy further headings from <h2> through to <h6>, each laid out in a hierarchical structure and used for subheads. For instance, ‘What is HTML?’ Is this page’s <h1> with ‘What does HTML stand for?’ set as <h2> and the subheads below it (i.e., ‘What is Hypertext?’) marked up as <h3>. When we introduce a new section – ‘How to use HTML’ – we revert back to <h2>.

<p>

This HTML markup tag is used to denote a paragraph in the content on the page. The rule of thumb? You never want to confront your site visitors with a wall of text as they will simply browse away. Use paragraphs to make any content more readable, digestible and accessible.

<a>

Applied to a word or a phrase – such as choose your programming language – this HTML markup tag creates a link that the visitor can click on to navigate to another webpage. This can be on a page on the same site or elsewhere on the internet.

<img>

This allows you to insert an image, a popular way to break up text as well as pull visitors into the content.

<u>

This tag underlines the selected text/character.

<em>

This tag italicises the selected text/character.

<strong>

This tag puts the selected text/character in bold.

<ul>

This tag creates a list of text-based items that are not in any particular order.

<ol>

This tag creates a list of text-based items in numerical order.

<button>

This HTML markup tag creates an onscreen button on the webpage that the visitor can click on to perform an action. In business, this is often used for Call to Action buttons so the reader can explore the webpage’s offering in more detail or view a specific offer, etc.

<script>

This tag is used to introduce JavaScript code onto the webpage. As already highlighted, the code is used to bring more dynamism to pages.

<style>

This is used to apply CSS rules to the webpage, defining how key elements such as fonts, layout and more are to be presented on pages.

Define HTML code

Here’s an example of a base HTML structure using some of the HTML tags listed above:

<html>

<head>
  <title>Webpage Example</title>
</head>

<body>
  <h1>This is the Main Title</h1>
  <p>This is a <em>paragraph</em> of text with <u>underlined</u> and <strong>bold</strong> words.</p>
  <h2>This is a Subtitle</h2>
  <p>More text goes here.</p>
  <img src="image.jpg" alt="Image Description">
  <a href="https://www.example.com">Click here to visit Example</a>
  <ul>
    <li>Item 1</li>
    <li>Item 2</li>
    <li>Item 3</li>
  </ul>
  <ol>
    <li>First item</li>
    <li>Second item</li>
    <li>Third item</li>
  </ol>
  <button onclick="window.location.href='https://https://www.ovhcloud.com/en-gb/';">Call to Action</button>
</body>

</html>

How many versions of HTML are there?

Like all coding languages, HTML programming language has been through several versions since it was first officially released in 1993 as HTML 1.0. Created by British computer scientist, Tim Berners-Lee, each HTML version has added new functionality.

For instance, HTML 2.0 introduced form, headings and list elements in 1995 while 3.2 allowed you to code data tables in 1997. In 1999, HTML 4 and 4.01 added support for CSS. The latest version – HTML 5 – was given official approval in 2014, introducing a range of improved or new feature sets including video/audio, and more.

What are the pros and cons of HTML?

Pros of HTML

    • Hypertext Markup Language helps you get online and create websites that attract prospects, support customers and create fantastic user experiences that drive sales and generate brand loyalty.
    • This is all achievable thanks to HTML programming’s relatively simplicity. HTML basic code can be learned quickly, enabling those who are prepared to put in the time to create pages at speed.
    • HTML programming language has a huge community supporting it behind the scenes, all committed to improving HTML now and in the future.
    • There are masses of resources that can be used to hone HTML structure and HTML syntax; if you have an issue or want to include a feature, chances are there is a resource – or community – out there to help you achieve it.

Cons of HTML

    • By its very nature, HTML structure is static. This means to introduce more dynamic design elements and functions, you will need to deploy a language like Javascript or CSS, or server-side tech like Node.js or PHP.
    • While these enable you to deliver more powerful features right into a webpage, each are more complex and difficult to learn than HTML basic code, i.e., more costly as more potentially specialist skill sets are required.
    • While HTML is platform-agnostic, its performance can vary. This is not the fault of the HTML document or HTML markup but actually depends on the browser being utilised by the end user. For instance, the browsers themselves can interpret and implement key HTML data standards in different ways, impacting on how pages are displayed onscreen.
    • Alternatively, older browser versions may not be able to render some of the latest forms of HTML syntax. This means the onus is on the user to ensure their browser is the latest version to ensure they can view pages correctly.
    • However, expecting users to update their browsers is a big ask from any business with the user more likely to simply navigate away and go to a competitor that does support their browser.

What resources are available to learn HTML?

There are many online training courses and tools available to help both newcomers and dev teams learn and leverage HTML programming language for business. The best pro training services offer an excellent and trustworthy range of resources, detailing all aspects of the HTML process from what is HTML and what is a html file to in-depth information on html syntax.

Beginners are also well-catered for with start-up tutorial resources featuring easy to understand examples as well as quizzes to learn and hone your HTML programming skills with – as well as official courses that award certification if successfully completed. Some also offer a ‘hands-on’ learning experience where your HTML basic code is displayed live onscreen so you can instantly see if your coding is working – or whether you need a helping hand from an AI live assistant that can offer an ‘on-the-fly’ tutorial.
 

What are the benefits of HTML programming to business?

HTML programming language has the potential to empower enterprise by enabling you to get a website up and running quickly and cost effectively. E-commerce solutions and content management systems are also supported by HTML and full optimisation features are included such as delivering optimum viewing experiences for mobile device users.

Importantly, vital insights are available, enabling you to track user behaviour and attributes as well as judge how successful marketing campaigns have been. Finally, your site can be hosted by a provider like OVHcloud, taking the need for back-end maintenance, infrastructure and security/data protection protocols out of your hands so you can focus exclusively on your website’s content.

OVHcloud and HTML

Deploy your first website or upgrade your existing site by partnering with OVHcloud. We offer a range of services and solutions that make your HTML journey simpler and quicker – from our five-step plan for website creation and free domain names to hosting your website for you so you don’t have to worry about any of the infrastructure supporting it.