Definition

What Is HTML and How Does It Work?

The standard markup language used to create the structure and content of web pages — defining elements such as headings, paragraphs, links, images, and forms.

Related Terms

CSS

JavaScript

Heading Tags

Accessibility (A11y)

Above the Fold

Example

An HTML file defines the page structure: <header>, <main>, <section> tags that browsers render into a visible webpage.

HTML is used on 100% of websites — it is the foundational technology of every webpage on the internet, with no alternative structure language in use at any meaningful scale, according to W3Techs.

Synonyms:

HyperText Markup Language, Markup

Acronyms:

HTML

What it applies to

Every webpage. HTML defines the structure and content of the page — everything visible to the user and readable by search engines starts as HTML.

How HTML works

  • HTML consists of elements defined by tags: an opening tag, content, and a closing tag. Example: <h1>Page Title</h1>
  • The browser reads the HTML file top to bottom and renders it into the visible page the user sees.
  • Elements are nested — a <section> contains <div>s, which contain <p>s and <a>s, forming a hierarchical Document Object Model (DOM).
  • Semantic HTML elements (<header>, <nav>, <main>, <article>, <footer>) convey meaning — both to browsers rendering the page and to search engines and screen readers interpreting it.

Semantic HTML and SEO

  • Use <nav> for navigation, <main> for primary content, <article> for standalone content, <aside> for supplementary content.
  • Use <button> for clickable actions and <a href> for links — not <div> elements styled to look like buttons, which are inaccessible.
  • Search engines extract content from semantic HTML. Pages with well-structured, semantic HTML consistently outperform pages with div-soup layouts for content clarity and indexability.

In Webflow

Webflow generates HTML automatically. Set the HTML tag for each element in the Element Settings panel — choose <section>, <article>, <header> etc. rather than defaulting to <div> for everything. This produces more semantic, SEO-friendly output without writing any code.

HTML: Common Questions Answered

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