The Three Basic HTML Tags for Web Page Structure
by Paul Flyer
Every single web page has a basic HTML structure. There are three tags every web page includes: html, head and body. Keep in mind these tags have nothing to do with the layout of a webpage on the screen. They have to do with the technical structure of the HTML code. Think of them as essential building blocks/sections/groupings (choose your own metaphor).
The basic web page looks like this:
<html>
<head>
general page information that is not always seen
</head>
<body>
Layout and Content
</body>
</html>
Please remember that these tags occur in pairs. The second of the pair is always the closing tag and includes a forward slash before the tag name.
Think of a web page like the following diagram:
The border represents the HTML tag, it holds everything inside of itself.
The Grey section represents the HEAD portion. Most of the information here is not displayed on a web page, at least not within the main browser window.
The Green section represents the BODY section, everything that is seen within a browser window.
Mistakes that typically occur with these tags:
- missing the closing tag of any one of these pairs - by far the most common
- head section missing
Find more information about learning HTML at our recommended HTML Tutorials page or in our HTML archives.
[tags]html, tags, body, head, webpage[/tags]
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