A quick tutorial to help you get started building websites.
HTML is the markup language used for structuring and presenting content on the World Wide Web. Together with CSS and JavaScript, it enables us to have beautiful and interactive websites.
Since HTML is the foundation of the web, it is also the most essential language for any web development career path. In this fast-paced tutorial, I’ll teach you the very basics of it.
And when you’re done, I have already launched a free 14-part course on HTML5 over on Scrimba.com — an interactive platform where you can jump into the code of a playing screencast at any given time.
You can check out the first lecture here:
Alright, before we jump into the HTML, I want to start out by telling you a little bit about the architecture of the web. This will put the role of HTML into perspective for us.
Basic web architecture
Once you’ve developed a website, you’ll need to host it on a server to make it accessible on the world wide web. All servers have an IP address (i.e 149.56.240.169) which you can think of as a phone number. We normally put a domain name (i.e. scrimba.com) over that IP address, so that it’s easier to remember.
When you type that domain name in the browser, it’ll give the server a call. The server will then send over a bunch of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files, like this:
You browser starts by loading the main HTML file, before it continues with the CSS and JavaScript. These files enable the browser to render a beautiful and interactive website.
Now let’s have a closer look at the roles these three languages play.