Lesson 4 - HTML Tags Every Beginner Should Know
Learning HTML can feel overwhelming at first, but don’t worry — you don’t need to memorize hundreds of tags to get started. In fact, you only need a few essential ones to build a complete webpage. Here are the top 15 HTML tags every beginner should know — explained in simple terms with examples!
WEB DEVELOPMENT
Leonardo Gomes Guidolin
4/19/20251 min read
1. <html>
Defines the start of your HTML document.
<html>
<!-- everything goes inside here -->
</html>
2. <head>
Contains meta information (not visible on the page).
<head>
<title>My Website</title>
</head>
3. <body>
Holds everything that is visible on the page.
<body>
<h1>Hello, world!</h1>
</body>
4. <h1> to <h6>
Headings, from most important (<h1>) to least (<h6>).
<h1>Main Title</h1>
<h2>Subtitle</h2>
5. <p>
Paragraph text.
<p>This is a paragraph of text.</p>
6. <a>
Anchor (link) to another page or site.
<a href="https://example.com">Visit Example</a>
7. <img>
Displays an image.
<img src="image.jpg" alt="Description">
8. <ul>, <ol>, and <li>
Lists — unordered (<ul>) or ordered (<ol>), with list items (<li>).
<ul>
<li>Apples</li>
<li>Bananas</li>
</ul>
9. <div>
A container for grouping elements.
<div class="card">
<h2>Card Title</h2>
<p>Card content here.</p>
</div>
10. <span>
Inline container, often used for styling small parts of text.
<p>This is <span style="color: red;">red</span> text.</p>
11. <br>
Line break — moves content to the next line.
<p>Line one.<br>Line two.</p>
12. <strong> and <em>
Used for emphasis — bold and italic.
<p><strong>Important:</strong> Read this!</p>
<p><em>Note:</em> This is optional.</p>
13. <input>
Used inside forms for text fields, checkboxes, etc.
<input type="text" placeholder="Enter your name">
14. <form>
Wraps inputs for user submissions.
<form>
<input type="email" placeholder="Email">
<button type="submit">Subscribe</button>
</form>
15. <footer>
Defines the bottom section of your website.
<footer>
<p>© 2025 My Website</p>
</footer>
🧠 Bonus Tip
You don’t need to learn everything at once. Just start building, and these tags will become second nature over time!