How to create your first HTML website

HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language, is the backbone of every website on the internet. It is the standard markup language used to create web pages and has been around since the early days of the internet. In this article, we’ll go over the basic steps of creating a website using HTML.

Step 1: Plan Your Website

Before you start creating your website, it's important to plan out what you want your website to look like and what content you want to include. You can create a rough sketch or wireframe of your website to help visualize the layout and design.

Step 2: Create Your HTML File

Once you have a plan in place, it's time to create your HTML file. This file will be the foundation of your website and will contain all the necessary HTML tags to structure and format your content.

To create an HTML file, you can use a text editor like Notepad or Sublime Text. Open a new file and save it with the .html file extension.

Step 3: Add HTML Tags

HTML tags are the building blocks of your website. They define the structure and content of your web page. Here are some of the most common HTML tags:

<html>: This tag defines the beginning and end of your HTML document.
<head>: This tag contains information about your web page, such as the title and meta data.
<body>: This tag contains the main content of your web page.
<h1> - <h6>: These tags define headings for your web page, with <h1> being the most important and <h6> being the least important.
<p>: This tag defines paragraphs of text.
<a>: This tag creates hyperlinks to other web pages.

Here's an example of what your HTML file might look like with some of these tags added:

        <!DOCTYPE html>
        <html>
        <head>
            <title>My Website</title>
            <meta charset="UTF-8">
            <meta name="description" content="This is my website">
            <meta name="keywords" content="HTML, CSS, JavaScript">
        </head>
        <body>
            <header>
                <h1>Welcome to my website</h1>
                <nav>
                    <ul>
                        <li><a href="#about">About</a></li>
                        <li><a href="#services">Services</a></li>
                        <li><a href="#contact">Contact</a></li>
                    </ul>
                </nav>
            </header>
            <main>
                <section id="about">
                    <h2>About Us</h2>
                    <p>We are a small business specializing in web design and development.</p>
                </section>
                <section id="services">
                    <h2>Our Services</h2>
                    <ul>
                        <li>Web Design</li>
                        <li>Web Development</li>
                        <li>SEO</li>
                    </ul>
                </section>
                <section id="contact">
                    <h2>Contact Us</h2>
                    <p>Email: info@mywebsite.com</p>
                </section>
            </main>
            <footer>
                <p>© My Website 2022</p>
            </footer>
        </body>
        </html>

Step 4: Add Text Content to Your Web Page

Now that you have a basic web page layout, it's time to add some content. To do this, you will need to use HTML tags to structure and format your text. Here's an example of how to add some text content to your web page:

        <body>
            <h1>Welcome to my Website</h1>
            <p>This is my first web page using HTML!</p>
        </body>

In the example above, we've added a header tag with the text "Welcome to my Website", and a paragraph tag with the text "This is my first web page using HTML!". Notice that the text is contained within the opening and closing tags of each element.

Step 5: Add Images to Your Web Page

Adding images to your web page can make it more visually appealing and engaging. Here's an example of how to add an image to your web page:

        <body>
            <h1>Welcome to my Website</h1>
            <p>This is my first web page using HTML!</p>
            <img src="image.jpg" alt="A beautiful landscape">
          </body>

In the example above, we've added an image tag with the source attribute src set to "image.jpg". The alt attribute is used to provide a text description of the image for users who are unable to see the image, such as those who are visually impaired.

Step 6: Add Links to Your Web Page

Adding links to your web page allows users to navigate to other pages on your website or to external websites. Here's an example of how to add a link to your web page:

        <body>
            <h1>Welcome to my Website</h1>
            <p>This is my first web page using HTML!</p>
            <img src="image.jpg" alt="A beautiful landscape">
            <a href="https://www.example.com">Visit Example Website</a>
        </body>

In the example above, we've added a link tag with the href attribute set to "https://www.example.com". The text "Visit Example Website" will be displayed on the web page and act as the link.

Step 7: Save and View Your Web Page

Now that you've added some basic content to your web page, it's time to save your work and view it in a web browser. To do this, follow these steps:

Save your HTML file with a .html extension, such as index.html. Open your web browser and go to File > Open File. Navigate to your HTML file and select it. Your web page should now be displayed in the browser.

Congratulations, you've created your first web page using HTML!