🎯

HTML, Webpage and Website

A visually engaging illustration representing the concept of a website, featuring a laptop or browser window displaying a webpage, with icons symbolizing web development, hosting, and online connectivity.

What Is a Website?

A website is a digital platform on the internet where individuals, businesses, or organizations can share information, sell products or services, and connect with others. It’s like having your own space on the web to showcase ideas, communicate, or offer solutions. Websites are accessible through devices like smartphones, tablets, or computers using a web browser and an internet connection. They serve various purposes, such as personal expression, business promotion, education, or entertainment (Wix, n.d.).

Introduction to HTML (Building Blocks of a Webpage)

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) forms the backbone of every website, acting as the structure that holds a webpage together. It’s the framework that defines the elements on a page, such as text, images, videos, and links, guiding browsers on how to display the content (Kolbasa, n.d.).

Creating a basic HTML file is simple and requires only a text editor. Here’s how you can do it:

  • Create a Text File: Right-click on your desktop, select New, and choose Text Document.
  • Rename the File: Change the file name from New Text Document.txt to New Text Document.html. Ensure you confirm the extension change if prompted by your operating system.
  • Add Basic HTML Structure: Open the file in a text editor (e.g., Notepad or VS Code) and start writing HTML tags. For example:
				
					<html>
  <head>
    <title>My First HTML Page</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Welcome to My Page</h1>
    <p>This is a basic HTML file.</p>
  </body>
</html>
				
			
  • View the Page in a Browser: Save your file and double-click it to open in your default web browser. You’ll see the content you’ve added rendered as a webpage.

This process demonstrates how to create a very simple webpage. From here, you can add more elements like images, links, and styling to build more complex pages (Kolbasar, n.d.).

What Is an HTML Tag?

An HTML tag is a keyword or command that defines how a web browser formats and displays content on a webpage. Tags are essential building blocks of HTML, providing structure and functionality to web pages.

Structure of Tags: Most tags have an opening (<tag>) and a closing (</tag>) part. For example:

				
					<html> ... </html>

				
			

The closing tag includes a forward slash (/) to differentiate it from the opening tag.

Total Tags: HTML has approximately 100 tags, which can be grouped into categories based on their purpose, such as structural, formatting, and interactive tags (Sufiyan, 2024).

HTML Tags for SEO

Effective SEO relies on specific HTML tags that help search engines understand your content and improve user engagement (SiteGround, n.d.). Here’s a summary of the 10 most important tags and their roles:

  • Title Tag: Provides keyword-rich headlines summarizing a page’s content, essential for search engine relevance.
				
					<title>Keyword</title>
				
			
  • Header Tags (H1, H2, H3): Organize content hierarchically, improving readability and signaling structure to search engines.
				
					<h1>Main Heading</h1>
<h2>Subheading</h2>
				
			
  • Bold & Strong Tags: <b> highlights text visually, while <strong> adds semantic importance, signaling significance to search engines.
				
					<strong>Keyword</strong>
				
			
  • Image Alt Text: Describes images for accessibility and SEO, helping search engines index visual content.
				
					<img. src="image.jpg" alt="Keyword">
				
			
  • Hyperlinks: Create links to internal or external pages, aiding navigation and SEO.
				
					<a href="https://example.com">Keyword</a>
				
			
  • Nofollow Links: Prevent search engines from passing link authority to specified links, often used for user-generated or untrusted content.
				
					<a href="https://example.com" rel="nofollow">Keyword</a>
				
			
  • Canonical Tag: Prevents duplicate content issues by specifying the preferred URL for a page.
				
					<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/page">
				
			
  • Hreflang Tag: Specifies language and regional versions of a page for international audiences.
				
					<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-us" href="https://example.com/en-us/page">
				
			
  • Meta Description: Brief snippets that appear in search results, boosting click-through rates.
				
					<meta name="description" content="Learn effective SEO strategies.">
				
			
  • Meta Keyword: An HTML tag used to specify relevant keywords for a webpage, primarily for search engines.
				
					<meta name="keywords" content="keyword 1, keyword 2, ...">
				
			
  • Robots Meta Tag: Guides search engine crawlers on how to index and interact with a page.
				
					<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">
				
			

Difference Between a Webpage and a Website

A webpage is a single document on the internet, while a website is a collection of interconnected web pages under a common domain. Visitors can access a website using its domain URL, but reaching a specific web page requires an additional extension or slug.

Webpages serve specific purposes, such as sharing blog posts or displaying product details, whereas websites typically have broader goals, like building brand awareness. Creating a single web page is quick, but building an entire website takes more time and planning. Starting with a website launch checklist can help streamline the process by focusing on creating individual pages one at a time (Wix Encyclopedia, n.d.).

An illustration comparing a website and a webpage, showing a full multi-page website structure versus a single webpage, with icons representing navigation, content, and hierarchy.

Programming Languages and WordPress

Manually building websites with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP can be challenging for large, dynamic sites. Tools like WordPress simplify this process by integrating these technologies with a database for seamless content management (Dek, 2019).

An illustration representing different programming languages such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and databases, with icons or code snippets symbolizing their roles in web development.
  • </> HTML (Structure)
HTML provides the foundation for web pages, defining the structure for text, images, and links. WordPress uses HTML within its themes and templates to display content.
 
  • 🎨 CSS (Styling)
CSS adds design elements like colors, layouts, and fonts. WordPress themes include CSS files to control the site’s visual appearance.
 
  • 🇯‌🇸‌ JavaScript (Interactivity)
JavaScript enables dynamic features like animations and real-time updates. WordPress integrates JavaScript for sliders, forms, and widgets, enhancing user experience.
 
  • 🐘 PHP (Logic)

PHP processes data on the server, fetching content from databases and generating web pages dynamically. WordPress is powered by PHP, handling tasks like retrieving posts and managing site functionality.

  • ⛁ Databases (Storage)

WordPress uses a MySQL database to store and manage data, such as posts, pages, user information, and settings. PHP queries the database to fetch and display this data dynamically.

Why Use WordPress?

Building large websites manually with these tools is time-intensive. WordPress simplifies the process with:

  • Dynamic Content: Combines PHP and databases to generate pages automatically.
  • Themes: Pre-built designs eliminate the need to code layouts.
  • Plugins: Add features like forms or SEO tools without coding.
  • Scalability: Easily manage thousands of pages and dynamic content.

References

LOGIN