What are HTML tags and which ones are the most useful for our site
They are the framework that supports the body of content, images and functionality that make up the online experience, an invisible language that shapes the web and helps shape our pages: we are talking about HTML tags, small commands that tell the browser how to interpret and display the content of a page. There are a hundred different HTML tags that we can use, and each of them has a specific function, to be exploited in the appropriate way to create a visually appealing and search-engine optimized web page. So with this guide we try to find out what exactly these HTML tags are, what are the main types to master, and how they can affect the SEO of our site.
What are HTML tags
HTML tags are the basic language used to create Web pages, and essentially they are small commands that guide the browser by instructing it how to interpret and display the content of a page. These tags reside in the cornerstone element of any web page, namely its HTML code, which stands for HyperText Markup Language, which we can imagine as what brings web pages to life.
More precisely, HyperText Markup Language is the programming language used to describe structured documents and to create web pages and applications on the Internet, and which we view every moment as users from our browsers, such as Chrome, Firefox and Edge. From the perspective of HTML source code, a page is a collection of elements, each of which has a specific role, such as “article title,” “text,” “subtitle,” and so on, and these elements are defined by tags, marked by the special characters “<“, “>” and “/”.
Each HTML tag is in fact enclosed in angle brackets (< >) and most of them work in pairs, that is, providing an opening tag (<tag>) and a closing tag (</tag>) in which to insert and enclose the content we wish to format.
These tags (literal translation of tags) serve to specify and define how the browser should format and display content. Thus, they are the ones that determine whether text should be italicized or bold, whether a line break should be inserted, a bulleted list, and much more.
But HTML tags are not just formatting tools, for they can also be powerful allies for SEO, because search engines such as Google use HTML tags to understand the structure and content of a web page and then index it correctly in search results.
The grammar of HTML tags: a universal language
The grammar of HTML tags is simple and universal, allowing anyone to learn how to use them simply with a little practice and attention.
Each HTML tag has a specific function and must be placed in the right place within the page code, while also respecting the syntax in order to actually communicate sensible instructions to the browser and avoid errors.
As mentioned, an HTML tag consists of a tag name enclosed in angle brackets < >, and most HTML tags have an opening and a closing command, with the content placed in between. For example, <p> is an opening tag for a paragraph, and </p> is the corresponding closing tag; thus, a paragraph of text would be written as <p>This is a paragraph.</p>.
Servers read HTML code to understand and display the content of a page, and reading is done from top to bottom, just as it is done at normal human reading.
The grammar of tags is not too complex, and there are just a few rules to know and follow, starting with the structure of this element, which generally consists of three elements:
- An opening tag, which begins with a < > symbol.
- The content, which is the brief instructions on how to display the element on the page.
- A closing tag, which ends with a </ > symbol. It is important to note that the closing tag has the same text as the opening tag, from which it differs only by the addition of the slash (/) that clarifies the command.
However, some HTML tags can remain open, that is, they do not require a closing tag, and are typically used for metadata