Lesson 2 / 28

Document Structure

The doctype, html, head and body skeleton every page starts with.

The basic skeleton

Every HTML document follows this shape — memorize it, you'll type it constantly.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <title>My Page</title>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>Hello!</h1>
</body>
</html>

What each part does

<!DOCTYPE html> tells the browser to use modern HTML5 rules. <html> wraps the whole page. <head> holds metadata (not shown on-screen); <body> holds visible content.

Quick check: Which element holds the content visitors actually see?

  • <head>
  • <body>
  • <!DOCTYPE html>
Answer

<body> — `<body>` contains everything rendered on the page; `<head>` is metadata for the browser.