HTML - most popular markup language on the internet

Of all the coding languages, HTML is perhaps the simplest. This is because it doesn't use "dynamic functionality" the way other languages such as Ruby, JavaScript, and PHP can.

In other words, HTML can't be used to automatically update content on a given website, or provide targeted information, like detecting a user's location to show them the local weather. That being said, its limited abilities don't make HTML any less useful — it remains an essential part of nearly all websites online. 

Here are some common tags:

and

and : Anything that appears within this tag will appear bolded.

and : This tag puts everything within it in italics.

and : This is a hyperlink tag that allows creators to hyperlink anything contained within. 

 and : This tag displays images either uploaded to a server or externally linked.

If you look at a website's source code, you can see HTML tags at work. Every piece of nearly every website you visit is touched by HTML in some way.

The above tags and all others included in the HTML language can be used as often as you want. You just need to make sure to close the tag — in other words, if you start a paragraph with

, you need to make sure to end it with

HTML is open-source, meaning that it's free to use and build upon however you like. It's also supported by every major web browser on every device.

However, it does have its drawbacks. Since HTML is so simple, it's difficult to create an aesthetically pleasing or advanced webpage using just it alone. It's great as the basis for a webpage, but not the entire structure.

Since it's so ubiquitous, though, anyone interested in web design should know how to use and read it.