The Internet is made up of languages ​​that we use to communicate, as well as languages ​​that we use to create web pages and transmit data. You may have heard of programming languages ​​such as C, Java, and Python. However, it is also good to know about markup languages ​​such as HTML. HTML is the most well-known and widely used markup language.

These useful languages ​​are very different from programming languages ​​and require little advanced knowledge to read and understand. They also provide very useful features for people who build or maintain websites. Markup languages ​​tell computers how to read web pages, and when used well, they help improve user experience (UX) and search engine optimization (SEO).

What is a markup language?

A markup language is a system that uses tags to format and annotate text or data, providing instructions on how that text or data should be displayed or processed. These languages ​​are primarily used in web development to define the structure and presentation of web pages.

For example, the HTML tag <b> indicates that the text following it should be bold. All text following that tag will be bold until the corresponding markup tag </b> is encountered, which tells the browser to stop displaying bold text.

Markup languages ​​can also tell computers how to structure content. For example, the phrase "What is Markup Language?" at the top of this section is an H2, or second-level header. Markup languages ​​can distinguish between sections, such as the navigation bar, footer, title, and body text.

Differences between markup languages ​​and programming languages

Markup languages ​​differ from programming languages ​​such as C or Java in several ways. Programming languages ​​are logical and instruct the computer how to display dynamic web applications. Markup languages, on the other hand, simply modify the way the browser understands text and data. Programming languages ​​change dynamically based on user input and run in real time on the computer, whereas markup languages ​​are static and modify pre-written text.

Advantages of using markup languages

• Improved SEO
• Improved user experience
• Consistent formatting
• Accessibility
• Ease of Use

Using markup languages ​​appropriately can benefit your website in the following key ways:

Improved SEO

Using markup languages ​​makes your content easier for search engines to read, and helps them better understand the structure and meaning of your content. Search engines prioritize websites that are easy to read and cleanly laid out, and these characteristics are enhanced by proper markup.

Improved user experience

Markup languages ​​ensure that websites are rendered consistently across a variety of devices, browsers, and operating systems. For example, markup languages ​​help web pages reorganize when a user makes their browser window very narrow or changes the orientation of their phone.

Consistent formatting

Markup languages ​​ensure that similar sections of the same page are rendered similarly. For example, the H2 above (“What is a markup language?”) is rendered similarly to the H2 below (“Benefits of using a markup language”). Consistent formatting helps users scan and understand pages more easily.

Accessibility

Markup languages ​​tag content to make it more useful for assistive technologies such as screen readers. For example, alternative text (alt text) for images makes images more accessible to people with visual impairments.

Ease of use

Unlike programming languages, markup languages ​​are easy for the average person to understand. Even copywriters and non-designers can use markup languages ​​to specify the visual presentation of a web page.

How Markup Languages ​​Work

• Start with content
• Editing content using tags
• Nesting tags
• Nesting tags

There are many different markup languages, but they all share some basic features and work together. The main rules you need to know about markup languages ​​are:

Start with content

Markup languages ​​are used to modify documents or data. Markup languages ​​require data types, such as documents, images, links, and other media elements.

Editing content using tags

Markup languages ​​use tags. Tags, usually enclosed in angle brackets (<>), indicate the beginning of the content to be modified. You can think of tags as the beginning of a highlighted section. Tags must appear in pairs, and usually require a closing tag, such as </this>, to indicate where the highlighting ends.

Tags can represent elements, such as paragraphs (<p>) or images (<img>). They can also represent attributes, such as hyperlinks (<a href>) or text styling (<b> represents bold text).

Nesting tags

Tags can be nested. For example, you might have a tag (<b>) that bolds a paragraph of text, but that paragraph might be contained within a larger paragraph (<p>), which might be part of another section (<div>). As long as each tag is closed with its corresponding pair (</b>, </p>, </div>), everything renders correctly.

Browser reads markup language

Once all content is modified with these tags, a web browser or document viewer can parse the content, interpret the tags and their meaning, and display all content appropriately.

Types of markup languages

• HTML
• XML
• Markdown
• LaTeX
• Other markup languages

The most widely used markup language is HTML, but knowing other alternatives can help you understand the purpose of markup languages ​​better. Each language has its own grammar that defines the rules for writing tags, elements, and attributes. These differences in grammar help explain the usefulness of each markup language.

HTML

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is the primary language used to structure and present online content. Most of the examples in this article follow HTML conventions.

HTML, first developed in the 1990s, has been continuously updated with the latest version, HTML5, released in 2014. Using HTML tags, web developers can define sections such as headers, navigation bars, and paragraphs, as well as text, images, links, forms, and multimedia elements.

Unmodified HTML is rendered by the browser as a relatively simple text document, but you can add more sophisticated styling and interactivity using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and JavaScript.

XML

XML (Extensible Markup Language) is the second most popular markup language after HTML and is used to structure and store data in a hierarchical format. You can think of it as a spreadsheet in text format.

For example, if you wanted to create a system that manages customer information, you could use XML to create a structure (DTD, Document Type Definition) that defines first and last names as subsets of a category called 'customer'. You could also add additional contact information fields by writing them as tags.

Using this XML format, you can add new customer records to your database, share XML data with other systems, display it in HTML, integrate it with other systems, and validate it using a defined schema. In web development, XML documents are often used for configuration files and exchanging data between applications.

Markdown

Markdown is a lightweight markup language used to format text. It is designed to allow non-technical users to convert simple text elements such as underlines and asterisks into markup marks for copy styling. Markdown can be easily converted to HTML, PDF, and other formats. It is mainly used to write documents, blog posts, README files, and other text documents.

LaTeX

LaTeX is one of the older markup languages, having been developed since the 1980s, but is still used when there are complex formatting requirements.

LaTeX is useful for academic work, especially when typography, complex mathematical notation, cross-referencing, and bibliographic management are important. Although less user-friendly than more modern markup languages, the strict rules and rich feature set make LaTeX a useful way to adapt such complex texts to modern display needs.

Other markup languages

There is also SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) and XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language). In short, SGML can be seen as a language that tried to do what HTML and XML did, but required more manual configuration. SGML is not used as much as its modern successors.

XHTML gained some popularity in the 2000s as an attempt to combine HTML and XML, but its importance has diminished with the release of HTML5 as most of its features have been incorporated into HTML5.

Markup Language FAQ