What It Is
HTML, short for HyperText Markup Language, is the foundation of every web page. It uses simple labels called tags to tell the browser what each piece of content is: this is a main heading, this is a paragraph, this is a photo, this is a link. If a web page were a house, HTML would be the framing, the walls and rooms. It decides what exists and in what order, but not how it looks.
Why It Matters for Your Business
Even if you never write code, HTML affects your business. Search engines read your HTML to understand your pages, so a properly marked main heading and descriptive image labels help Google know you are a "bathroom remodeler in Evanston" and not just a pretty picture. Screen readers used by people with vision loss also rely on clean HTML to read your site aloud in a sensible order.
Good to Know
A common mistake is using headings just to make text bigger. Each page should have one main heading (called an H1) that says what the page is about, followed by smaller subheadings in a logical order. Most website editors let you pick heading levels from a dropdown, so choose them for meaning, and let the design handle the size.