Have you ever wanted to reduce the time working with HTML code and make websites load faster?
We have found that an HTML boilerplate can help reduce coding time and increase efficiency in building powerful websites and applications.
To help you understand how this is achievable, we have created an introductory tutorial on what an HTML boilerplate is and how you can create one.
What is an HTML Boilerplate?
An HTML boilerplate is a pre-written HTML or CSS file that acts as a foundation for creating websites or other web projects. They include essential elements such as Doctype declarations, styles, and meta elements, which follow industry standards and best practices in the field.
The standard elements included in every HTML boilerplate include premade modules, designs, and special SEO meta tags for doing search engine optimization on your website or application.
What are the benefits of HTML Boilerplates?
The reason for using HTML boilerplate and its many benefits comes from saving time and ensuring that best practices are met. For example, each web project can benefit the following:
1. Save time and Effort – HTML boilerplates save you time by providing you with premade solutions instead of having to write everything.
2. Ensures best practices – In HTML, character declarations and viewports are important for making a website scalable. Boilerplates often include these types of tags to ensure responsiveness for devices such as mobile, tablet, and desktop.
3. Enhanced cross-browser compatibility – With HTML boilerplates, you eliminate the risk of different interpretations from the popular browsers.
4. Scalable – An HTML boilerplate is made to be scalable and extended with custom code, allowing the creation of custom blocks and variations.
5. Integratable with modern tools – CSS, JavaScript, and other Build Tools often update, providing new features. HTML boilerplates eliminate risks, allowing you to seamlessly integrate with any popular programming language and boilerplate code.
Essential Elements of HTML Boilerplates and their meaning
1. Doctype HTML
Doctype HTML is used to specify the version when creating your web projects, helping browsers to properly render it.
It’s typing should always be the following:
<!DOCTYPE html> Content </html>2. HTML Lang
The HTML language element defines the document language or specifies the language in which people will find your website. For example, including “ES” inside your HTML lang tag defines that your website is in Spanish, whereas choosing “EN” will tell browsers and users your website is in English.
To find out more about the HTML language versions, you can check out Dofactory.
It’s typing should always be the following:
<html lang="en">3. Head
The head element of the HTML tags is used to define important metadata and external resource links.
The head element is written in the following way:
<head> Other elements </head>However, you will find multiple other elements inside it, such as:
1. Title – acts as the page title of your web page.
<title>My Website</title>2. Meta Description – Showcases a small snippet of what users will find on a certain page.
<meta name="description" content="Learn about essential HTML boilerplate elements.">3. Stylesheet – Linked in your HTML documents, the Stylesheet (CSS file) contains the designs for your web page/s.
<link rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css">4. Body
The body tag contains all the visible elements on a web page. Its main priority is to showcase elements such as headers, footers, navigations, and content between them.
For example, the body tag is placed in the following order.
<body>Other tags</body>Inside the body tag, you will find different elements such as:
1. Header element – The main element, which containsthe logo, navigation, and introductory content.
To make a header element, you can use the following snippet.
<header>
<h1>Welcome to My Website</h1>
</header>2. Navigational bar element (NAV) – The nav or nav bar element creates a menu that helps users to easily find the priority pages on your website no matter what page they are on.
The nav tag is placed in the following way.
<nav>
<ul>
<li><a href="home.html">Home</a></li>
<li><a href="about.html">About</a></li>
</ul>
</nav>3. Footer element – Used to align with your header and display the most important information such as links, contact information, and copyright information on your website’s bottom.
To call out a footer element, you can use the following code.
<footer>
<p>© 2025 My Website. All rights reserved.</p>
</footer>How to create an HTML boilerplate
Now that you know the HTML basics, you can create or set up your own HTML boilerplate from scratch, which will include the necessary elements for a functional web page.
To begin your coding journey, you can use our boilerplate example, which will give you a headstart in creating complete HTML boilerplates for websites.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<meta name="description" content="A complete HTML boilerplate template for starting web development projects.">
<meta name="author" content="Your Name">
<meta name="keywords" content="HTML, Boilerplate, Web Development, Template">
<title>My HTML Boilerplate</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css">
<link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="favicon.png">
<!-- Open Graph Meta Tags for Social Media -->
<meta property="og:title" content="My HTML Boilerplate">
<meta property="og:description" content="A well-structured HTML boilerplate to kickstart your project.">
<meta property="og:image" content="thumbnail.png">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://www.yourwebsite.com">
<!-- External Font (Google Fonts Example) -->
<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Roboto:wght@400;700&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">
<!-- External Script (e.g., jQuery) -->
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.6.0.min.js" defer></script>
</head>
<body>
<!-- Header Section -->
<header>
<h1>Welcome to My Website</h1>
<nav>
<ul>
<li><a href="index.html">Home</a></li>
<li><a href="about.html">About</a></li>
<li><a href="contact.html">Contact</a></li>
</ul>
</nav>
</header>
<!-- Main Content Section -->
<main>
<section>
<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p>This is a basic HTML boilerplate to get started with any web project. It includes SEO optimization, mobile responsiveness, and external resource links.</p>
</section>
<section>
<h2>Features</h2>
<ul>
<li>SEO-friendly meta tags</li>
<li>Mobile-responsive viewport</li>
<li>External CSS and JavaScript integration</li>
<li>Structured semantic HTML elements</li>
</ul>
</section>
</main>
<!-- Sidebar (Optional) -->
<aside>
<h3>Latest News</h3>
<p>Stay tuned for updates and new features!</p>
</aside>
<!-- Footer Section -->
<footer>
<p>© 2025 My Website | All Rights Reserved</p>
<p><a href="privacy.html">Privacy Policy</a> | <a href="terms.html">Terms of Service</a></p>
</footer>
<!-- External JavaScript File -->
<script src="script.js"></script>
</body>
</html>This boilerplate has the basics, along with best practices for a seamless integration.
The key features in this HTML boilerplate are the following:
1. SEO Optimization – Includes the required meta tags for doing Search Engine Optimization.
2. Mobile Responsiveness – Includes the required modules to fit any device and screen.
3. External Resource files – Includes CSS files, JavaScript Files, Google Fonts, and jQuery.
4. Structured Layout – Includes header, navigation, main content, sidebar, and footers for faster coding.
Best HTML Boilerplate Code Websites to Use in Web
HTML Boilerplates
HTML Boilerplates is a website designed to assist developers in quickly setting up the foundational structure of web projects.
It comes with customizable HTML boilerplates and premade sets of code that serve as a starting point.
HTML Boilerplates includes various elements such as external CSS stylesheets, JavaScript files, social media meta tags, and integrations with frameworks like Bootstrap and jQuery.
HTML5 Boilerplate
HTML5 Boilerplate is a widely adopted front-end template designed to help developers build web applications or websites.
It offers a foundational HTML, CSS, and JavaScript structure for cross-browser compatibility and performance optimizations.
The HTML5 Boilerplate project is open-source and has been developed by numerous contributors for more than a decade.
Organizations such as Microsoft, Nike SB, and the Obama Foundation have utilized HTML5 Boilerplate in their web projects, making stunning and optimal designs.
Basic HTML boilerplate
Basic HTML boilerplate is created by user ‘kingluddite’, which provides a basic HTML boilerplate template to help developers establish a standard structure for their web pages.
This improved HTML boilerplate includes essential elements such as <!DOCTYPE html> declaration, <html> tag with a language attribute, <head> section with character encoding, viewport settings, and a <body> section for content.
The basic HTML5 boilerplate validates HTML code by using tools like the W3C HTML Validator to ensure standards compliance, accessibility, and SEO benefits have been met.
It also highlights the use of the Emmet tool in Visual Studio Code, which allows developers to quickly generate HTML boilerplate code by typing abbreviations like html:5 or ! and pressing the Tab key.
My Current HTML Boilerplate
My current HTML Boilerplate was developed by Manuel Matuzović, and presents a detailed breakdown of the essential elements of the foundational structure of an HTML document.
He has also included the no-js class on the <html> tag to allow specific styling in browsers that do not support JavaScript, along with a script provided to replace this class with js if JavaScript is enabled.
Matuzović highlights the importance of the <meta charset=”UTF-8″> tag ensuring proper character encoding, to preventing display issues for special characters. The <meta name=”viewport” content=”width=device-width, initial-scale=1″> tag is included to set the viewport width and initial zoom level, for a more responsive design.
