What Does Self-Closing Tag Mean?

A self-closing tag is an element of HTML code that has evolved in the language. Typically, the self-closing tag makes use of a “/” character in order to effectively close out a beginning tag enclosed in sideways carets.

Techopedia Explains Self-Closing Tag

The story of the self-closing tag has to do with the ways that HTML has been evolved throughout its use since the late 1980s. A conventional HTML tag had an opening tag and a closing tag. However, there are elements in HTML called void elements, such as images and links, that do not strictly require closing tags because of their inherent structure. Experts claim that things like images and links do not need and cannot have content – they are just kind of pointers to an element that is installed in the page.