When writing content for your site, you typically store them in either html or php files. The basic files, particularly on Linux servers like the ones used for our hosting accounts, are either generally either html (files ending in the extension .html or .htm) or php (files ending in the extension .php) files. HTML files are created with markup tags and these files are not processed or parsed by the server. Php files, on the other hand, are parsed and processed by the server before being displayed in html format to the client browser. Php is a programming style language used to create pages that are processed and served from the server. Php files can always read and display HTML code, but HTML does not automatically parse php code. To do so, you will need to make adjustments to your .htaccess file. 
Enable HTML files to display php code
1) Log into your cPanel
2) Using the File Manager, navigate to the root folder for the domain you want to work with
3) Set the Show Hidden Files option as you will be working with the .htaccess file
4) If there is not one for the domain, you will need to create a new one
5) Edit the file by highlighting the file
6) Click on the Edit icon from the toolbar at the top of the page
5) This brings you to the cpanel file editor. You will want to insert the following line of code at the top of the .htaccess file.
AddType application/x-httpd-php5 .html .htm .php
6) Then, Click the Save Changes button in the upper right corner of the screen.
7) You are now able to place php code sections into your html files and have them display.
8) Look at the before and after shot to see how the code affects a page with php in it.
