diff --git a/index.js b/index.js
index 2d79ae3a..4349d30f 100644
--- a/index.js
+++ b/index.js
@@ -10,6 +10,8 @@ const path = require('path');
 const SyncWaterfallHook = require('tapable').SyncWaterfallHook;
 const AsyncSeriesWaterfallHook = require('tapable').AsyncSeriesWaterfallHook;
 
+const htmlTagObjectToString = require('./lib/html-tags').htmlTagObjectToString;
+
 const childCompiler = require('./lib/compiler.js');
 const prettyError = require('./lib/errors.js');
 const chunkSorter = require('./lib/chunksorter.js');
@@ -549,8 +551,8 @@ class HtmlWebpackPlugin {
     const htmlRegExp = /(<html[^>]*>)/i;
     const headRegExp = /(<\/head\s*>)/i;
     const bodyRegExp = /(<\/body\s*>)/i;
-    const body = assetTags.body.map(this.createHtmlTag.bind(this));
-    const head = assetTags.head.map(this.createHtmlTag.bind(this));
+    const body = assetTags.body.map((assetTagObject) => htmlTagObjectToString(assetTagObject, this.options.xhtml));
+    const head = assetTags.head.map((assetTagObject) => htmlTagObjectToString(assetTagObject, this.options.xhtml));
 
     if (body.length) {
       if (bodyRegExp.test(html)) {
@@ -599,26 +601,6 @@ class HtmlWebpackPlugin {
     return url + (url.indexOf('?') === -1 ? '?' : '&') + hash;
   }
 
-  /**
-   * Turn a tag definition into a html string
-   */
-  createHtmlTag (tagDefinition) {
-    const attributes = Object.keys(tagDefinition.attributes || {})
-      .filter(attributeName => tagDefinition.attributes[attributeName] !== false)
-      .map(attributeName => {
-        if (tagDefinition.attributes[attributeName] === true) {
-          return attributeName;
-        }
-        return attributeName + '="' + tagDefinition.attributes[attributeName] + '"';
-      });
-    // Backport of 3.x void tag definition
-    const voidTag = tagDefinition.voidTag !== undefined ? tagDefinition.voidTag : !tagDefinition.closeTag;
-    const selfClosingTag = tagDefinition.voidTag !== undefined ? tagDefinition.voidTag && this.options.xhtml : tagDefinition.selfClosingTag;
-    return '<' + [tagDefinition.tagName].concat(attributes).join(' ') + (selfClosingTag ? '/' : '') + '>' +
-      (tagDefinition.innerHTML || '') +
-      (voidTag ? '' : '</' + tagDefinition.tagName + '>');
-  }
-
   /**
    * Helper to return the absolute template path with a fallback loader
    */
diff --git a/lib/html-tags.js b/lib/html-tags.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..cdad0d4a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/html-tags.js
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+// @ts-check
+/* eslint-disable */
+/// <reference path="../typings.d.ts" />
+/* eslint-enable */
+/**
+ * @file
+ * This file provides to helper to create html as a object repesentation as
+ * thoses objects are easier to modify than pure string representations
+ *
+ * Usage:
+ * ```
+ * const element = createHtmlTagObject('h1', {class: 'demo'}, 'Hello World');
+ * const html = htmlTagObjectToString(element);
+ * console.log(html) // -> <h1 class="demo">Hello World</h1>
+ * ```
+ */
+
+/**
+ * All html tag elements which must not contain innerHTML
+ * @see https://www.w3.org/TR/html5/syntax.html#void-elements
+ */
+const voidTags = ['area', 'base', 'br', 'col', 'embed', 'hr', 'img', 'input', 'keygen', 'link', 'meta', 'param', 'source', 'track', 'wbr'];
+
+/**
+ * Turn a tag definition into a html string
+ * @param {HtmlTagObject} tagDefinition
+ *  A tag element according to the htmlWebpackPlugin object notation
+ *
+ * @param xhtml {boolean}
+ *   Wether the generated html should add closing slashes to be xhtml compliant
+ */
+function htmlTagObjectToString (tagDefinition, xhtml) {
+  const attributes = Object.keys(tagDefinition.attributes || {})
+    .filter(function (attributeName) {
+      return tagDefinition.attributes[attributeName] !== false;
+    })
+    .map(function (attributeName) {
+      if (tagDefinition.attributes[attributeName] === true) {
+        return xhtml ? attributeName + '="' + attributeName + '"' : attributeName;
+      }
+      return attributeName + '="' + tagDefinition.attributes[attributeName] + '"';
+    });
+  return '<' + [tagDefinition.tagName].concat(attributes).join(' ') + (tagDefinition.voidTag && xhtml ? '/' : '') + '>' +
+    (tagDefinition.innerHTML || '') +
+    (tagDefinition.voidTag ? '' : '</' + tagDefinition.tagName + '>');
+}
+
+/**
+ * Static helper to create a tag object to be get injected into the dom
+ *
+ * @param {string} tagName
+ * the name of the tage e.g. 'div'
+ *
+ * @param {{[attributeName: string]: string|boolean}} [attributes]
+ * tag attributes e.g. `{ 'class': 'example', disabled: true }`
+ *
+ * @param {string} [innerHTML]
+ *
+ * @returns {HtmlTagObject}
+ */
+function createHtmlTagObject (tagName, attributes, innerHTML) {
+  return {
+    tagName: tagName,
+    voidTag: voidTags.indexOf(tagName) !== -1,
+    attributes: attributes || {},
+    innerHTML: innerHTML
+  };
+}
+
+module.exports = {
+  createHtmlTagObject: createHtmlTagObject,
+  htmlTagObjectToString: htmlTagObjectToString
+};