diff --git a/components/rendering/src/markdown.rs b/components/rendering/src/markdown.rs
index ba8edfa1..9111e2ce 100644
--- a/components/rendering/src/markdown.rs
+++ b/components/rendering/src/markdown.rs
@@ -231,7 +231,9 @@ pub fn markdown_to_html(content: &str, context: &RenderContext) -> Result<Render
                             .unwrap_or(::syntect::highlighting::Color::WHITE);
                         background = IncludeBackground::IfDifferent(color);
                         let snippet = start_highlighted_html_snippet(theme);
-                        Event::Html(snippet.0.into())
+                        let mut html = snippet.0;
+                        html.push_str("<code>");
+                        Event::Html(html.into())
                     }
                     Event::End(Tag::CodeBlock(_)) => {
                         if !context.config.highlight_code {
@@ -239,7 +241,7 @@ pub fn markdown_to_html(content: &str, context: &RenderContext) -> Result<Render
                         }
                         // reset highlight and close the code block
                         highlighter = None;
-                        Event::Html("</pre>".into())
+                        Event::Html("</code></pre>".into())
                     }
                     Event::Start(Tag::Image(link_type, src, title)) => {
                         if is_colocated_asset_link(&src) {
diff --git a/components/rendering/tests/markdown.rs b/components/rendering/tests/markdown.rs
index 93172be1..e3d48c92 100644
--- a/components/rendering/tests/markdown.rs
+++ b/components/rendering/tests/markdown.rs
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ fn can_highlight_code_block_no_lang() {
     let res = render_content("```\n$ gutenberg server\n$ ping\n```", &context).unwrap();
     assert_eq!(
         res.body,
-        "<pre style=\"background-color:#2b303b;\">\n<span style=\"color:#c0c5ce;\">$ gutenberg server\n$ ping\n</span></pre>"
+        "<pre style=\"background-color:#2b303b;\">\n<code><span style=\"color:#c0c5ce;\">$ gutenberg server\n$ ping\n</span></code></pre>"
     );
 }
 
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ fn can_highlight_code_block_with_lang() {
     let res = render_content("```python\nlist.append(1)\n```", &context).unwrap();
     assert_eq!(
         res.body,
-        "<pre style=\"background-color:#2b303b;\">\n<span style=\"color:#c0c5ce;\">list.</span><span style=\"color:#bf616a;\">append</span><span style=\"color:#c0c5ce;\">(</span><span style=\"color:#d08770;\">1</span><span style=\"color:#c0c5ce;\">)\n</span></pre>"
+        "<pre style=\"background-color:#2b303b;\">\n<code><span style=\"color:#c0c5ce;\">list.</span><span style=\"color:#bf616a;\">append</span><span style=\"color:#c0c5ce;\">(</span><span style=\"color:#d08770;\">1</span><span style=\"color:#c0c5ce;\">)\n</span></code></pre>"
     );
 }
 
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ fn can_higlight_code_block_with_unknown_lang() {
     // defaults to plain text
     assert_eq!(
         res.body,
-        "<pre style=\"background-color:#2b303b;\">\n<span style=\"color:#c0c5ce;\">list.append(1)\n</span></pre>"
+        "<pre style=\"background-color:#2b303b;\">\n<code><span style=\"color:#c0c5ce;\">list.append(1)\n</span></code></pre>"
     );
 }