TGM Designs

TGM Designs created this glossary of web design and related terminology to help our clients to know and understand what services we provide. The terms cited are used regularly throughout Web development and design documentation. If you are starting a new website project then you will find these terms very helpful. This glossary's intention is to be relevant and beneficial to your understanding rather than be comprehensive.

LABELS

Names and terms used in a webpage's code to identify menu options, site categories or other elements.

LAN

Acronym for Local Area Network (LAN). A computer network that is limited only to the immediate area for two or more computers that are connected with cables. Usually for a buildling or company.

LANDING PAGE

The webpage that a visitor reaches after clicking a search engine listing. This can be any page on a website, depending mainly on keywords and page ranking of that particular page.

LAYOUT TABLE

A table that uses rows and columns to position content visually on the screen.

LEADING

The difference between the values of line-height and font-size in the extra space between the lines of text above and below the font's size.

LEGIBILITY

Indicates how clear text is visually on a webpage.

LINK

A hyperlink from one webpage that takes the user to another webpage anywhere on the Internet.

LINK BAIT

Link bait is content or a feature on a website that compels users to place links to it from other websites.

LINK BUILDING

A SEO (Search Engine Optimization) technique where the number of incoming links from external sources increase a webpage's link popularity in the search engines. See also: Link Bait.

Link Farm

A web page that consists of little else but links to other sites and usually the sites listed have links back to the farm page. The goal of a link farm is to artificially boost rankings through link popularity and is consequently at risk of being banned. These types of pages are penalized by almost all search engines, including Google.

LINK TEXT

Text that is contained within a link.

LINK ROT

Degeneration of a webpage due to the fact the links become invalid.

LINUX

An operating system developed by a Finnish programmer name Linus Torvald. Linux is a free open source code operating system, thus allowing anyone to work on it to improve it.

LISTSERV

An automated mailing list distribution system. Once you join the mailing list, any e-mail messages sent by anyone on the list goes automatically to everyone else on the list.

LIQUID DESIGN

A webpage that re-scales to fit different resoltuions and different window sizes.

LOCAL NAVIGATION

Navigation that lead to subtopics defined by one of the main menu subjects.

LOOK AND FEEL

The visual apperance that identifies a webpage with color scheme, layout, typography, design treatments and graphic elements - all of which should work in harmony.

LOREM IPSUM

Greek dummey text that appears on a webpage or mockup to illustrate the position and appearance of text.

LOSSY

File compression methods that discard file information in order to make file size smaller.

LURKING

A person who reads online discussion boards, newsgroups, chatrooms and other interactive systems but does not participate.

LYNX

A text only web browser originally developed at the University of Kansas but is not used worldwide. The name is a pun on the word "links".