Glossary
LinkedIn and embedding terms, defined
48 terms you meet when putting LinkedIn on a website, each in plain English.
A
- Auto-resizing iframe
- An auto-resizing iframe changes its height to match the content inside it, so there's no inner scrollbar or empty gap. Because a page can't measure a cross-origin frame's content, the frame reports its height with postMessage and a script on the host page applies it.
C
- Community Management API
- LinkedIn's API for reading and managing company page content, open only to approved organizations after a review, with a page admin connecting the account.
- Company page URL
- The address of a LinkedIn Page, usually linkedin.com/company/name. Super admins can change the name part, but not more than once in 30 days.
- Content Security Policy (CSP)
- A Content Security Policy (CSP) is a set of rules a website sends to the browser, usually in a Content-Security-Policy header, saying which sources the page may load scripts, frames, images and other resources from. Anything not allowed is blocked.
- Core Web Vitals
- Core Web Vitals are three metrics that describe a page's real-world user experience: Largest Contentful Paint for loading, Interaction to Next Paint for responsiveness and Cumulative Layout Shift for visual stability. Each has a published “good” threshold.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is a Core Web Vitals metric for visual stability: it measures how much visible content moves unexpectedly while a page is open. web.dev rates a score of 0.1 or less as good and anything above 0.25 as poor.
D
- Document post (LinkedIn carousel)
- A LinkedIn post with an uploaded PDF or slide file that readers page through, which is how most LinkedIn “carousels” are made.
E
- Embed code
- Embed code is a snippet of HTML you paste into a web page to display content hosted somewhere else, such as a video, a social media post or a widget. It's usually an iframe tag, a script tag with a placeholder element, or a combination.
- Embed this post
- LinkedIn's built-in option on desktop for copying embed code for one public post, found in the post's More menu.
- Employer branding
- Employer branding is how an organization presents itself as a place to work: its culture, values, people and the experience of working there. It influences whether candidates notice the company, apply for roles and accept offers.
F
- Follow Company plugin
- A LinkedIn developer plugin that adds a Follow button for a company page to your website, configured with the company's ID.
H
- Hashtag feed
- A feed that collects posts by hashtag or mention instead of from one account. LinkedInEmbed feeds come from a single profile or company page.
I
- iframe
- An iframe (inline frame) is an HTML element, <iframe>, that displays a separate web page inside the current one. The embedded page loads from its own address and runs as its own document, kept apart from the host page's styles and scripts.
- iframe sandbox attribute
- The sandbox attribute on an <iframe> puts extra restrictions on the embedded page, such as blocking scripts, forms, pop-ups and navigation of the top window. An empty sandbox applies every restriction, and tokens like allow-scripts lift them one at a time.
L
- Lazy loading
- Lazy loading means the browser waits to load an image or iframe until the visitor scrolls near it, instead of fetching everything as the page opens. In HTML you turn it on by adding loading="lazy" to <img> and <iframe> elements.
- Licenses & certifications section
- Licenses & certifications is a LinkedIn profile section listing credentials you've earned, such as professional licenses or vendor certifications. Each entry names the credential and its issuing organization, usually with dates and, optionally, a credential ID or verification link.
- LinkedIn @mention
- An @mention tags a LinkedIn member or Page in a post or comment: you type @, start the name and pick it from the list. The name becomes a link to their profile or Page, and a mentioned member receives email and app notifications.
- LinkedIn activity ID
- A LinkedIn activity ID is the long number that identifies one post in LinkedIn's feed. You'll find it in the post's link, after “activity-” in a /posts/ address or after urn:li:activity: in a /feed/update/ address.
- LinkedIn article
- A LinkedIn article is a long-form piece written in LinkedIn's article editor, with a title, a cover image and formatted body text. Members and Page admins can publish articles, and they appear in the author's Activity section alongside their posts.
- LinkedIn connection degrees
- Connection degrees show how far another member is from you on LinkedIn. 1st-degree members are directly connected to you, 2nd-degree members are connected to your 1st-degree connections, and 3rd-degree members are connected to your 2nd-degree connections.
- LinkedIn engagement rate
- Engagement rate is the share of a post's impressions that led to an interaction. In LinkedIn Page analytics it's clicks, reactions, comments and shares divided by impressions, so 30 interactions on 1,000 impressions is a 3% engagement rate.
- LinkedIn Featured section
- The Featured section is a part of a LinkedIn profile where a member pins hand-picked items near the top: posts they wrote, articles they published on LinkedIn, and external links, documents or images. It works as a curated showcase rather than a timeline.
- LinkedIn feed widget
- A widget that shows the latest posts from one LinkedIn profile or company page on your website and refreshes them on a schedule.
- LinkedIn follower
- A LinkedIn follower is someone who has chosen to see your public posts and articles in their feed. Following is one-way: unlike a connection, it needs no acceptance and doesn't make either of you part of the other's network.
- LinkedIn group
- A members' discussion space on LinkedIn. Most groups are private, so their posts are visible only to members and can't be shown on a website.
- LinkedIn newsletter
- A LinkedIn newsletter is a recurring series of articles that a member or Page publishes under one name. Members subscribe, and each new edition triggers push, in-app and email notifications to every subscriber.
- LinkedIn Page
- A LinkedIn Page is an organization's presence on LinkedIn, such as a company, school or brand. Members follow a Page rather than connect with it, and the Page's admins publish posts, manage job listings and view analytics for the organization.
- LinkedIn post impressions
- On LinkedIn, impressions count how many times a post was shown on screen. Because one person can see a post several times, LinkedIn also reports members reached: the number of distinct members and Pages that saw it.
- LinkedIn profile badge
- LinkedIn's small embeddable profile card, created from public profile settings. LinkedIn says the Public Profile Badge won't be available after December 12, 2026.
- LinkedIn Projects section
- The Projects section is an optional part of a LinkedIn profile where you describe specific pieces of work, such as a product launch, research study or client engagement, with a name, dates, a description, related skills and supporting links or media.
- LinkedIn repost
- A LinkedIn repost shares someone else's public post with your own network. A plain repost passes it on unchanged; “Repost with your thoughts” adds your commentary on top, with the original post shown underneath.
- LinkedIn Showcase Page
- A LinkedIn Showcase Page is a Page attached to a parent LinkedIn Page that represents one brand, business unit or initiative. It has its own name, posts and followers, so people can follow that part of an organization on its own.
- LinkedIn URN
- A LinkedIn URN (uniform resource name) is a text identifier in the form urn:li:{entityType}:{id}. LinkedIn uses URNs to name members, organizations, posts, images and other objects, for example urn:li:organization:12345 for a company.
- LinkedIn widget
- An embeddable block that shows LinkedIn content on your website, such as your latest posts, a profile card or a company page card, and keeps it up to date.
O
- oEmbed
- oEmbed is an open format that lets a website turn a pasted link into embedded content. The site asks the content provider's oEmbed endpoint about the URL and gets back data such as a title, a thumbnail and, for rich content, ready-made HTML.
- Open Graph tags
- Open Graph tags are <meta> tags in a page's HTML head, such as og:title and og:image, that tell social networks which title, description and image to show when someone shares the page's link. LinkedIn uses them to build link previews.
- Open to Work
- Open to Work is a LinkedIn profile setting that tells recruiters, or all members, that you're looking for a job. You list the roles, locations and start date you want, and sharing with all members adds an #OpenToWork frame to your profile photo.
P
- Post visibility
- The “Who can see your post?” setting, such as Anyone or Connections only. Only posts shared with Anyone can be embedded or shown off LinkedIn.
- Public profile URL
- The web address of your LinkedIn profile, usually linkedin.com/in/your-name. You can customize the last part within LinkedIn's rules on length and characters.
R
- Recommendations vs endorsements
- A recommendation is a written testimonial from a 1st-degree connection; an endorsement is a one-click validation of a skill on your profile.
- Refresh interval
- How often a widget fetches new data from LinkedIn. In LinkedInEmbed it's every 96 hours on Free, 24 hours on Pro and 30 minutes on Essentials.
S
- Script tag (async and defer)
- A script tag, <script>, adds JavaScript to a web page. By default an external script pauses HTML parsing while it downloads and runs; the async and defer attributes let the browser keep parsing and run the script later.
- Selected posts
- A LinkedInEmbed posts widget mode on Pro and Essentials that shows up to 4 hand-picked posts in your chosen order instead of the latest ones.
- Social proof
- Social proof is evidence that other people trust, use or recommend you, such as testimonials, reviews, client logos, follower counts or endorsements. Visitors lean on it as a shortcut when deciding whether a business or person is credible.
- Social Selling Index (SSI)
- The Social Selling Index (SSI) is a LinkedIn score from 0 to 100 that estimates how effectively someone uses LinkedIn for social selling, based on establishing a professional brand, finding the right people, engaging with insights and building relationships.
- Structured data (JSON-LD)
- Structured data is machine-readable markup that describes what a page is about, such as an article, product, event or organization, using a shared vocabulary like schema.org. Google recommends the JSON-LD format and uses structured data to understand pages and show rich results.
T
- Third-party cookies
- A third-party cookie is a cookie set by a site other than the one in the browser's address bar, usually by content embedded from another domain such as an iframe or script. Browsers restrict them because they can be used to track people across sites.
U
- User-generated content (UGC)
- User-generated content (UGC) is content about a brand created by people outside its marketing team, such as customers, employees, partners or fans. Reviews, social posts, photos and testimonials all count when someone other than the brand made them.
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