As you discover more about WordPress, you may occasionally come across the term blogroll.
In WordPress terminology, a list of links displayed on your sidebar section is sometimes referred to as a blogroll.
According to official WordPress documentation …
“The term ‘blogroll’ was originally used because it was a list of links to other blogs, but you can include links to any sites.”
You can add a blogroll using the Links menu in your WP Dashboard. These links will display on your website once you add the Links widget.
Before the release of WP v3.5, Links were a built-in feature of the WordPress CMS. After the release of v 3.5, the Link Manager section was removed …
Before …
(The Link Manager – included in the WordPress menu until the release of WP version 3.5)
After …
(The Link Manager – no longer included in the WordPress dashboard menu after WP v.3.5)
If you were using the Link Manager in previous versions of WordPress, then it will still be available when your installation upgrades to a newer version. If you’ve never used Link Manager, however, or if your site is new, then this function will become invisible – it will not appear on your dashboard menu.
How To Add A Link Section To WordPress
You can add a link section to your sidebar menu by creating a custom menu, or use a plugin like the one shown in the tutorial below.
If you can’t see the Links feature when you log into your WP dashboard you will need to install a plugin. This step-by-step tutorial explains how to add, edit, delete and manage links on your sidebar using plugins.
Link Manager
(Link Manager)
Download URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-manager
Description Of Plugin
You can use this plugin to display the built-in Link Manager, even if you update WordPress to a later version or remove all of your existing links.
Note: This plugin adds a single line of template code to your installation in order to restore the hidden feature. When we last checked, this plugin had not been updated for a while, but it should still work fine. If you don’t want to use the Link Manager plugin, then use the one below instead, or contact us for help editing your template code.
Simple Links
(Simple Links – WordPress Link Management Plugin)
Download URL
https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-links/
Description
Simple Links recreates the concept of the built-in WP Link Manager while addressing the shortcomings of the deprecated feature.
Plugin Installation
To install the Link Manager plugin on your site, do the following:
In the WordPress admin menu, go to Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins – Add New)
Select the Install Plugins > Search tab, then type in “link manager” into the search field and hit Enter …
Find the plugin in the results area and click Install Now …
Activate the plugin after installation …
After you’ve activated the plugin, a ‘Links’ item will get added to your WP dashboard menu …
(Links menu section)
Plugin Setup
We recommend setting up link categories first before you start adding new links. This way, when adding a new link, you can assign the link to a link category you have already created.
Link Categories
To create a new link category, click on Links > Link Categories in the admin menu …
(WordPress Links Menu – Link Categories)
The ‘Link Categories’ page will load in your browser.
Enter the following information:
- Name: What you type in this field displays as the category your links will be assigned to.
- Slug: The slug is the web address part of your link category name. It must be in lowercase letters and contain no spaces (use hyphens to separate words).
- Description: Some themes may display your link category description.
When finished, click the Add New Link Category button to save your new link category name …
(Link Categories)
The new category will now show in the list …
(Link Categories)
Tip: Blogroll is the default link category name. Unless you specify the category when adding a link, WordPress will automatically assign new links to the default category …
(Default link category name is ‘blogroll’)
You may want to change this to something better suited to your business. This not only makes it easier for visitors, but any new links that you add to your site will automatically be assigned to the new category name …
(Consider changing the default link category name to something better suited to your business)
To change the default category name, hover your mouse over the list item and click on Quick Edit …
(Quick Edit)
Replace both the Name and the Slug with a new category name (remember to keep the slug in lowercase letters and replace all spaces with a hyphen), then click on the Update link Category button …
(Update Link Category)
In our example, we’ve replaced the category ‘Blogroll’ with a more suitable name (e.g. ‘Recommended’).
Let’s create a link category description. To add a description to an existing link category, hover over the link category name and click Edit …
(Link category description)
Add your description in the ‘Edit Link Category’ page and click Update …
(Edit Link Category screen)
Repeat the above process to add as many different link categories as you need.
After you have finished configuring your link categories, you can add your links.
How To Add New Links
To create a new link, choose Links > Add New in the WP dashboard navigation menu …
(WP Links Menu – Add New)
This brings up the ‘Add New Link’ page …
(Add New Link screen)
You can also access this screen by clicking on the ‘Add New’ button in the main Links screen …
(Links – Add New Link button)
The ‘Add New Links’ page is divided into a number of sections:
Name, Web Address & Description
Enter details about your link in this section …
(Name, Web Addressand Description section – Add New Link screen)
Enter information into the following fields:
- Name: What you enter in this field will display as the category your links will be assigned to.
- Slug: The slug displays in the URL of the link category name. It must be in lowercase letters and contain no spaces (use hyphens to separate words).
- Description: Some themes may display a link category description in the links section, or as a tool tip when visitors hover over the link name. (Optional)
Categories & Target
After typing in link details, select a Category and Target for the new link …
(Add New Link – Categories & Target)
In the Categories section, tick one of the link categories you have already created, or click on ’+ Add New Category’ to create a new category link.
Also, select a target frame for your link in the Target section by choosing one of the radio buttons. This lets you specify where you want the link to open when visitors click on it:
- _blank means that a separate browser window will open up to display the information for that link.
- _none means that when visitors click on the link, they will exit your site and a new site or page will load in your browser window instead.
- _top opens links at the top level of the frame system if you’re using frames. Don’t worry about this option if you don’t use frames, or if you don’t know what frames are.
Link Relationship XFN
This section provides some additional link functionality …
(Link Relationship (XFN))
Link Relationship (XFN) – XFN stands for XML Friends Network – is a way to define your relationship with the linked person. For example, if you have a professional relationship with Suzanne Anderson and you link to her blog, you would probably tick co-worker or colleague.
XFN relationships are optional for WordPress links. You can leave everything in this section blank and all of your links will work just fine. XFN makes your links more understandable to some sites and search engines that use this information.
rel – This field specifies the ‘rel’ attribute that will be assigned to your link. The rel attribute defines the relationship between the current document and the linked document. For example, if you don’t want search engines to follow your link, type nofollow into this field. Separate multiple ‘rel’ keywords using spaces.
You can learn more about XFN by visiting this site:
Advanced
The last section of the Add New Link’ page allows you to specify Advanced features for your links (some themes will ignore this. You can ignore this section, unless there’s a good reason to use it) …
(Advanced link settings)
The Advanced link settings section includes the following options:
- Image Address: Lets you specify an image to be displayed with the link. To use this feature, add an image URL and make sure that the image is small (around 16×16 like a favicon).
- RSS Address: If your theme allows it, the RSS feed associated with the link will display next to your links.
- Notes: This section lets you add notes for your own internal reference.
- Rating: You can add a rating score to the link if you want to sort links by rating (see the ‘Links’ widget section below).
Type in your information into the above fields or just leave this section blank.
When you are done adding your new link information, click on the Add Link button to save your new link …
(Click on Add Link to save your new link)
Note: If you select the checkbox next to Keep this link private, your link will not be visible in your Blogroll section …
(Private link checkbox)
Making a link private allows you to add a link and then toggle its visibility on and off without deleting it (this is useful if you want your link to display during certain times and hide it afterwards) …
(Making links private toggles their visibility on and off)
To view a list of all your links, choose Links > All Links in the main admin menu …
(WordPress Links – All Links)
The ‘Links’ page will display in your browser. The Links table displays your links and link information (e.g. link URL, categories, rating, etc.) …
(Table of links)
Tip: To display or hide fields in the Links page, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab near the top of the screen …
(Links table – Screen Options)
Enable/disable fields on your Links table by ticking/unticking their checkboxes …
(Show/hide – Links screen)
How To Edit Link Information
To modify a link, select Links > All Links in the WP navigation menu to bring up your table of links …
(Links – All Links)
Select the link to be edited and click on Edit to bring up the link’s details …
(Editing link information)
Edit your link information …
(Edit Link screen)
After you’re done editing the link, you can:
- Click the Update Link button to save your link details,
- Click on Visit Link to view your link and check that you have set up the link’s URL correctly (your link will open in a new window),
- Click Delete to remove the link …
(Update Link button)
How To Delete Your Links
To delete links from the Link Manager, choose Links > All Links in the WP admin menu …
(Links Menu – All Links)
This loads the ‘Links’ table in your browser.
You can delete links individually, delete multiple links, or delete all of your links at once.
To delete links individually, hover over the link that you want to remove and click on Delete …
(Deleting your links)
To delete links in bulk, either click on the check boxes next to individual links that you want to be removed, or select all links by clicking on the checkbox next to the ‘Name’ column header …
(Delete multiple links)
Select Delete from the ‘Bulk Actions’ menu, and click Apply to remove your selected links …
(Bulk-delete links)
Your links will be deleted …
(links deleted message)
Plugin Usage
Now that you know how to set up link categories and how to add, edit and delete links, let’s show you how to display links on your site.
Using The Links Widget
The Links Manager plugin adds a ‘Links’ widget to your ‘Widgets’ screen.
To access and configure your Link widgets, click on Appearance > Widgets in your navigation menu …
(Appearance – Widgets)
The ‘Widgets’ screen will load in your web browser.
You will notice that a ‘Links’ widget has been added to the Available Widgets section …
(Links widget)
To make the ‘Links’ widget active, drag it to one of your widget sections in the Widgets page and drop it wherever you would like your links to show up …
(Add a links widget to a widgetized area using drag & drop)
The Links widget includes various settings. You can specify what information you want to display about your links and how many links you would like displayed on your sidebar …
(Link widget settings)
You can also add as many link widgets to your sidebar as you want. This allows you to create and display links throughout your site …
(You can add multiple link widgets to your widget bars)
Select a link category to display specific links …
(Link widget options – Select Link Category)
You can sort links by Link title, Link rating, Link ID, or display links in Random order …
(Link widget settings – Sorting options)
Once you are done setting up your Links widget, click the Save button to update your settings. A link section should show on your website …
(An example of how links can be displayed on your site’s sidebar)
As the above example shows, you can display specific links to your site visitors (e.g. a list for a specific link category only), and add multiple lists of links to your sidebar menu.
Need help using widgets? Go here to learn more about using widgets:
Link Manager – Additional Information
If you have many links, the Link Manager plugin allows you to easily administer these with sort, search, and filter features.
Sorting Your Links
You can sort links by hovering your cursor over the title of the column you want to sort and clicking on the little black triangle displayed next to the column title …
(Sort links)
Search Links
Find links using the ‘Search Links’ feature …
(Searching your links)
Filtering Your Links
You can filter links by link category …
(Filtering your links by category)
You can also search and filter links in the Link Categories screen. Use the ‘Search Link Categories’ button to search for link categories, or click on the links in the ‘Links’ column …
(Search and filter links in the Link Categories screen)
This displays a list of all links listed under a specific link category …
(Links filtered by category)
Additional Link Options
If you plan to add lots of links to your website, or if you intend to add a page containing a list of links to your site (i.e. not just add links on your sidebar), then you may want to consider using a plugin that can help you administer your links.
Link Library
(Link Library WordPress Plugin)
Plugin URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-library/
Plugin Description
This plugin lets you publish a list of all your link categories with a complete list of all your links plus notes and descriptions …
(Link Library links. Screenshot taken from Link Library plugin website.)
This plugin creates a page on your web site that contains all the link categories in your Links section, and all links defined for these categories. Additionally, you can select a sub-set of categories to display or not display, show only one category at a time, display a search box and find results based on visitor queries, display a form to accept user submissions that can be moderated by a site administrator, and even generate an RSS feed of your link collection so that your site users can be made aware of any additions made to to your link library.
Go here for more information about the benefits of using this handy plugin:
Congratulations! Now you know how to add external links to your WordPress site.
We have written a comprehensive article on adding HTML links to your WordPress content. Go here to learn more:
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