As you discover more about WordPress, you may occasionally come across the term blogroll.

WordPress refers to a list of links pointing to other websites or pages that display on your sidebar menu 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 manage a link section using the Links menu in your WordPress Dashboard. These links will then display on your sidebar or footer if you have added the Links widget.

Before WordPress version 3.5 was released, Links were a visible feature of the WordPress CMS. After version 3.5, the Links manager and blogroll sections were kept hidden by default in new installations …

Before …

(WordPress Links Feature – pre v3.5)

After …

(Post version 3.5 – no WordPress Links Manager)

If your blog this feature was previously active on your website or blog, then it will still be available when your WordPress installation updates to a newer version. If you’ve never used the Link Manager feature, however, or if your WordPress installation is new, then this function will become invisible – it will not be displayed 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 a Links item on your main menu when you log into your WP admin area, you can add it by installing a plugin. In this tutorial, you will learn how to add, edit, delete and manage links on your site’s sidebar using plugins.

Link Manager

(Link Manager Plugin)

Plugin Download URL

http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-manager

Plugin Description

Use this plugin to restore the built-in Links Manager, even if you upgrade WordPress to a later version or remove all of your current links.

Note: All this plugin does is add a single line of code to restore the hidden feature. When we last checked, this plugin had not been updated for some time, 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)

Plugin Download URL

https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-links/

Plugin Description

Simple Links attempts to recreate the same concept as the built-in Link Manager while removing the shortcomings of the deprecated feature.

Plugin Installation

Let’s install the Link Manager plugin.

In your WordPress dashboard area, select Plugins > Add New …

(Plugins Menu – 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 search results screen and click Install Now …

Activate the plugin after installation …

After activation, the ‘Links’ function will be restored to your dashboard menu …

(WordPress links menu)

Configuring The Plugin

We recommend setting up link categories first before adding links. This way, you can assign new links to a link category you have already created.

Link Categories

To create a link category, go to the WP dashboard navigation menu and click on Links > Link Categories …

(Links – Link Categories)

This brings up the ‘Link Categories’ page in your web browser.

Enter the following information:

• Name: Enter the link category name here.
• Slug: The slug is the URL bit of the link category name. Use only lowercase letters without spaces (use hyphens to separate words).
• Description: Some themes may display a link category description.

Click Add New Link Category to save …

(Link Categories area)

The category details will now show in the table …

(Link Categories)

Tip: WordPress calls its default link category Blogroll . Unless you specify the category when adding a link, WordPress will assign new links to the default category …

(Default link category name is ‘blogroll’)

You may want to change this to something that will make sense to your site visitors. This not only makes it easier for users of your site, but any new links that you add to your site will automatically display under the new category name …

(Consider changing the default link category name to something your visitors will relate to)

To change the default category name, hover your mouse over the list item and click on Quick Edit …

(Editing the default link category)

Change 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), and click on the Update link Category button …

(Edit the link category name)

In our example, the link category name ‘Blogroll’ has been replaced with an appropriate links section category name (e.g. ‘Recommended’).

Let’s create a description for this link category. To add a link category description, hover over the link category name and click Edit …

(You can add/edit the category description)

Add your link category description field and click Update when you’re done …

(Edit Link Category screen)

Repeat the above process to add as many different link categories as you need.

After configuring your link categories, you can add your links.

How To Add Links

To create a new link, click on Links > Add New in your admin menu …

(Links Menu – Add New)

This brings up the Add New Link’ screen in your browser …

(Add New Link screen)

You can also reach this screen by clicking on ’Add New’ at the top of the main Links page …

(Add New Link button)

The ‘Add New Links’ page includes several sections:

Name, Web Address & Description

The first section lets you enter details about your link …

(Name, Web Address& Description)

Enter information into the following sections:

• Name: Whatever you type in this field is the category name that will display on your site.
• Slug: The slug is the SEO friendly URL bit of the link category name. It must all be in lowercase letters and contain no spaces (use hyphens to separate words).
• Description: Some themes may display your link category description.

Categories & Target

Select a Category and Target for the link …

(Categories & Target section – Add New Link screen)

In the Categories section, select one of the link categories you’ve already set up, or click on ’+ Add New Category’ to add a new category.

Also, select a target frame for your link in the Target section by choosing one of the radio buttons. This lets you specify how you want the link to open when a visitor clicks on it:

• _blank means that a new window will open up in their browser to display the information associated with the link. This lets your visitors see the link information without leaving your website
• _none means that when visitors click on your link, they will leave your site and a new website or page will load in your web browser window instead.
• _top opens the link at the top level of the frame system if you’re using frames. Ignore this option if you don’t use frames, or if you don’t know what frames are.

Link Relationship XFN

This area provides some additional link functionality …

(Link Relationship (XFN) area – Add New Link)

Link Relationship (XFN) – XFN stands for XML Friends Network – lets you define your relationship with the linked person. For example, if you work with Jasmine Jenkins and you link to her blog, you would probably tick co-worker or colleague.

XFN relationships are optional for WordPress links. You can ignore this section and your links will work just fine. XFN makes your links more understandable to some websites and search engines that use this information.

rel – This field lets you specify the ‘rel’ attribute that will be assigned to your link. The rel attribute is used to define what relationship exists between the current document and the linked document. For example, if you don’t want search engines to follow your link, enter nofollow into this field. Other ‘rel’ attributes include author, start, help, index, etc. Separate multiple ‘rel’ keywords with spaces.

You can learn more about XFN by visiting the site below:

• WordPress Codex: Defining Relationships With XFN

Advanced

The last section of the Add New Link’ page lets you enter 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 section)

The Advanced link settings section contains the following options:

• Image Address: Specify an image to be displayed with the link. To use this feature, add the URL of where the image is stored 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 be displayed next to the link.
• Notes: Add notes about the link in this section 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).

Enter information into the above fields or just leave this section blank, as these are not essential.

When you have finished adding your new link information, click on Add Link to update your link settings …

(Click on Add Link to update your link settings)

Note: If you tick Keep this link private, your link will not be visible when links are displayed on your site …

(Make your links private)

Making a link private lets you toggle link visibility on and off without deleting it (this is useful if you want a link to display during certain times and hide it afterwards) …

(Toggle link visibility on and off)

To see all your links, go to the main dashboard menu and choose Links > All Links …

(Links – All Links)

The ‘Links’ page will display in your web browser. The Links page displays a list of all of your links and link information (e.g. URL, link categories, relationship, etc.) …

(Table of links)

Tip: To view or hide columns in the table of links, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab near the top of your screen …

(Links page – Screen Options)

Enable/disable information on your table of links by selecting/deselecting their check boxes …

(Show/hide links)

How To Edit Your Link Information

To modify a link in the Link Manager, go to the main dashboard menu and click on Links > All Links to bring up your links page …

(WordPress Links – All Links)

Select the item to be edited and click on Edit to bring up the link’s information …

(Editing your link information)

Make the changes you want to the link information …

(Edit Link screen)

After editing the link, you can:

• Click on Update Link to save your link details,
• Click on Visit Link to view your link and make sure that you have set up everything correctly (the link will open in a new window),
• Click Delete to remove the link if it’s no longer required …

(Edit Link: Update Link button)

Deleting Links

To remove links from the Link Manager, go to your navigation menu and choose Links > All Links …

(WP Links – All Links)

The ‘Links’ screen will load in your web browser.

You can delete links individually, delete multiple links, or delete all your links.

To delete individual links, hover over the link that you want to remove and click on Delete …

(Deleting your links)

To delete a number of links at once, either tick the checkbox next to each link that you would like to be removed, or select all links by clicking on the checkbox next to the ‘Name’ column header …

(Delete multiple links)

Choose Delete from the ‘Bulk Actions’ menu, and click the Apply button to delete all selected links …

(Links: bulk-deletion function)

The selected links will be deleted …

(Deleted links notification)

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 make links display on your website.

Using The Links Widget

Installing 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 admin menu …

(Appearance Menu – Widgets)

This brings up the ‘Widgets’ page in your web browser.

You will notice that a ‘Links’ widget has been added to the Available Widgets section …

(Links widget)

Drag the ‘Links’ widget to one of your widget bars and drop it wherever you want your links to display …

(Adding a links widget to your widget bar)

The Links widget provides various settings. You can specify what information you want to show about your links and how many links you want to display on your sidebar menu …

(Link widget - configurable settings)

You can also add as many link widgets to your sidebar and footer as you want. This allows you to add and display link lists throughout your site …

(You can add multiple link widgets to your sidebar)

You can select a link category …

(Link widget options – Select Link Category)

You can sort links by Link rating, Link title, Link ID, or display links in Random order …

(Link widget settings – Sort by options)

After configuring the links widget, click the Save button to update your settings. A link section will appear on your site’s sidebar …

(An example of how links can be displayed on a 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 more help with widgets? Go here if you want to learn more using widgets:

• Adding WordPress Widgets To Your Blog

Link Manager – Additional Information

If you have many links, the Links Manager plugin allows you to easily administer these with filtering, sorting, and searching functionality.

Sorting Links Function

To sort links, hover your cursor over the title of the column you want to sort and click on the little triangle displayed next to the column title …

(Sort your links)

Finding Your Links

Search for links using the ‘Search Links’ function …

(Find links)

Filter Links

You can filter links by categories …

(Filter your links by link categories)

You can also search and filter links in the Link Categories screen. Use the ‘Search Link Categories’ button to find link categories, or click on the links in the ‘Links’ column …

(searching and filtering links in the Link Categories screen)

This brings up a list of all links grouped under a specific link category …

(Links filtered by link category)

Additional Link Options

If you plan to add lots of links to your website or blog, or if you intend to add a ‘Links’ page to your site (i.e. not just add links on your sidebar), then you may want to look at using a plugin that can help you administer your links.

Link Library

(Link Library)

Download Plugin URL

http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-library/

Plugin Description

Link Library lets you output a list of your link categories with a complete list of links plus descriptions and notes …

(Link Library links. Image sourced from Link Library plugin site.)

Link Library creates a page on your web site that contains a list of all of the link categories in your Links area, and all links listed in 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 links so that your site users can become aware of additions to your link library.

To learn more about the Link Library plugin:

• Link Library – WordPress Plugin

Congratulations! Now you know how to add external links to WordPress.

We have written a comprehensive article on how to easily add hyperlinks to WordPress posts. Go here to learn more:

• Using The WordPress Internal Linking Tool

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