As you continue to learn more about WordPress, you may occasionally come across references to the term blogroll.

A blogroll is a list of hyperlinks pointing to other sites or web pages displayed on your sidebar.

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.”

The Links feature lets you easily add external hyperlinks to your sidebar menu (e.g. a “Resources” section) using widgets.

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

Before …

(WP Links Menu – pre v3.5)

After …

(The Link Manager feature is no longer part of the menu after WP v 3.5)

If you have had an earlier version of WordPress than v 3.5 installed and upgraded your installation, then the Link Manager would be removed, unless you’ve previously used it.

 

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 the Links feature is not visible when you log into your WP dashboard you will need to install a plugin. This tutorial explains how to add and manage blogroll links on your sidebar using WordPress plugins.

Link Manager

(Link Manager)

Download URL

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

Plugin Description

You can use this plugin to display the built-in Links Manager, even if you update WordPress to a later version or remove all of your current links.

Note: This plugin adds a single line of template code to your installation to restore the hidden feature. The last time we checked, this plugin had not been updated for some time, but it should still work fine. If you don’t want to use this plugin, then use the one below instead, or contact us for help editing your site’s template code.

Simple Links

(Simple Links)

Plugin Download URL

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

Description Of Plugin

Simple Links recreates the same concept as the built-in WordPress Links Manager while removing the shortcomings of the deprecated functionality.

Plugin Installation

To install the Link Manager plugin on your website, follow these instructions:

In your WP administration menu, go to Plugins > Add New …

(Plugins Menu – Add New)

Select the Install Plugins > Search tab, type in “link manager” into the search field and hit Enter …

Locate the plugin in the results screen and click Install Now …

Activate the plugin …

After activating the plugin, WordPress displays a ‘Links’ item in your WP navigation menu area …

(Links menu)

Plugin Setup

Before adding any new links, we recommend setting up your link categories. 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 choose Links > Link Categories …

(WP Links – Link Categories)

The ‘Link Categories’ page will display in your web browser.

Enter the following information:

• Name: What you enter here is the link category name that will display on your site.
• Slug: The slug is the URL part of your link category. It must be in lowercase letters and contain no spaces (use hyphens to separate words).
• Description: Some themes may display your link category description.

Click Add New Link Category …

(Link Categories area)

The category details will be added to the table …

(Link Categories page)

Tip: Blogroll is the default link category name. Unless you specify a category for a link, WordPress will assign new links to the default category …

(Default link category)

You may want to change this to something that will make sense to 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 …

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

To edit the default category name, hover your mouse over the category name and click on the Quick Edit link …

(Quick Edit)

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 Update Link Category …

(Quick Edit)

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

Let’s create a link category description. To add a link category description, click on Edit under the category name …

(You can add/edit the category description)

Add your link category description field and click Update …

(Edit Link Category page)

Repeat the above process and add as many new link categories as your site requires.

After configuring your link categories, you can start adding new links.

How To Add Links

To create a new link, go to your WP admin menu and select Links > Add New …

(WordPress Links – Add New)

This loads the Add New Link’ screen in your web browser …

(Add New Link screen)

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

(Add New Link button)

The ‘Add New Links’ page is divided into various sections:

Name, Web Address & Description

Enter your link details in this section …

(Name, Web Address& Description fields – Add New Link page)

Type in information into the following fields:

• Name: Whatever you type here is the link category name that will display on your site.
• Slug: The slug shows up in the URL of the link category. Only use lower case letters and do not include 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 with their mouse.

Categories & Target

Select a Category and Target for the new link …

(Categories & Target area)

In the Categories section, select one of the link categories you’ve already added, or click on the ‘+ Add New Category’ link to add 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 how you want your link to open when clicked on by visitors:

• _blank means that a new, separate window will open up in their browser to display the information for that link.
• _none means that when a visitor clicks on the link, they will exit 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. 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) area)

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 Aaradhya Jenkins and you link to her blog, you would probably check co-worker or colleague.

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

rel – This field specifies the ‘rel’ attribute that will be assigned to your link. The rel attribute is used to define the relationship 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.

You can learn more about XFN by visiting this site:

• WordPress Codex: Defining Relationships With XFN

Advanced

The last section lets you enter Advanced features for your links (some themes will ignore this. You can leave the fields in this section blank unless you have a reason to use them) …

(Add New Link – Advanced link settings)

The Advanced link settings section contains the following options:

• Image Address: Lets you specify an image to be displayed with the link. To use this feature, add the URL of where the image is located and make sure that your image is small (around 16×16 like a favicon).
• RSS Address: If your theme allows it, the RSS feed associated with the link can display next to your links.
• 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 in the above fields or just leave this section blank, as these fields are not essential.

When you are done adding your new link information, click on the Add Link button to update your link settings …

(Click on the Add Link button to save your new link)

Note: If you tick the checkbox next to Keep this link private, your link will not be visible in your Blogroll section …

(You can make links private by checking the box)

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

(Toggle link visibility on and off)

To view all your links, go to the navigation menu and click on Links > All Links …

(Links Menu – All Links)

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

(Links screen)

Tip: To display additional fields in the list of links, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab at the top of the screen …

(Links table – Screen Options)

Show/hide fields on your table of links by ticking/unticking their check boxes …

(Hide or display – Table of links)

Editing Your Links

To edit links, choose Links > All Links in the dashboard menu to bring up your table of links …

(Links Menu – All Links)

Select the item you want to edit and click on Edit to bring up the item’s link details …

(Editing your links)

Make changes to the link details …

(Edit Link screen)

After you’re done editing the link, you can:

• Click on Update Link to save your link details,
• Click on Visit Link to make sure that you have set up its URL correctly (the link will open up in a new window),
• Click Delete to delete the link if you no longer require it …

(Edit Link: Update Link button)

How To Remove Links

To delete a link, choose Links > All Links in your WP dashboard navigation menu …

(Links Menu – All Links)

This takes you to the ‘Links’ screen.

You can delete links individually, delete multiple links by selecting their check boxes, or perform a bulk delete.

To delete individual links, hover your cursor over the link title that you want removed and click on Delete …

(Deleting your links)

To delete a number of links at once, either click on the check box next to each link that you want deleted, or select all links by clicking on the check box next to the ‘Name’ column header …

(Deleting multiple links)

Choose Delete from the ‘Bulk Actions’ drop-down menu, and click Apply to delete your selected links …

(Links: bulk-delete function)

All the links you have selected will be removed …

(links deleted notice)

Plugin Usage

Now that you know how to set up link categories and how to add, edit and delete links, it’s time to make links display on your site.

Using The Links Widget

Installing the Link Manager plugin adds a ‘Links’ widget to your ‘Widgets’ screen.

To access and configure your Link widgets, go to the dashboard navigation menu and click on Appearance > Widgets …

(Appearance – Widgets)

This loads the ‘Widgets’ page in your browser.

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

(Links widget)

Drag the ‘Links’ widget to one of your widget bars in the Widgets screen and drop it wherever you want the links to show up …

(Drag & drop your links widget to add it to your WordPress widget bar)

The Links widget provides a number of configurable options. For example, you can specify what information you would like to show about your links and how many links you would like to display on your sidebar …

(Link widget options)

You can add as many link widgets to your sidebar and footer as you want. This allows you to add and display specific a number of links throughout your site …

(Add multiple link widgets to your sidebar)

Select a link category from the ‘Select Link Category:’ drop-down menu …

(Link widget settings – Select Link Category)

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

(Link widget options – Sort by options)

After configuring the links widget, click the Save button to update your settings. Your link section will show up immediately on your site …

(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 with widgets? We have written a comprehensive article on configuring widgets here:

• How To Use Widgets In WordPress

Link Manager – Additional Information

If you have added many links, the Links Manager plugin lets you easily administer these with filtering, searching, and sorting features.

Sorting Links

You can sort links by hovering your mouse over the title of the column you want to sort and clicking on the little triangle displayed next to the column title …

(Sorting links)

Finding Links

Type a search term into the search field and click the Search Links button to find links …

(Search links)

Filter Links

You can filter links by categories …

(Filter links by link categories)

You can also search and filter links in the Link Categories page. 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 listed for a specific link category …

(Links filtered by link category)

Additional Link Options

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

Link Library

(Link library – Plugin For WordPress)

Plugin Download URL

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

Plugin Description

This plugin lets you output a list of all your link categories and a complete list of all your links plus notes and descriptions …

(Link Library links. Image source: Link Library plugin site.)

Link Library creates a page on your site containing a list of all of the link categories in your Links area, plus all links defined for these categories. 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 for your link collection so that your site users can be made aware of any additions made to to your link library.

To learn more about the benefits of using this useful plugin, go here:

• Link Library WordPress Plugin

Congratulations! Now you know how to add a link section to your WordPress sidebar.

Go here if you want to learn more adding links into your WordPress posts:

• Using The WordPress Internal Linking Tool

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