As you become more familiar with WordPress, you may occasionally come across references to the term blogroll.
A blogroll is a list of links pointing to external sites or blogs displayed on your sidebar menu.
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 links to a widgetized theme.
Before WordPress version 3.5 was released, Links were a core feature of the WordPress CMS. After the release of WordPress v.3.5, the Links Manager section was hidden by default in new WordPress installations …
Before …
(WordPress Links Feature – pre version 3.5)
After …
(Post version 3.5 – no WP Links feature)
If you have had an earlier version than 3.5 installed and upgraded your installation, then the Links Manager would have been removed, unless you have 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 item is not visible when you log into your WordPress dashboard, you can add it by installing a plugin. In this step-by-step tutorial, you will learn how to add and manage links on your sidebar using WordPress plugins.
Link Manager
(Link Manager)
Plugin Download URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-manager
Description Of Plugin
Use this plugin to display the default Links feature on your WP dashboard, even if you update to a later version of WordPress or remove all of your current links.
Note: All this plugin does is add a single line of code to WordPress to restore the hidden feature. The last time we checked, this plugin had not been updated for a while, 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 template code.
Simple Links
(Simple Links WordPress Plugin)
Download URL
https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-links/
Plugin Description
Simple Links recreates the same concept as the built-in Link Manager while removing the shortcomings of the deprecated feature.
Installing Link Manager
To install the Link Manager plugin, follow the instructions below:
In the WordPress administration menu, select Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins – Add New)
Click on the Install Plugins > Search tab, type ”link manager” into the search field and hit Enter …
Find the plugin in the search results area and click Install Now …
Activate the plugin after it has been installed …
After activation, a ‘Links’ section is added to your sidebar menu area …
(WordPress links management menu)
Plugin Configuration
We recommend setting up your link categories first before adding any new links. This way, when adding a new link, you can assign your link to link categories you have already created.
Link Categories
To create a new link category, click on Links > Link Categories in the WP dashboard navigation menu …
(WP Links Menu – Link Categories)
This takes you to the ‘Link Categories’ screen.
Type in information into the following fields:
- Name: Whatever you enter here is the category name that will display on your site.
- Slug: The slug displays in the search-engine friendly URL of the 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. (Optional)
When finished, click the Add New Link Category button to save your new link category …
(Link Categories area)
The link 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 default link category name to something that your visitors can understand. This not only makes it easier for visitors, but any new links that you add to the Links section will automatically be listed under the new category name …
(Consider changing the default ’blogroll’ to something your visitors will relate to)
To change the default category name, hover your mouse over the category name and click on the Quick Edit link …
(Quick Edit)
Replace both the Name and the Slug with a new category name, then click on the Update link Category button …
(Edit the default link category name)
Replace the category name ‘Blogroll’ with a more suitable name (e.g. ‘Recommended’, ‘Links’ etc).
Let’s add a link category description. To add a description to an existing link category, click on Edit under the category name …
(Link category description)
Enter your description in the ‘Edit Link Category’ screen and click Update you’re done to save your settings …
(Edit Link Category area)
Repeat this process to add as many new link categories as your site requires.
Once you have configured your link categories, you can add new links.
Adding New Links
To add a new link, select Links > Add New in the main dashboard navigation menu …
(Links – Add New)
The ‘Add New Link’ page will display in your browser …
(Add New Link screen)
You can also access this page by clicking on ’Add New’ in the main Links screen …
(Add New Link button)
The ‘Add New Links’ page is divided into various sections:
Name, Web Address & Description
This section is where you enter your link details …
(Name, Web Addressand Description – Add New Link page)
Type in information into the following sections:
- Name: Enter the category name.
- Slug: The slug is the search-engine friendly URL bit of your link category. Use only lowercase letters without 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.
Categories & Target
After adding link details, select a Category and Target for your new link …
(Categories & Target section – Add New Link)
In the Categories section, select one of the link categories you have already added, or click on ’+ Add New Category’ to add a new category.
Next, 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 clicked on:
- _blank means that a new browser window will open up to display the content for that link.
- _none means that when visitors click on your link, they will exit your site and a new website or page will load in your web browser window instead.
- _top opens links at the top level of the frame system if you’re using frames. If you don’t use frames, or if you don’t know what frames are, then just ignore this option.
Link Relationship XFN
This area provides some additional link functionality …
(Link Relationship (XFN) fields)
Link Relationship (XFN) – XFN stands for XML Friends Network – is a way to define your relationship to the linked person. For example, if you work with Jacob Jenkins and you link to his 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 your links will still work. XFN makes the links defined on your site more understandable to some sites 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, type nofollow into this field. Other ‘rel’ attributes include author, index, start, help, etc.
To learn more about XFN, visit this site:
Advanced
The last section allows you to specify Advanced features for your links (You can ignore this section, unless there’s a good reason to use it) …
(Advanced link settings – Add New Link page)
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 the image is small (around 16×16 like a favicon).
- RSS Address: If your theme allows it, the link’s RSS feed will be displayed next to the 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).
Enter information in the above fields or just leave this section ignore this section.
When you have finished adding information about your link, click on Add Link to save your new link …
(Click on Add Link to save your new link)
Note: If you select the Keep this link private checkbox, your link will not be visible in your Blogroll section …
(Private link checkbox)
Making links private allows you to toggle their visibility on and off without deleting these (this is useful if you want to have seasonal links) …
(Toggle link visibility on and off)
To see all the links you have added to the Link Manager, choose Links > All Links in the WP dashboard navigation menu …
(Links Menu – All Links)
This loads the ‘Links’ table in your web browser. The Links table displays your links and link information (e.g. URL, link categories, relationship, etc.) …
(Table of links)
Tip: To view additional fields in the Links table, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab at the top of your screen …
(Links table – Screen Options)
Show/hide fields on your table of links by ticking/unticking their checkboxes …
(Show/hide links)
Editing Your Links
To edit links, go to the admin menu and click on Links > All Links to bring up your links table …
(Links – All Links)
Select the link to be edited and click on Edit to bring up the item’s link information …
(Editing your links)
Change your link information …
(Edit Link screen)
After you’re done editing the link, you can:
- Click on Update Link to save and update your link details,
- Click on Visit Link to make sure that you have set up the link’s URL correctly (the link will open up in a new window),
- Click Delete to delete the link from your table of links if you no longer require it …
(Update Link button)
Removing Your Links
To delete a link, choose Links > All Links in the admin menu …
(Links Menu – All Links)
You will be taken to the ‘Links’ page.
You can delete links individually, delete multiple links by selecting their check boxes, or delete all links.
To delete individual links, hover your mouse cursor over the link title that you want to remove and click on Delete …
(Deleting links)
To delete links in bulk, either tick the check boxes next to individual items that you want to delete, or select all links by clicking on the main check box next to the ‘Name’ column header at the top of the list …
(Deleting multiple links)
Choose Delete from the ‘Bulk Actions’ menu, and click the Apply button to remove all selected links …
(Bulk-deletion of links)
All the links you have selected will be removed …
(Link deletion notice)
Using The Plugin
Now that you know how to configure link categories and how to add, edit and delete links, let’s show you how to display links on your site.
Links Widget
The Link Manager plugin adds a ‘Links’ widget to your ‘Widgets’ section.
To access and configure your Link widgets, go to the main dashboard navigation menu and choose Appearance > Widgets …
(WordPress Appearance – Widgets)
You will be taken to the ‘Widgets’ page.
You will notice a ‘Links’ widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links widget)
Drag the ‘Links’ widget to one of the active widget bars and drop it wherever you want your links to show up …
(Drag & drop your links widget to add it to a widgetized menu)
The Links widget includes various configurable settings. For example, you can specify what information you want to display about your links and how many links you want displayed on your sidebar …
(Link widget - configurable settings)
You can also add as many link widgets as you want. This allows you to create and feature a number of different links on your site …
(Add multiple link widgets to your widget bars)
Select a link category to display links for a specific category …
(Link widget settings – 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)
After setting up the Links widget, click Save to update your settings. A links will appear 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 using widgets? We have written a comprehensive article about widgets here:
Link Manager – Additional Information
If you have added many links, the Links Manager plugin allows you to easily administer these using filter, sort, and search features.
Sorting Links
You can sort links by hovering your mouse cursor over the title of the column you want to sort and clicking on the little triangle displayed next to the column title …
(Sort links)
Search Links
Type a search term into the search field and click the Search Links button to search for links …
(Search links function)
Filter Your Links
You can filter links by category …
(Filtering links by 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 …
(Search and filter links in the Link Categories page)
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 use links extensively on your website or blog, or if you intend to add a page containing a list of links 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 your links, like Link Library.
Link Library
(Link Library WordPress Plugin)
Plugin URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-library/
Plugin Description
The Link Library plugin lets you display a list of all your link categories with a complete list of links together with descriptions and notes …
(Link Library links. Image source: Link Library plugin site.)
This plugin can be used to create a page on your web site containing a list of all of the link categories in your Links area, plus all links listed in 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 become aware of any additions made to to your link library.
Go here to learn more this plugin:
Congratulations! Now you know how to add external links to WordPress.
Go here if you want to learn more adding hyperlinks into WordPress posts:
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum