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 web pages displayed on your sidebar area.

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 display links on your site using the Link Manager plugin.

Prior to the release of version 3.5, Links were a built-in feature of the WordPress CMS. From v3.5 onwards, the Links Manager section was removed …

Before …

(The Links Manager – included in the WordPress menu until the release of WP v.3.5)

After …

(Post v 3.5 – no WordPress Links feature)

If you’ve used an earlier version than v 3.5 and upgraded your installation, the Links Manager would have been removed, unless you have previously used it. If you’ve never used Links Manager, however, or if your WordPress installation is new, then this function will remain hidden – it will not appear on the 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 WordPress admin area you will need to install a plugin. In this step-by-step tutorial, you will learn how to add and manage links on your site’s sidebar using plugins.

Link Manager

(Link Manager WordPress Plugin)

Plugin Download URL

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

Plugin Description

Use this plugin to restore the default Links menu on your dashboard, even if you upgrade to a later version of WordPress or remove all of your existing links.

Note: All this plugin does is add a single line of template 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 site’s template code.

Simple Links

(Simple Links WordPress Plugin)

Download URL

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

Plugin Description

This plugin attempts to recreate the concept of the built-in WP Links Manager while addressing the shortcomings of the deprecated functionality.

Installing The Plugin

To install the Link Manager plugin, follow these instructions:

In the WordPress administration menu, go to Plugins > Add New …

(Plugins Menu – Add New)

Click on the Install Plugins > Search tab, then type ”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 it has been installed …

After activating the plugin, the ‘Links’ function will be restored to the navigation menu …

(WordPress links management menu section)

Plugin Setup

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

Link Categories

To create a link category, go to your admin menu and click on Links > Link Categories …

(Links Menu – Link Categories)

This takes you to the ‘Link Categories’ screen.

Enter the following information:

• Name: Whatever you type in this field is the category name that will display on your site.
• Slug: The slug is the search-engine friendly URL part of your link category name. Only use lower case letters without spaces (use hyphens to separate words).
• Description: Some themes may display your link category description.

When finished, click Add New Link Category …

(Link Categories)

Your new category will be added to the list …

(Link Categories page)

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 the default link category name 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 the Links section will automatically be assigned to the new category name …

(Consider changing the default ’blogroll’ to something your visitors will relate to)

To change the ‘Blogroll’ link name, hover your mouse over the category name and click on Quick Edit …

(Quick Edit)

Replace both the Name and the Slug with a new category name, then click on Update Link Category …

(Update Link Category)

Replace the link category ‘Blogroll’ with an appropriate links section name (e.g. ‘Recommended’, ‘Links’ etc).

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

(Link category description)

Enter your link category description field and click Update …

(Edit Link Category screen)

Repeat this process to add as many link categories as your site needs.

Once you have finished configuring your link categories, you can start adding your links.

How To Add New Links

To add a new link, choose Links > Add New in your WP dashboard navigation menu …

(Links Menu – Add New)

You will be taken to the ‘Add New Link’ page …

(Add New Link page)

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

(Add New Link button)

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

Name, Web Address & Description

This section lets you enter details about your link …

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

Type in the following information:

• Name: Whatever you enter here is the category name that will display on your site.
• Slug: The slug is the SEO friendly URL bit 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.

Categories & Target

After adding link details, select a Category and Target for your link …

(Categories & Target – Add New Link)

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

• _blank means that when visitors click on the link, a new web browser window will open up to display the content 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) fields – Add New Link screen)

Link Relationship (XFN) – XFN stands for XML Friends Network – allows you to define your relationship to the linked person. For example, if you have a professional relationship with Andrew Schwartz and you link to his blog, you would probably check 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 the links defined on your site 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, enter nofollow into this field. Other ‘rel’ attributes include author, index, help, start, etc. Separate multiple ‘rel’ keywords with spaces.

You can learn more about XFN by visiting this site:

• WordPress Codex: Defining Relationships With XFN

Advanced

The last section lets you 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:

• Image Address: Lets you specify an image to be displayed with the link. To use this feature, add the 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 link.
• Notes: Add notes about the link in this section for your own internal reference.
• Rating: 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 are not required.

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 the Keep this link private checkbox, the link will not be visible in your Blogroll section …

(Make links private by selecting the checkbox)

Making a link private allows you to toggle link visibility on and off without deleting it (this is useful if you want your link to display during certain periods and hide it after it’s no longer required) …

(Making links private toggles their visibility on and off)

To view all your links, select Links > All Links in the main dashboard menu …

(Links Menu – All Links)

This brings up the ‘Links’ table in your browser. The Links page displays a list of your links and link information (e.g. URL, categories, relationship, etc.) …

(Links table)

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

(Table of links – Screen Options)

Enable/disable fields on your Links table by selecting/deselecting their check boxes …

(Links screen – Show/hide screen options)

How To Edit Link Information

To modify a link in the Link Manager, choose Links > All Links in the main navigation menu to bring up the links table …

(Links – All Links)

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

(Editing your link information)

Edit the link fields …

(Edit Link page)

After editing your link, you can:

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

(Update Link button)

How To Delete Your Links

To remove links, choose Links > All Links in your WP dashboard menu …

(Links – All Links)

This brings up the ‘Links’ table.

You can delete links individually, delete multiple links, or perform a bulk delete.

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

(Delete your links)

To delete a number of links at once, either tick the checkboxes next to individual links that you want to remove, or select all links by clicking on the main checkbox next to the ‘Name’ column header at the top of the list …

(Deleting multiple links)

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

(Bulk-deletion of links)

The selected links will be deleted …

(links deleted notice)

Plugin Usage

Now that you know how to configure link categories and how to add, edit and delete links, it’s time to learn how to display links on your website or blog.

Using The Links Widget

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

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

(WordPress Appearance – Widgets)

You will be taken to the ‘Widgets’ page.

You will see a ‘Links’ widget in the Available Widgets section …

(Links widget)

To make the ‘Links’ widget active, drag the widget to one of the active widget sections in the Widgets screen and drop it wherever you want the links section 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 to display on your sidebar menu …

(Link widget settings)

You can also add multiple link widgets to your sidebar. This allows you to add and display different link lists on your site …

(Add a number of link widgets to your widget bars)

Display a list of 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 options – Sort by options)

Once you are done setting up the Links widget, click Save to update your settings. A links will show up immediately on your website or blog’s sidebar menu …

(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 detailed article about configuring widgets. For more details, go here:

• How To Add And Configure WordPress Widgets On Your Blog Sidebar

Links Manager – Additional Information

If you have added many links, the Link Manager plugin allows you to easily administer these with search, filter, and sort functions.

Sort Links

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

(You can easily sort your links)

Finding Links

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

(Search links)

Filtering Links Function

You can filter links by link categories …

(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 …

(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 add a lot of links to 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, like Link Library.

Link Library

(Link Library)

Plugin URL

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

Plugin Description

The Link Library plugin gives you the ability to publish a list of all your link categories and a complete list of links together with notes and descriptions …

(List of links created with Link library. Screenshot taken from Link Library plugin website.)

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

Go here to learn more this plugin:

• Link Library Plugin For WordPress

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

We have written a comprehensive article on inserting HTML hyperlinks into WordPress posts. To learn more about this go here:

• Using The WordPress Internal Linking Tool

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