As you continue to discover more about the benefits of using WordPress, you may occasionally come across references to the term blogroll.

A blogroll is a list of hyperlinks pointing to other websites or pages that display on your sidebar section.

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 add and manage external hyperlinks to a widget-ready theme.

Before the release of v 3.5, Links were a built-in feature of the WordPress CMS. After the release of v3.5, the Links manager and blogroll sections were removed …

Before …

(Links appeared in the WordPress admin menu until the release of WP v3.5)

After …

(Links – excluded from WordPress after WordPress v 3.5)

If you have had an earlier version than v.3.5 installed and updated your installation, then the Link Manager would have been removed, unless you have previously used it. If you’ve never used the Link Manager feature, however, or if your site installation 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 the Links item is not visible when you log into your WordPress backend, you can add this feature by installing a plugin. This tutorial explains how to add, edit, delete and manage blogroll links on your site’s sidebar using WordPress plugins.

Link Manager

(Links Manager WordPress Plugin)

Plugin URL

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

Description Of Plugin

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

Note: This plugin adds a single line of code to your installation in order 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 Plugin)

Download URL

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

Plugin Description

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

Installing The Plugin

Let’s install the Link Manager plugin.

From the WordPress admin area, select Plugins > Add New …

(Plugins – Add New)

Click on the Install Plugins > Search tab, type ”link manager” into the search field and hit Enter …

Locate the plugin in the search results area and click Install Now …

Activate the plugin …

After activation, WordPress displays a ‘Links’ section on the WP dashboard menu …

(WordPress links menu section)

Plugin Configuration

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

Link Categories

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

(WP Links Menu – Link Categories)

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

Enter the following information:

• Name: What you type in this field is the category name that will display on your site.
• Slug: The slug displays in the URL of the link category. Use lowercase letters only without spaces (use hyphens to separate words).
• Description: Some themes may display your link category description. (Optional)

Click Add New Link Category to save your new link category …

(Link Categories)

The category details will display in the table …

(Link Categories page)

Tip: Blogroll is the default link category name. Unless you specify a category when creating a new link, WordPress automatically assigns new links to the default category …

(Default link category name is ‘blogroll’)

You may want to change this to something that your visitors can relate to. This will not only make 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 edit the ‘Blogroll’ link 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, and click on the Update link Category button …

(Edit the link category)

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

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

(You can add/edit your category description)

Add your description in the ‘Edit Link Category’ page and click Update when done …

(Edit Link Category screen)

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

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

Adding Links

To add a new link, go to the dashboard navigation menu and select Links > Add New …

(WP Links Menu – Add New)

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

(Add New Link screen)

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 includes the following sections:

Name, Web Address & Description

The first section lets you enter details about your link …

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

Type in the following information:

• Name: Whatever you enter here will display as the category your links will be assigned to.
• Slug: The slug shows up in the 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 a link category description in the links section, or as a tool tip when visitors hover over the link name with their mouse. (Optional)

Categories & Target

Select a Category and Target for the new link …

(Categories & Target section)

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 radio button for your link in the Target section. This lets you specify where you want the link to open when clicked on:

• _blank means that when a visitor clicks on your link, a separate window will open up in their browser to display the content for that link. Your visitor can see the information without leaving your page
• _none means that when visitors click on your link, they will leave your site and a new website or page will load in your browser window instead.
• _top opens the link 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 section provides some additional link functionality …

(Add New Link – Link Relationship (XFN))

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

XFN relationships are optional. You can ignore this section and all your links will still work. Defining relationships with 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 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 enter Advanced features for your links (You can ignore this section, unless there’s a good reason to use it) …

(Advanced area – Add New Link screen)

The Advanced section fields include the following:

• Image Address: Specify an image to be displayed with the link. 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 can 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 into the above fields or just leave this section ignore this section.

When you have finished adding information about your link, click on the Add Link button 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 …

(Private link checkbox)

Making links private lets you toggle link visibility on or off without deleting these (this is useful if you want links to display during certain periods and hide them afterwards) …

(Toggle link visibility on and off)

To view a list of all the links you have added to the Link Manager, go to the navigation menu and click on Links > All Links …

(WP Links – All Links)

You will be taken to the ‘Links’ table. The Links page displays a list of all of your links and link information (e.g. URL, categories, rating, etc.) …

(Links page)

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

(Screen Options – List of links)

Show/hide fields on your table of links by selecting/deselecting their checkboxes …

(Show/hide – List of links)

How To Edit Links

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

(WordPress Links Menu – All Links)

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

(Editing links)

Edit your link …

(Edit Link screen)

After editing your link, you can:

• Click the Update Link button to save and update your link details,
• Click on Visit Link to view your link and make sure that you have set up the link’s URL correctly (the link will open in a new window),
• Click Delete to remove the link …

(Edit Link: Update Link button)

How To Delete Your Links

To delete links, choose Links > All Links in your WP navigation menu …

(Links Menu – All Links)

This loads the ‘Links’ table in your browser.

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

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

(Deleting your links)

To delete links in bulk, either tick the checkbox next to every item that you would like deleted, or select all links by clicking on the check box next to the ‘Name’ column header at the top of the list …

(Deleting multiple links)

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

(Bulk-deletion of links)

The links will be deleted …

(links deleted notification)

Using The Plugin

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 website.

Links Widget

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

To access and configure your Link widgets, go to the main admin menu and choose Appearance > Widgets …

(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 the widget to one of your widget sections and drop it wherever you want your links to show up …

(Drag and drop the links widget to add it to your WordPress sidebar)

The Links widget offers various configurable options. You can specify what information you want to display about your links and how many links you would like displayed on your sidebar menu …

(Link widget options)

You can also add multiple link widgets to your sidebars and footers. This lets you add and feature multiple links sorted by categories on your site …

(Add a number of link widgets to your sidebar)

You can select a link category from the ‘Select Link Category:’ pulldown menu …

(Link widget options – Select Link Category)

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

(Link widget options – Sorting options)

Once you are done configuring the links widget, click the Save button to update your settings. Your link section will show up immediately on your website’s sidebar menu …

(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 help with widgets? We have written a comprehensive article on using widgets. For more details:

• Adding And Configuring WordPress Widgets On Your Sidebar

Link Manager – Additional Information

If you have many links, the Links Manager plugin lets you easily administer these with filter, search, and sort functions.

Sorting 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)

Find Links

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

(You can easily search links with the search function)

Filtering Your Links

You can filter links by link categories …

(Filtering links by link category)

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

(Search and filter 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 a lot of links to your site, or if you would like 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.

Link Library

(Link Library WordPress Plugin)

Download Plugin URL

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

Plugin Description

This plugin allows you to output a list of all your link categories and a complete list of all your links with notes and descriptions …

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

This plugin 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. 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 that lets your site users be made aware of any additions made to to your link library.

To learn more about Link Library:

• Link Library Plugin For WordPress

Congratulations! Now you know how to how to add a blogroll and manage links to external websites in WordPress.

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

• Using The Internal Linking Tool In WordPress

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