How To Add A Link Section To WordPress

Before the release of WordPress v3.5, Links were a core feature of WordPress. This tutorial shows you how to restore this feature to your site …

Adding A WordPress Links SectionAs you continue to discover more about using WordPress, you may occasionally come across the term blogroll.

A blogroll is a list of hyperlinks pointing to external sites or pages that display 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 Manager lets you easily add hyperlinks to your WordPress sidebar area (e.g. a “Top 5 Resources” section) using widgets.

Info

Before WordPress v 3.5 was released, Links were a core feature of the WordPress CMS. After the release of v.3.5, the Link Manager section was removed …

Before …

Links  - part of the menu until the release of WP v3.5

(WP Links Feature – pre v.3.5)

After …

Post v3.5 - no WordPress Links Manager

(Links – no longer displayed in the WordPress menu after WordPress v.3.5)

If your website had a previously active Link Manager section, then it will still be available when your site updates to a newer version. If you’ve never used the Link Manager feature, however, or if your site 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

Useful Tip

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 the main menu when you log into your WordPress dashboard, you can add this feature by installing a plugin. In this tutorial, you will learn how to add and manage blogroll links on your site’s sidebar using WordPress plugins.

Link Manager

Link Manager WordPress Plugin

(Link Manager)

Download URL

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

Description

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

Note: This plugin adds a single line of code to WordPress to restore the hidden feature. When we last checked, the 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 plugin below instead, or contact us for help editing your template code.

Simple Links

Simple Links WordPress Plugin

(Simple Links Plugin)

Download URL

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

Plugin Description

Simple Links recreates the concept of the built-in WordPress Links Manager while addressing the shortcomings of the deprecated feature.

Plugin Installation

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

From your WP administration menu, select Plugins > Add New

Plugins - Add New

(Plugins Menu – Add New)

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

Plugin Installation

Find the plugin in the results area and click Install Now

Plugin Installation

Activate the plugin …

How To Install Link Manager

After activating the plugin, a ‘Links’ item will be added to the WP sidebar menu area …

WordPress links menu section

(WordPress links menu)

Plugin Setup

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

Link Categories

To create a new link category, go to the WP navigation menu and select Links > Link Categories

Links Menu - Link Categories

(Links Menu – Link Categories)

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

Enter the following information:

  • Name: Whatever you enter in this field is the category name that will display on your site.
  • Slug: The slug is the URL bit of your link category name. Only use lower case letters and do not include spaces (use hyphens to separate words).
  • Description: Some themes may display a link category description. (Optional)

When done, click the Add New Link Category button to save your new link category …

Link Categories screen

(Link Categories area)

The new category will display in the list …

Link Categories

(Link Categories screen)

Useful Information

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

Default link category name is 'blogroll'

(Default link category name)

You may want to change this default link category name to something that your visitors can understand. 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 …

we recommend changing the default 'blogroll' to something better suited to your business

(Change the default link category name to something better suited to your business)

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

Quick Edit

(Edit the default link category name)

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

Quick Edit

(Quick Edit)

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

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

You can add/edit the category description

(Link category description)

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

Edit Link Category screen

(Edit Link Category area)

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

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

How To Add Links

To create a new link, go to the admin menu and click on Links > Add New

Links - Add New

(WP Links Menu – Add New)

This takes you to the ‘Add New Link’ page …

Add New Link screen

(Add New Link page)

You can also reach this page by clicking on the ‘Add New’ button in the main Links page …

Links - Add New Link button

(Links screen – Add New Link button)

The ‘Add New Links’ page has the following sections:

Name, Web Address & Description

Enter your link details in this section …

Add New Link - Name, Web Addressand Description area

(Name, Web Addressand Description)

Type in the following information:

  • Name: Whatever you enter in this field is the category name that will display on your site.
  • Slug: The slug appears 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 your link category description in the links section, or as a tool tip when visitors hover over the link name.
Categories & Target

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

Add New Link page - Categories & Target

(Categories & Target – Add New Link)

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

Also, select a target frame radio button for your link in the Target section. This lets you specify where the link should open when a visitor clicks on it:

  • _blank means that when visitors click on your link, a separate web browser window will open up to display the information for that link. This lets your visitors access the information without leaving your page
  • _none means that when a visitor clicks on the link, they will leave 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 section provides some additional link functionality …

Link Relationship (XFN) - Add New Link

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

Link Relationship (XFN) – XFN (XML Friends Network) allows you to define your relationship with the linked person. For example, if you work with Madison Anderson and you link to her 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 your links will work just fine. XFN makes the links defined on your site 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 specifies 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, start, index, help, etc. Separate multiple ‘rel’ keywords with spaces.

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

Advanced

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

(Add New Link – Advanced area)

The Advanced section contain the following fields:

  • Image Address: 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 will be displayed next to your link.
  • 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 blank, as these fields are not required.

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

click on the Add Link button to save your new link

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

Important Info

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

Make your links private

(Make your links private)

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

Toggle link visibility on and off

(Making links private toggles their visibility on and off)

To see all your links, choose Links > All Links in the navigation menu …

Links - All Links

(Links – All Links)

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

Links screen

(Links table)

Practical Tip

Tip: To display additional options in the Links table, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab at the top of your screen …

Screen Options - List of Links

(Screen Options – Links page)

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

Show/hide links

(Links page – Hide or display screen options)

How To Edit Link Information

To modify links in the Link Manager, click on Links > All Links in your WP navigation menu to bring up your list of links …

Links - All Links

(Links – All Links)

Locate the link to be edited and click on Edit to bring up the item’s link details …

Editing your link information

(Editing links)

Change the link details …

Edit Link screen

(Edit Link page)

After editing your link, you can:

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

Edit Link: Update Link button

(Update Link button)

How To Delete Links

To remove a link, click on Links > All Links in your navigation menu …

Links Menu - All Links

(Links – All Links)

This loads the ‘Links’ page in your browser.

You can delete links individually, delete multiple links by selecting their check boxes, or remove all your links at once.

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

Deleting your links

(Deleting your links)

To delete a number of links at once, either click on the checkboxes next to individual items that you would like to remove, or select all links by clicking on the main check box next to the ‘Name’ column header at the top of the list …

Delete multiple links

(Delete multiple links)

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

Bulk-deletion of links

(Bulk-deletion of links)

The links will be deleted …

Link deletion notification

(Deleted links notification)

Using The Plugin

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

Using The Links Widget

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

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

Appearance Menu - Widgets

(WP Appearance – Widgets)

This loads the ‘Widgets’ page in your browser.

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

Links widget

(Links widget)

To make the ‘Links’ widget active, drag it to one of the widget sections in the Widgets page and drop it wherever you would like your links section to show up …

Add a links widget to your widget bar using drag and drop

(Adding a links widget to a widgetized area using drag & drop)

The Links widget includes a number of settings. You can specify what information you want to show about your links and how many links you would like displayed on your sidebar …

Link widget options

(Link widget - options)

You can add multiple link widgets to your sidebar and footer. This lets you create and display several link lists on your site …

You can add multiple link widgets to your widget bars

(You can add multiple link widgets to your widget bars)

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

Link widget options - Select 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 options - Sorting options

(Link widget options – Sorting options)

Once you are done configuring your links widget, click the Save button to update your settings. Your link section will now be visible on your website …

Links can be displayed on your site's sidebar

(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.

Tip

Need more help using widgets? We have written a comprehensive article about using widgets. To learn more about this go here:

Links Manager – Additional Information

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

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 …

Sorting your links

(Sorting links)

Search Your Links

You can search for links using the ‘Search Links’ feature …

You can easily find links using the search function

(Find links)

Filtering Your Links

You can filter links by categories …

Filter links by category

(Filter links by 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 …

Search and filter links in the Link Categories screen

(searching and filtering links in the Link Categories page)

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

Links filtered by category

(Links filtered by link category)

Links – Additional 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 links on your sidebar), then you may want to consider using a plugin that can help you administer your links, like Link Library.

Link Library

Link Library

(Link Library)

Download Plugin URL

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

Plugin Description

Link Library allows you to publish a list of your link categories with a complete list of all your links together with notes and descriptions …

Link Library links

(Link Library links. Screenshot taken from Link Library plugin site.)

This useful plugin creates a page on your web site containing all the link categories in your Links area, and all links defined for 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 link collection so that your site users can be made aware of additions to your link library.

Visit this site to learn more about the benefits of using this powerful plugin:

How To Add Featured Links To Your WordPress Sidebar Menu

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

Tip

If you want to learn more about how to easily add hyperlinks to your WordPress posts and pages, see this article:

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