As you continue to discover more about using WordPress, you may occasionally come across something called a blogroll.
A blogroll is a list of links pointing to other websites or 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 manage a link section using the Links menu in your WP Dashboard. These links will then display on your site once you add the Links widget.
Prior to the release of v.3.5, Links were a built-in feature of the WordPress CMS. After v.3.5, the Links manager and blogroll sections were removed …
Before …
(WP Links Feature – pre version 3.5)
After …
(Post v3.5 – no WP Links Manager feature)
If you’ve used an earlier version than v 3.5 and upgraded your installation, the Link 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 you can’t see the Links Manager section when you log into your WordPress admin area you will need to install a plugin. This tutorial will show you how to add, edit, delete and manage links on your site’s sidebar using plugins.
Link Manager
(Links Manager WordPress Plugin)
Download URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-manager
Description Of Plugin
You can use this plugin to restore the built-in Links Manager, even if you update to a later version of WordPress or remove all of your existing 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 a while, 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 template code.
Simple Links
(Simple Links WordPress Plugin)
Plugin URL
https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-links/
Plugin Description
Simple Links recreates the same concept as the built-in WP Links Manager while addressing the shortcomings of the deprecated feature.
How To Install Link Manager
To install the Link Manager plugin on your website or blog, follow these instructions:
In the WP dashboard menu, select Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins Menu – Add New)
Click on the Install Plugins > Search tab, type ”link manager” into the search field and hit Enter …
Find the plugin in the results screen and click Install Now …
Activate the plugin after it has been installed …
After activating the plugin, WordPress displays a ‘Links’ section on the dashboard menu screen …
(Links management menu)
Setting Up The Plugin
We recommend setting up link categories first before you start adding new links. This way, you can assign any new links to a link category you have already created.
Link Categories
To create a new link category, go to the WP dashboard navigation menu and click on Links > Link Categories …
(WP Links – Link Categories)
This brings up the ‘Link Categories’ screen.
Enter information into the following fields:
- Name: What you type here displays as the category your links will be assigned to.
- Slug: The slug displays in the SEO friendly 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.
When finished, click Add New Link Category to save your new link category …
(Link Categories)
Your link category will display in the list …
(Link Categories area)
Tip: The default WordPress link category is called Blogroll . 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 better suited to your business. This not only makes it easier for users of your site, 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 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, and click on Update Link Category …
(Quick Edit)
In our example, the category ‘Blogroll’ has been replaced with a more suitable name (e.g. ‘Recommended’).
Let’s now add a link category description. To add a link category description, hover over the item name and click Edit …
(Link category description)
Enter your link category description field and click Update …
(Edit Link Category area)
Repeat the above process to add as many different link categories as you need.
Once you have set up your link categories, you can being adding new links.
Adding Links
To create a new link, go to your WP dashboard menu and click on Links > Add New …
(Links Menu – Add New)
This brings up the Add New Link’ screen in your web browser …
(Add New Link screen)
You can also access this screen by clicking on the ‘Add New’ button in the main Links screen …
(Links – Add New Link button)
The ‘Add New Links’ page includes various sections:
Name, Web Address & Description
Enter your link details in this section …
(Name, Web Address, Description – Add New Link)
Enter information into the following fields:
- Name: Enter the category name here.
- Slug: The slug appears in the search-engine friendly URL of the link category name. Use only lowercase letters without 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 with their mouse.
Categories & Target
Select a Category and Target for the link …
(Add New Link page – Categories & Target)
In the Categories section, select a link category you’ve already set up, or click on ’+ Add New Category’ to create a new category link.
Next, select a target frame radio button for your link in the Target section. This lets you specify where your link should open when clicked on by visitors:
- _blank means that when a visitor clicks on your link, a separate web browser window will open up to display the content associated with the link.
- _none means that when visitors click on your link, they will leave 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. 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 …
(Add New Link – Link Relationship (XFN) area)
Link Relationship (XFN) – XFN (XML Friends Network) allows you to define your relationship to the linked person. For example, if you have a professional relationship with Vanessa Anderson and you link to her blog, you would probably check co-worker or colleague.
XFN relationships are optional. 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 defines a 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, help, start, index, etc. Separate multiple ‘rel’ keywords with spaces.
To learn more about XFN, visit the site below:
Advanced
The last section of the Add New Link’ page 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)
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 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 can display next to the links.
- Notes: This section lets you add notes 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).
Type in your information in the above fields or just leave this section ignore this section.
When you have finished adding your new link information, click on the Add Link button to update your link settings …
(Click on Add Link to save your new link)
Note: If you tick Keep this link private, your link will not be visible in your Blogroll section …
(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 want your link to display during certain periods and hide it after it’s no longer required) …
(Toggle link visibility on and off)
To view all the links you have created, go to the main navigation menu and select Links > All Links …
(Links Menu – All Links)
This takes you to the ‘Links’ page. The Links screen displays a list of all of your links and link information (e.g. URL, categories, rating, etc.) …
(List of links)
Tip: To display additional options in the list of links, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab at the top of your screen …
(Links table – Screen Options)
Show/hide fields on your Links table by ticking/unticking their check boxes …
(Show/hide links)
Editing Links
To edit a link in the Link Manager, click on Links > All Links in your dashboard navigation menu to bring up your links table …
(Links – All Links)
Locate the item you want to edit and click on Edit to bring up the link’s details …
(Editing link information)
Edit your link …
(Edit Link page)
After you’re done editing the 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 everything correctly (your link will open in a new window),
- Click Delete to remove the link from your list if you no longer require it …
(Update Link button)
How To Delete Links
To delete links, select Links > All Links in the admin menu …
(Links Menu – All Links)
This loads the ‘Links’ page in your browser.
You can delete links individually, delete multiple links by selecting their check boxes, or perform a bulk delete.
To delete individual links, hover your mouse cursor over the link title that you want to remove and click on Delete …
(Delete your links)
To delete multiple links, either click on the check box next to each link that you want to be removed, or select all links by clicking on the checkbox next to the ‘Name’ column header …
(Deleting multiple links)
Select Delete from the ‘Bulk Actions’ menu, and click Apply to delete your selected links …
(Bulk-delete links)
The links you have selected will be removed …
(Deleted links notice)
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
Installing the Links Manager plugin adds a ‘Links’ widget to your ‘Widgets’ section.
To access and configure your Link widgets, go to the admin menu and select Appearance > Widgets …
(Appearance – Widgets)
You will be taken to the ‘Widgets’ screen.
You will see that a ‘Links’ widget has been added to the Available Widgets section …
(Links widget)
Drag the ‘Links’ widget to one of the widget sections and drop it wherever you would like the links section to display …
(Adding a links widget to a widgetized area)
The Links widget provides various 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 settings)
You can add as many link widgets to your sidebars and footers as you want. This allows you to add and feature multiple link sections throughout your site …
(Add multiple link widgets to your widget bars)
You can add and 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 settings – Sort by options)
When you have finished configuring the Links widget, click Save to update your settings. A links will become visible on your sidebar menu …
(An example of how 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? To learn more about adding widgets, refer to this article:
Links Manager – Additional Information
If you have loads of links, the Link Manager plugin allows you to easily administer these with sort, filter, and search functions.
Sort Your Links
You can sort links by hovering your mouse cursor over the title of the column you want to sort and clicking on the black triangle displayed next to the column title …
(You can easily sort links)
Search Links
You can search for links using the ‘Search Links’ function …
(Search links)
Filtering Links Function
You can filter links by category …
(Filtering your links by categories)
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 …
(searching and filtering links in the Link Categories screen)
This brings up a list of all links grouped under a specific link category …
(Links filtered by category)
Additional Link Options
If you plan to add a lot of links to your website or blog, or if you want 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 links.
Link Library
(Link Library Plugin)
Download Plugin URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-library/
Plugin Description
The Link Library plugin gives you the ability to display a list of 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 website that contains all the link categories in your Links section, 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 become aware of additions to your link library.
To learn more about the Link Library plugin:
Congratulations! Now you know how to how to add a blogroll and manage links to other sites in WordPress.
We have written a comprehensive article about how to add HTML hyperlinks to your WordPress posts and pages. Go here to learn more about this:
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now