As you continue to discover more about using WordPress, you may occasionally come across references to the term blogroll.
A blogroll is a list of hyperlinks pointing to other 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.”
You can display a featured links section on your sidebar using the Link Manager plugin for WordPress.
Before the release of WordPress v 3.5, Links were a built-in feature of the WordPress CMS. From v.3.5 onwards, the Links manager and blogroll sections were removed …
Before …
(WordPress Links Manager – pre version 3.5)
After …
(Post version 3.5 – no WordPress Links Manager feature)
If you have used an earlier version of WordPress than v3.5 and updated your installation, the Links Manager would have been removed, unless you’ve 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 displayed when you log into your WP backend, you can add this feature via 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 Plugin)
Plugin Download URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-manager
Description Of Plugin
This plugin restores the default Link 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 template code 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 the Link Manager plugin, then use the one below instead, or contact us for help editing your template code.
Simple Links
(Simple Links Plugin)
Download URL
https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-links/
Description Of Plugin
This plugin attempts to recreate the same concept as the built-in Link Manager while removing the shortcomings of the deprecated functionality.
Plugin Installation
To install the Link Manager plugin on your website, follow the instructions below:
In the WordPress admin menu, go to Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins – Add New)
Click on the Install Plugins > Search tab, type in “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 activating the plugin, a ‘Links’ section will be displayed on the WP sidebar menu screen …
(WordPress links management menu section)
Plugin Setup
Before adding links, it’s a good idea to set up your link categories. This way, you can assign any new links to the link category you have already created.
Link Categories
To create a new link category, choose Links > Link Categories in your admin menu …
(WordPress Links Menu – Link Categories)
This brings up the ‘Link Categories’ screen in your web browser.
Enter information into the following fields:
- Name: What you type in this field is the link category name that will display on your site.
- Slug: The slug is the web address part 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 a link category description. (Optional)
When finished, click Add New Link Category …
(Link Categories page)
Your category details will be added to the table …
(Link Categories)
Tip: Blogroll is the default link category name. Unless you specify a category for a link, WordPress will automatically assign new links to the default category …
(Default link category name is ‘blogroll’)
You may want to change this to something that will make sense to readers. 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 link category name to something your visitors will understand)
To change the ‘Blogroll’ link title, hover your mouse over the item 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 …
(Update Link Category)
Replace the link category name ‘Blogroll’ with a name more suitable to your purposes (e.g. ‘Recommended’, ‘Related Items’ etc).
Let’s now add a description for this link category. To add a description to an existing link category, click on Edit under the category name …
(Link category description)
Add your link category description field and click Update …
(Edit Link Category area)
Repeat the above process and add as many different link categories as you need.
After setting up your link categories, you can being adding your links.
How To Add Links
To create a new link, go to your navigation menu and click on Links > Add New …
(Links Menu – Add New)
This brings up the ‘Add New Link’ screen …
(Add New Link page)
You can also access this screen by clicking on ’Add New’ in the main Links page …
(Links – Add New Link button)
The ‘Add New Links’ page is divided into the following sections:
Name, Web Address & Description
Enter details about your link in this section …
(Name, Web Addressand Description fields)
Type in information into the following sections:
- Name: What you enter here is the category name that will display on your site.
- Slug: The slug displays in the web address of the link category. Only use lower case letters and do not include spaces (use hyphens to separate words).
- Description: Some themes may display your link category description.
Categories & Target
After typing in link details, select a Category and Target for the new link …
(Add New Link – Categories & Target)
In the Categories section, tick a link category you’ve already added, or click on ’+ Add New Category’ to add a new category link.
Also, select a target frame radio button for your link in the Target section. This lets you specify how you want the link to open when clicked on:
- _blank means that a separate web browser window will open up to display the content for that link. This allows your visitors to access the information without leaving your site
- _none means that when visitors click on your link, they will exit your site and a new site 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 ignore this option.
Link Relationship XFN
This area 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 with the linked person. For example, if you work with Flannery Larsson and you link to his blog, you would probably check co-worker or colleague.
XFN relationships are optional for WordPress links. You can ignore this section and all of your links will still work. 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 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, enter nofollow into this field. Other ‘rel’ attributes include author, start, index, help, etc.
To learn more about XFN, visit the site below:
Advanced
The last section of the Add New Link’ screen lets you specify 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 link settings section contains the following:
- Image Address: Specify an image to be displayed with the link. 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 be displayed next to the link.
- Notes: Add notes about the link in this section 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 blank, as these fields are not required.
When you are done adding your new link information, click on Add Link to update your link settings …
(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 when links are displayed on your site …
(You can make links private by checking the box)
Making a link private allows you to add a link and then toggle its visibility on and off without deleting it (this is useful if you want to use seasonal links) …
(Toggle link visibility on and off)
To view all the links you have added to the Link Manager, go to the WP admin menu and select Links > All Links …
(Links Menu – All Links)
This loads the ‘Links’ table in your web browser. The Links table displays a list of all of your links and link information (e.g. link URL, link categories, relationship, etc.) …
(Table of links)
Tip: To view or hide columns in the table of links, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab at the top of the screen …
(Screen Options – Links screen)
Enable/disable fields on your table of links by selecting/deselecting their checkboxes …
(Hide or show – Links screen)
Editing Link Information
To edit a link, go to your WP admin menu and choose Links > All Links to bring up the list of links …
(WP Links Menu – All Links)
Select the item to be edited and click on Edit to bring up the link’s information …
(Editing links)
Change the link …
(Edit Link page)
After editing your link, you can:
- Click on Update Link to save and update your link details,
- Click on Visit Link to view your link and make sure that you have set up your link’s URL correctly (the link will open in a new window),
- Click Delete to remove the link …
(Edit Link: Update Link button)
Removing Your Links
To remove a link, select Links > All Links in your WP dashboard navigation menu …
(WP Links – All Links)
You will be taken to the ‘Links’ page.
You can delete links individually, delete multiple links, or perform a bulk delete.
To delete links individually, hover your cursor over the link that you want to remove from the link table and click Delete …
(Deleting links)
To delete a number of links at once, either tick the checkboxes next to individual items that you would like removed, or select all links by clicking on the checkbox next to the ‘Name’ column header …
(Deleting multiple links)
Choose Delete from the ‘Bulk Actions’ menu, and click the Apply button to remove your selected links …
(Links: bulk-delete function)
The links you have selected will be removed …
(Deleted links notice)
Plugin Usage
Now that you know how to configure link categories and how to add, edit and delete links, let’s show you how to display your links on your site.
Using The Links Widget
The Link Manager plugin adds a ‘Links’ widget to your ‘Widgets’ screen.
To access and configure your Link widgets, go to the dashboard menu and select Appearance > Widgets …
(Appearance Menu – Widgets)
You will be taken to the ‘Widgets’ page.
You will see a ‘Links’ widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links widget)
Drag the ‘Links’ widget to one of your active widget bars in the Widgets screen and drop it wherever you would like your links to show up …
(Drag & drop your links widget to add it to a widgetized menu)
The Links widget offers various options. For example, you can specify what information you want to display about your links and how many links you want to display on your sidebar menu …
(Link widget options)
You can also add as many link widgets as you want. This lets you create and feature link categories throughout your site …
(Add multiple link widgets to your widget bars)
Display a list of items for a specific category …
(Link widget settings – Select Link Category)
You can sort links by Link ID, Link rating, Link title, or display links in Random order …
(Link widget settings – Sorting options)
When you have finished setting up the links widget, click Save to update your settings. A links will now be visible on your 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.
Need help using widgets? We have written a detailed article on using widgets. Go here to learn more:
Links Manager – Additional Information
If you have added many links, the Link Manager plugin lets you easily administer these using filtering, searching, and sorting functions.
Sorting Links
To sort links, hover your mouse cursor over the title of the column you want to sort and click on the little triangle displayed next to the column title …
(Sort your links)
Searching Links Function
Find links using the ‘Search Links’ feature …
(You can search your links with the search function)
Filtering Your Links
You can filter links by link categories …
(Filtering your links by category)
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 screen)
This displays a list of all links listed 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 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, like Link Library.
Link Library
(Link Library WordPress Plugin)
Plugin Download URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-library/
Plugin Description
This plugin gives you the ability to publish a list of your link categories with a complete list of all your links together with notes and descriptions …
(Link Library links. Image sourced from Link Library plugin website.)
Link Library creates a page on your site containing all the link categories in your Links area, and all links defined for 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 be made aware of any additions made to to your link library.
To learn more about Link Library:
Congratulations! Now you know how to add external links to your WordPress site.
Go here if you would like to learn more about adding hyperlinks to WordPress:
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)