As you continue to learn more about WordPress, you may occasionally come across references to the term blogroll.

WordPress refers to a list of hyperlinks pointing to other sites or pages that display on your sidebar section as a blogroll.

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 add and manage links to your sidebar (e.g. a “Top 10 Resources” section) using widgets.

Before WordPress v3.5 was released, Links were a built-in feature of the WordPress CMS. After v.3.5, the Links manager and blogroll sections were hidden by default in new installations …

Before …

(WordPress Links Manager – pre version 3.5)

After …

(The Link Manager is no longer included in WordPress after WP v.3.5)

If you have had an earlier version of WordPress than 3.5 installed and updated your installation, then the Link Manager would be removed, unless you’ve previously used it. If you’ve never used the Links Manager feature, however, or if your site installation is new, then this function will remain hidden – it will not display 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 the Links Manager is not visible when you log into your WP admin area you will need to install a plugin. This tutorial shows you how to add, edit, delete and manage links on your site’s sidebar using WordPress plugins.

Link Manager

(Link Manager)

Download URL

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

Plugin Description

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

Note: All this plugin does is add a single line of template code 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 this plugin, then use the plugin below instead, or contact us for help editing your template code.

Simple Links

(Simple Links – WordPress Link Management Plugin)

Plugin URL

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

Description Of Plugin

This plugin recreates the same concept as the built-in Link Manager while addressing the shortcomings of the deprecated feature.

Plugin Installation

To install the Link Manager plugin, follow these instructions:

From the WP administration area, go to Plugins > Add New …

(Plugins Menu – 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 installing it …

Once you have activated the plugin, the ‘Links’ function will be restored to the WP admin menu area …

(Links menu section)

Plugin Configuration

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

Link Categories

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

(Links Menu – Link Categories)

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

Enter information into the following sections:

• Name: Enter the category name.
• 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 your link category description.

Click Add New Link Category to save …

(Link Categories page)

The link category will now show in the table …

(Link Categories page)

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)

You may want to change this to something better suited to your business. This will not only make 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 …

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

To change the default category name, hover your mouse over the list 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 the Update link Category button …

(Update Link Category)

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

Let’s create 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)

Enter your description in the ‘Edit Link Category’ screen and click Update …

(Edit Link Category area)

Repeat the above process to add as many new link categories as your site needs.

Once you have set up your link categories, you can add new links.

Adding New Links

To create a new link, click on Links > Add New in the WP dashboard navigation menu …

(Links – Add New)

The ‘Add New Link’ screen will load in your browser …

(Add New Link screen)

You can also reach this screen by clicking on ’Add New’ at the top of the main Links page …

(Add New Link button)

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

Name, Web Address & Description

This section is where you enter details about your link …

(Add New Link – Name, Web Addressand Description)

Enter information into the following fields:

• Name: Whatever you enter here is the link category name that will display on your site.
• Slug: The slug is the URL part of your link category name. It must all be in lowercase letters and contain no spaces (use hyphens to separate words).
• Description: Some themes may display a link category description.

Categories & Target

Select a Category and Target for your new link …

(Add New Link page – Categories & Target)

In the Categories section, tick a link category you have already created, 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 how the link should open when clicked on:

• _blank means that a new, separate window will open up in their web browser to display the content associated with the 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 the link at the top level of the frame system if you’re using frames. Ignore 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) section)

Link Relationship (XFN) – XFN stands for XML Friends Network – is a way to define your relationship with the linked person. For example, if you work with Alice Fields and you link to her 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. Defining relationships with 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 the relationship 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.

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

• WordPress Codex: Defining Relationships With XFN

Advanced

The last section of the Add New Link’ screen allows you to specify Advanced features for your links (You can leave the fields in this section blank unless there’s a good reason to use them) …

(Advanced link settings – Add New Link screen)

The Advanced link settings section contains the following options:

• Image Address: Lets you 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 will display next to your links.
• 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).

Type in your information in the above fields or just leave this section blank, as these fields are not essential.

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

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

Note: If you tick the Keep this link private checkbox, the link will not be visible when links are displayed on your site …

(Make links private by selecting the checkbox)

Making links private allows you to add links and then toggle their visibility on or off without deleting your links (this is useful if you would like links to display during certain periods and hide them when not required) …

(Toggle link visibility on and off)

To view a list of all your links, go to your WP admin menu and click on Links > All Links …

(WP Links – All Links)

The ‘Links’ page will display in your browser. The list of links displays all of your links and link information (e.g. link URL, categories, rating, etc.) …

(Links table)

Tip: To show or hide options in the Links page, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab near the top of the screen …

(Screen Options – Links page)

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

(Links table – Hide or display screen options)

How To Edit Links

To modify a link in the Link Manager, select Links > All Links in the admin menu to bring up your list of links …

(Links – All Links)

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

(Editing links)

Make any changes you want to your link …

(Edit Link screen)

After you’re done editing your link, you can:

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

(Edit Link: Update Link button)

Deleting Your Links

To remove links from the Link Manager, click on Links > All Links in the main admin menu …

(WP Links – All Links)

This takes you 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 and click on Delete …

(Deleting links)

To delete a number of links at once, either tick the checkboxes next to individual items that you would like to be removed, 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)

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

(Links: bulk-delete function)

All the links you have selected will be deleted …

(links deleted notice)

Plugin Usage

Now that you know how to set up link categories and how to add, edit and delete links, it’s time to display links on your website.

Using The Links Widget

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

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

(WordPress Appearance – Widgets)

This takes you to the ‘Widgets’ screen.

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

(Links widget)

Drag the ‘Links’ widget to one of the active widget areas and drop it wherever you want the links section to show up …

(Add a links widget to a widgetized menu)

The Links widget provides a number of configurable options. For example, you can specify what information you would like to show about your links and how many links you want to display on your sidebar menu …

(Link widget - options)

You can add multiple link widgets to your sidebar and footer. This lets you create and feature a number of links throughout your site …

(You can add a number of link widgets to your sidebar)

Display links 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 options – Sorting options)

Once you are done setting up the links widget, click the Save button to update your settings. A link section will show up immediately on your sidebar, footer or any widget-ready area you add the links widget to …

(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 more help with widgets? We have written a comprehensive article about widgets. Go here to learn more about this:

• Adding And Configuring WordPress Widgets In The Website

Link Manager – Additional Information

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

Sort Links Function

To sort links, hover your mouse over the title of the column you want to sort and click on the little triangle displayed next to the column title …

(Sort links)

Searching Your Links

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

(Search links function)

Filtering Links

You can filter links by categories …

(Filtering your links by category)

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 page)

This displays a list of all links listed for a specific link category …

(Links filtered by category)

Additional Link Options

If you plan to add a lot of links to your site, or if you intend 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 consider using a plugin that can help you administer your links, like Link Library.

Link Library

(Link Library Plugin)

Plugin Download URL

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

Plugin Description

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

(List of links created with Link library. Image: Link Library plugin website.)

Link Library can be used to create a page on your website that contains all the link categories in your Links section, 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 become aware of additions to your link library.

To learn more this powerful plugin, visit this website:

• Link Library

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

We have written a comprehensive article on inserting hyperlinks into your WordPress posts and pages. Go here to learn more about this:

• How To Use The WordPress Internal Linking Tool

***