As you discover more about WordPress, you may occasionally come across the term blogroll.

WordPress refers to a list of links pointing to other sites or web pages that display on your sidebar area 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.”

You can display a featured links section on your website using the WordPress Link Manager plugin.

Before the release of version 3.5, Links were a built-in feature of the WordPress CMS. From v3.5 onwards, the Links Manager section was removed …

Before …

(WordPress Links Feature – pre v 3.5)

After …

(The Links Manager feature is no longer part of WordPress after WP v.3.5)

If you have had an earlier version than v.3.5 installed and upgraded 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 you can’t see a Links item on the main menu when you log into your WP dashboard, you can add it via a plugin. In this step-by-step tutorial, you will learn how to add and manage blogroll links on your site’s sidebar using WordPress plugins.

Link Manager

(Link Manager Plugin)

Plugin Download URL

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

Plugin Description

This plugin restores the Link Manager, even if you upgrade WordPress to a later version or remove all of your existing links.

Note: All this plugin does is add a single line of code to WordPress to restore the hidden feature. The last time we checked, this 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 one below instead, or contact us for help editing your site’s template code.

Simple Links

(Simple Links – Links Manager Plugin For WordPress)

Download URL

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

Plugin Description

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

How To Install Link Manager

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

In your WordPress admin area, go to Plugins > Add New …

(Plugins – Add New)

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

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

Activate the plugin after installation …

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

(WordPress links menu section)

Setting Up The Plugin

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

Link Categories

To create a link category, go to your navigation menu and select Links > Link Categories …

(WP Links Menu – Link Categories)

The ‘Link Categories’ page will display in your browser.

Type in the following information:

• Name: Enter the link category name here.
• Slug: The slug is the URL bit of the link category name. Use lowercase letters only and do not include 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 name …

(Link Categories)

Your link category will now show in the table …

(Link Categories screen)

Tip: The default WordPress link category is called Blogroll . Unless you specify a category when creating a new link, WordPress will automatically assign new links to the default category …

(Default link category name is ‘blogroll’)

You may want to change this default WordPress link category name to something that will make sense to your visitors. This will not only make it easier for visitors, but any new links that you add to the Links section will automatically be assigned to the new category name …

(Change the default ’blogroll’ to something your visitors will relate to)

To edit the ‘Blogroll’ link name, hover your mouse over the category name and click on Quick Edit …

(Quick Edit)

Change both the Name and the Slug with a new category name, then click on the Update link Category button …

(Editing the default link category name)

Replace the category ‘Blogroll’ with (e.g. ‘Recommended’, ‘Related Products’ etc).

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

(Link category description)

Add your link category description field and click Update …

(Edit Link Category page)

Repeat the above process to add as many new link categories as you need.

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

How To Add New Links

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

(Links – Add New)

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

(Add New Link screen)

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

(Add New Link button)

The ‘Add New Links’ page is divided into a number of sections:

Name, Web Address & Description

The first section lets you enter your link details …

(Name, Web Address, Description)

Enter information into the following sections:

• Name: Enter the category name.
• Slug: The slug displays in the SEO friendly URL of the link category name. It must all 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 with their mouse. (Optional)

Categories & Target

Select a Category and Target for your new link …

(Add New Link – Categories & Target area)

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

Also, select a target frame for your link in the Target section by choosing one of the radio buttons. This lets you specify how the link should open when clicked on by visitors:

• _blank means that a new, separate browser window will open up to display the content associated with the link. Your visitor can see the information without leaving your page
• _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 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 screen – Link Relationship (XFN) area)

Link Relationship (XFN) – XFN (XML Friends Network) lets you define your relationship to the linked person. For example, if you work with Hannah Gould and you link to her blog, you would probably tick co-worker or colleague.

XFN relationships are optional. You can ignore this section and all of your links will work just fine. XFN makes your links 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 a 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. Other ‘rel’ attributes include author, index, help, start, etc.

To learn more about XFN, visit 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 (some themes will ignore this. You can ignore this section, unless there’s a good reason to use it) …

(Advanced link settings – Add New Link screen)

The Advanced section fields are as follows:

• Image Address: Specify an image to be displayed with the link. To use this feature, add an 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 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 would like to sort links by rating (see the ‘Links’ widget section below).

Enter information in the above fields or just leave this section blank.

When you have finished adding information about your link, click on Add Link to update your link settings …

(Click on Add Link to save your new link)

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

(Private link checkbox)

Making a link private lets you toggle its visibility on or off without deleting it (this is useful if you want to add seasonal links) …

(Toggle link visibility on and off)

To view a list of all the links you have added to the Link Manager, select Links > All Links in your WP navigation menu …

(Links – All Links)

This loads the ‘Links’ page in your browser. The list of links displays all your links and link information (e.g. link URL, link categories, visibility, etc.) …

(Links screen)

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

(Table of links – Screen Options)

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

(Links screen – Hide or display screen options)

Editing Your Links

To modify links in the Link Manager, select Links > All Links in the main dashboard navigation menu to bring up the table of links …

(Links – All Links)

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

(Editing your links)

Make any changes you want to your link information …

(Edit Link page)

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

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

(Update Link button)

How To Delete Links

To delete links from the Link Manager, go to your dashboard navigation menu and choose Links > All Links …

(WP Links – All Links)

The ‘Links’ page will display 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 over the link that you want to remove and click on Delete …

(Delete your links)

To delete links in bulk, either click on the check box next to every item that you want 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 …

(Delete multiple links)

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

(Links: bulk-deletion function)

The links will be deleted …

(Link deletion notice)

Using The Plugin

Now that you know how to set up 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’ screen.

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

(Appearance Menu – Widgets)

This brings up the ‘Widgets’ page in your browser.

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 active widget bars in the Widgets screen and drop it wherever you would like the links section to show up …

(Drag and drop your links widget to add it to a widgetized menu)

The Links widget offers a number of settings. For example, you can specify what information you would like to display 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. This lets you add and display several lists of links on your site …

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

Select a link category from the ‘Select Link Category:’ pull-down 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 – Sort by options)

Once you are done configuring the links widget, click the Save button to update your settings. A links will now be visible on your 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 more help with widgets? We have written a comprehensive article about adding widgets here:

• How To Add WordPress Widgets To The Sidebar

Links Manager – Additional Information

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

Sort Links

You can sort links by hovering your mouse over the title of the column you want to sort and clicking on the little triangle displayed next to the column title …

(Sort links)

Finding Your Links

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

(You can easily search your links using the search function)

Filter Links Function

You can filter links by categories …

(Filtering your links by link 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 …

(Search and filter links in the Link Categories page)

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 use links extensively on your website, or if you would like to add a page containing a list of links to your site (i.e. not just add links on 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

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

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

This plugin can be used to create a page on your web site containing a list of all of the link categories in your Links area, plus 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 link collection that lets your site users become aware of additions to your link library.

Go here to learn more about this plugin:

• Link Library Plugin For WordPress

Congratulations! Now you know how to add a featured links section to your WordPress site.

Go here for a detailed article about how to easily add HTML hyperlinks in WordPress posts & pages:

• Using The Internal Linking Tool In WordPress

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