As you learn more about WordPress, you may occasionally come across the term blogroll.
A blogroll is a list of hyperlinks pointing to external websites or web pages displayed on your sidebar.
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 add a blogroll using the Links menu in your WordPress Dashboard. These links will display on your website 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 the release of v3.5, the Links manager and blogroll sections were kept hidden by default in new installations …
Before …
(The Links Manager displayed in the menu until the release of WordPress version 3.5)
After …
(The Link Manager – excluded from WordPress after WP version 3.5)
If you’ve used an earlier version of WordPress than v.3.5 and updated your installation, the Links Manager would be removed, unless you have previously used it. If you’ve never used Links Manager, however, or if your site installation is new, then this function will become invisible – you will not see it 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 menu section is not visible when you log into your WP backend, you can add this feature via a plugin. This tutorial shows you how to add and manage links on your sidebar using WordPress plugins.
Link Manager
(Links Manager WordPress Plugin)
Plugin Download URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-manager
Plugin Description
The Link Manager plugin restores the Links Manager, even if you upgrade to a later version of WordPress or remove all of your existing links.
Note: All this plugin does is add a single line of template code to your installation to restore the hidden feature. When we last checked, the 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 site’s template code.
Simple Links
(Simple Links Plugin)
Plugin URL
https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-links/
Description
This plugin recreates the same concept as the built-in WP Links Manager while removing the shortcomings of the deprecated functionality.
Plugin Installation
Let’s install the Link Manager plugin.
From your WP administration area, go to Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins Menu – Add New)
Select the Install Plugins > Search tab, type in “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 it has been installed …
After activation, a ‘Links’ section will be added to the dashboard menu …
(WordPress links menu section)
Setting Up The Plugin
We recommend setting up your link categories first before you start adding links. This way, when adding a new link, you can assign the link to the link category you have already created.
Link Categories
To create a link category, go to the main dashboard menu and choose Links > Link Categories …
(Links Menu – Link Categories)
The ‘Link Categories’ screen will load in your browser.
Type in information into the following fields:
- Name: What you enter in this field displays as the link category name.
- Slug: The slug is the web address part of your link category. Only use lower case letters without spaces (use hyphens to separate words).
- Description: Some themes may display a link category description.
after entering your information, click the Add New Link Category button to save your new link category …
(Link Categories)
Your new category will display in the table …
(Link Categories)
Tip: Blogroll is the default link category name. Unless you specify a category when adding a link, WordPress will automatically assign new links to the default category …
(Default link category)
You may want to change this to something that your visitors can relate to. 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 …
(we recommend changing the default ’blogroll’ to something better suited to your business)
To change the ‘Blogroll’ link name, hover your mouse over the category name and click on the Quick Edit link …
(Quick Edit)
Change both the Name and the Slug with a new category name, then click on the Update link Category button …
(Update Link Category)
In our example, the link category ‘Blogroll’ has been replaced with an appropriate links section category name (e.g. ‘Recommended’).
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 …
(You can add/edit the category description)
Add your link category description field and click Update …
(Edit Link Category area)
Repeat this process to add as many link categories as your site needs.
Once you have set up your link categories, you can start adding your links.
How To Add New Links
To add a new link, go to the WP dashboard navigation menu and choose Links > Add New …
(Links Menu – Add New)
The ‘Add New Link’ page will display in your browser …
(Add New Link page)
You can also reach this page by clicking on ’Add New’ in the main Links page …
(Links – Add New Link button)
The ‘Add New Links’ page includes the following sections:
Name, Web Address & Description
This section lets you enter your link details …
(Add New Link – Name, Web Addressand Description)
Type in the following information:
- Name: Enter the category name here.
- Slug: The slug displays in the SEO friendly 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.
Categories & Target
After typing in your link details, select a Category and Target for your link …
(Categories & Target area – Add New Link)
In the Categories section, select one of the link categories you’ve already set up, or click on the ‘+ Add New Category’ link to add a new category.
Next, select a target frame radio button for your link in the Target section. This lets you specify how you want your link to open when visitors click on it:
- _blank means that a separate web browser window will open up to display the content associated with the link. This lets your visitors see the link information without leaving your site
- _none means that when visitors click on your link, they will leave 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. 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 …
(Link Relationship (XFN) area – Add New Link screen)
Link Relationship (XFN) – XFN (XML Friends Network) allows you to define your relationship with the linked person. For example, if you work with Arush Jenkins 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 work just fine. Defining relationships with XFN makes your links more understandable to some sites 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 the 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, index, start, etc. Separate multiple ‘rel’ keywords with spaces.
You can learn more about XFN by visiting this site:
Advanced
The last section of the Add New Link’ page allows you to specify Advanced features for your links (some themes will ignore this. You can leave the fields in this section empty unless you have a reason to use them) …
(Advanced link settings – Add New Link)
The Advanced section fields are as follows:
- Image Address: Specify an image to be displayed with the link. To use this feature, add the URL of your image 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: Add notes about the link in this section for your own internal reference.
- Rating: 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, as these fields are not required.
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 select Keep this link private, the link will not be visible when links are displayed on your site …
(Make links private by checking the box)
Making links private lets you toggle link visibility on or off without deleting these (this is useful if you want to use seasonal links) …
(Toggle link visibility on and off)
To see all your links, go to the navigation menu and click on Links > All Links …
(WordPress Links Menu – All Links)
This loads the ‘Links’ table in your browser. The Links page displays all your links and link information (e.g. link URL, link categories, visibility, etc.) …
(Links page)
Tip: To view additional fields in the table of links, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab near the top of the screen …
(Screen Options – Links table)
Enable/disable fields on your table of links by selecting/deselecting their check boxes …
(Table of links – Show/hide screen options)
Editing Links
To modify links in the Link Manager, choose Links > All Links in the WP navigation menu to bring up your table of links …
(Links Menu – All Links)
Locate the link you want to edit and click on Edit to bring up the link’s details …
(Editing link information)
Change the link …
(Edit Link screen)
After you’re done editing your link, you can:
- Click the Update Link button to save your link details,
- Click on Visit Link to see your link and check that you have set up its URL correctly (the link will open in a new window),
- Click Delete to delete the link from your table if it’s no longer required …
(Update Link button)
Deleting Links
To delete a link, choose Links > All Links in the WP dashboard menu …
(Links Menu – All Links)
You will be taken to the ‘Links’ screen.
You can delete links individually, delete multiple links, 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 …
(Deleting links)
To delete links in bulk, either tick the checkboxes next to individual items that you want to remove, or select all links by clicking on the main check box next to the ‘Name’ column header …
(Deleting multiple links)
Select Delete from the ‘Bulk Actions’ menu, and click the Apply button to remove all selected links …
(Links: bulk-delete function)
All the links you have selected will be deleted …
(Deleted links message)
Using The Link Manager 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 make links display on your site.
Using The Links Widget
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 Menu – Widgets)
This brings up the ‘Widgets’ page.
You will see that a ‘Links’ widget has been added to the Available Widgets section …
(Links widget)
To make the ‘Links’ widget active, drag the widget to one of the active widget areas and drop it wherever you want your links to show up …
(Adding a links widget to your widget bar using drag and drop)
The Links widget provides various configurable options. For example, you can specify what information you want to display about your links and how many links you want displayed on your sidebar menu …
(Link widget - settings)
You can add as many link widgets to your sidebar as you want. This allows you to create and display specific link categories throughout your site …
(Add a number of link widgets to your sidebar)
You can select a link category …
(Link widget options – Select Link Category)
You can sort links by Link title, Link rating, Link ID, or display links in Random order …
(Link widget settings – Sorting options)
After configuring your Links widget, click Save to update your settings. Your link section will appear on your website or blog’s sidebar menu …
(An example of how 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 detailed article about widgets. To learn more, go here:
Link Manager – Additional Information
If you have many links, the Link Manager plugin allows you to easily administer these with searching, sorting, and filtering functions.
Sorting Links
To sort links, hover your mouse over the title of the column you want to sort and click on the little black triangle displayed next to the column title …
(Sorting your links)
Search Links Function
You can search for links using the ‘Search Links’ button …
(You can easily search links using the search function)
Filter Your Links
You can filter links by categories …
(Filtering your links by categories)
You can also search and filter links in the Link Categories screen. 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 listed under a specific link category …
(Links filtered by link category)
Links – Additional Options
If you plan to add a lot of links to your site, 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 consider using a plugin that can help you administer your links, like Link Library.
Link Library
(Link library – Plugin For WordPress)
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 links together with notes and descriptions …
(Link Library links. Image: Link Library plugin documentation.)
Link Library creates a page on your website that contains all the link categories in your Links section, plus 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 any additions made to 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 external websites in WordPress.
We have also written a comprehensive article about how to easily create HTML hyperlinks in your WordPress posts and pages here:
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group