As you continue to discover more about WordPress, you may occasionally come across something called a blogroll.
A blogroll is a list of links pointing to external websites or web pages that display 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.”
The Links feature lets you add and manage hyperlinks to your sidebar section (e.g. a “Recommended Resources” section) using a widget.
Before the release of WP v.3.5, Links were a built-in feature of the WordPress CMS. After the release of version 3.5, the Links Manager section was kept hidden by default in new WordPress installations …
Before …
(The Link Manager feature – included in the WordPress menu until the release of WordPress v 3.5)
After …
(The Links Manager feature – excluded from the WordPress menu after WP v3.5)
If you’ve used an earlier version of WordPress than v.3.5 and upgraded your installation, the Link Manager would be 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 the Links feature is not displayed when you log into your WordPress dashboard, you can add it via a plugin. This step-by-step tutorial explains how to add and manage links on your site’s sidebar using plugins.
Link Manager
(Links Manager WordPress Plugin)
Plugin URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-manager
Description
Use this plugin to restore the Links Manager, even if you update 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 WordPress 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 site’s template code.
Simple Links
(Simple Links – Link Manager Plugin For WordPress)
Download URL
https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-links/
Plugin Description
This plugin attempts to recreate the concept of the built-in Link Manager while removing 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:
From your WP dashboard menu, select Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins Menu – Add New)
Click on the Install Plugins > Search tab, then type in “link manager” into the search field and hit Enter …
Find the plugin in the search results screen and click Install Now …
Activate the plugin …
After activation, WordPress will restore the ‘Links’ functionality to your WP sidebar menu area …
(WordPress links management menu section)
Plugin Setup
Before adding links, it’s a good idea to first set up your link categories. This way, when you add a new link, you can assign your link to link categories you have already created.
Link Categories
To create a new link category, choose Links > Link Categories in your WP navigation menu …
(Links Menu – Link Categories)
The ‘Link Categories’ page will load in your web browser.
Enter the following information:
- Name: Enter the link category name here.
- Slug: The slug is the web address bit of the link category. Use lowercase letters only without 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)
Your link category will be added to the list …
(Link Categories page)
Tip: The default WordPress link category is called Blogroll . Unless you specify the category when adding a new link, WordPress automatically assigns new links to the default category …
(Default link category name)
You may want to change this default WordPress link category name to something that your visitors can understand. This not only makes it easier for visitors, but any new links that you add to your site will automatically display under 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 list item and click on Quick Edit …
(Quick Edit)
Replace both the Name and the Slug with a new category name (remember to keep the slug in lowercase letters and replace all spaces with a hyphen), and click on the Update link Category button …
(Update Link Category)
In our example, we’ve replaced the link category ‘Blogroll’ with a more suitable category name (e.g. ‘Recommended’).
Let’s insert a description for this link category. To add a link category description, hover over the item name and click Edit …
(You can add/edit the category description)
Enter your description in the ‘Edit Link Category’ page and click Update you’re done to save your settings …
(Edit Link Category page)
Repeat the above process and add as many link categories as your site needs.
After you have finished configuring your link categories, you can being adding new links.
How To Add New Links
To create a new link, go to the WP dashboard navigation menu and click on Links > Add New …
(WP Links Menu – Add New)
This brings up the Add New Link’ screen in your browser …
(Add New Link page)
You can also reach this screen by clicking on the ‘Add New’ button in the main Links screen …
(Links – Add New Link button)
The ‘Add New Links’ page has several sections:
Name, Web Address & Description
The first section lets you enter your link details …
(Name, Web Addressand Description section – Add New Link)
Type in the following information:
- Name: Whatever you type in this field will display as the category your links will be assigned to.
- Slug: The slug is the search-engine friendly URL bit 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 a 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 link …
(Categories & Target)
In the Categories section, select one of the link categories you’ve already added, or click on ’+ Add New Category’ to create a new category link.
Next, select a target frame for your link in the Target section by choosing one of the radio buttons. This lets you specify how you want your link to open when clicked on by visitors:
- _blank means that when visitors click on your link, a separate web browser window will open up to display the information for that link. This allows your visitors to see the link information without leaving your website
- _none means that when visitors click on the link, they will exit your site and a new website 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. Don’t worry about this option if you don’t use frames, or if you don’t know what frames are.
Link Relationship XFN
This area provides some additional link functionality …
(Link Relationship (XFN) – Add New Link screen)
Link Relationship (XFN) – XFN (XML Friends Network) lets you define your relationship with the linked person. For example, if you work with Kabir Cooper 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 your links will still work. XFN makes the links defined on your site more understandable to some sites and search engines that use this information.
rel – This field lets you specify the ‘rel’ attribute that will be assigned to your link. The rel attribute specifies 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. Separate multiple ‘rel’ attributes using spaces.
You can learn more about XFN by visiting this site:
Advanced
The last section lets you enter Advanced features for your links (You can ignore this section, unless there’s a good reason to use it) …
(Advanced link settings – Add New Link)
The Advanced link settings section contains the following options:
- Image Address: Specify an image to be displayed with the link. Add the URL of where the image is located 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 can display next to the link.
- 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 into the above fields or just leave this section blank, as these 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 tick the Keep this link private checkbox, your link will not be visible in your Blogroll section …
(You can make links private by checking the box)
Making links private lets you toggle link visibility on or off without deleting your links (this is useful if you want links to display during certain times and hide them when they are no longer required) …
(Making links private toggles their visibility on and off)
To view a list of all your links, go to the WP dashboard menu and choose Links > All Links …
(Links Menu – All Links)
You will be taken to the ‘Links’ table. The table of links displays all of your links and link information (e.g. link URL, categories, relationship, etc.) …
(Links page)
Tip: To display or hide columns in the Links table, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab near the top of your screen …
(Screen Options – Links page)
Enable/disable information on your Links table by selecting/deselecting their checkboxes …
(Links table – Show/hide screen options)
How To Edit Link Information
To edit a link in the Link Manager, click on Links > All Links in your dashboard navigation menu to bring up your table of links …
(Links Menu – All Links)
Select the item to be edited and click on Edit to bring up the link’s information …
(Editing your link information)
Change the link …
(Edit Link page)
After editing the link, you can:
- Click the Update Link button to save and update your link details,
- Click on Visit Link to check that you have set up the link’s URL correctly (the link will open up in a new window),
- Click Delete to delete the link if you no longer require it …
(Edit Link: Update Link button)
How To Delete Your Links
To remove a link, select Links > All Links in the main admin menu …
(WordPress Links – All Links)
The ‘Links’ screen will display in your browser.
You can delete links individually, delete multiple links, or perform a bulk delete.
To delete links individually, hover your mouse cursor over the link title that you want to remove and click Delete …
(Deleting links)
To delete links in bulk, either tick the checkboxes next to individual items that you want to delete, or select all links by clicking on the check box next to the ‘Name’ column header …
(Deleting multiple links)
Choose Delete from the ‘Bulk Actions’ pulldown menu, and click the Apply button to delete your selected links …
(Links: bulk-deletion function)
The links you have selected will be removed …
(Link deletion notification)
Using The Plugin
Now that you know how to configure 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 main admin menu and select Appearance > Widgets …
(Appearance – Widgets)
This takes you to the ‘Widgets’ screen.
You will notice a ‘Links’ widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links widget)
To make the ‘Links’ widget active, drag the widget to one of your widget bars and drop it wherever you would like your links section to show up …
(Add a links widget to your WordPress widget bar using drag & drop)
The Links widget provides 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 …
(Link widget options)
You can add as many link widgets as you want. This allows you to create and display lists of links on your site …
(Add a number of link widgets to your sidebar)
Display a list of items for a specific category …
(Link widget settings – Select Link Category)
You can sort links by Link rating, Link ID, Link title, or display links in Random order …
(Link widget settings – Sorting options)
Once you are done configuring the Links widget, click Save to update your settings. A link section should show up immediately on your site …
(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 using widgets? To learn more about widgets, refer to this article:
Links Manager – Additional Information
If you have many links, the Link Manager plugin allows you to easily administer these with filtering, sorting, and searching features.
Sorting 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 sort your links)
Finding Your Links
You can search for links using the ‘Search Links’ button …
(You can find links with the search function)
Filtering Links Function
You can filter links by link category …
(Filter 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 category links in the ‘Links’ column …
(Search and filter links in the Link Categories screen)
This displays a list of all links listed for a specific link category …
(Links filtered by link category)
Additional Link Options
If you plan to use links extensively on your site, or if you would like to add a ‘Links’ page 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 Links Management Plugin)
Download Plugin URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-library/
Plugin Description
The Link Library plugin gives you the ability to publish a list of your link categories with a complete list of links with descriptions and notes …
(Link Library links. Screenshot taken from Link Library plugin site.)
This useful plugin creates a page on your site containing all the link categories in your Links section, plus all links listed in 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 for your links so that your site users can 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 WordPress.
To learn more about how to add hyperlinks into your WordPress content, refer to this article:
***
"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum