As you learn 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 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 feature lets you add a links section to your sidebar (e.g. a “Recommended Resources” section) using widgets.
Before WordPress v 3.5 was released, Links were a built-in feature of the WordPress CMS. From v.3.5 onwards, the Links manager and blogroll sections were kept hidden by default in new installations …
Before …
(Links – part of the WordPress menu until the release of WP v3.5)
After …
(Post v3.5 – no WP Links Manager)
If you’ve used an earlier version than v 3.5 and updated your installation, the Link 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 section on your main menu when you log into your WordPress admin area, you can add this feature by installing a plugin. In this tutorial, you will learn how to add, edit, delete and manage links on your sidebar using WordPress plugins.
Link Manager
(Link Manager – WordPress Link Management Plugin)
Plugin Download URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-manager
Description Of Plugin
This plugin displays the Links 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 template code to your installation 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 the Link Manager plugin, then use the one below instead, or contact us for help editing your template code.
Simple Links
(Simple Links)
Download URL
https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-links/
Description Of Plugin
Simple Links recreates the same concept as the built-in Link Manager while addressing the shortcomings of the deprecated functionality.
How To Install Link Manager
To install the Link Manager plugin on your site, follow these step-by-step instructions:
From the WP dashboard menu, 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 …
Once you have activated the plugin, WordPress adds a ‘Links’ section to the admin menu …
(WordPress links menu section)
Setting Up Link Manager
Before adding links, it’s a good idea to first set up your link categories. This way, when adding a new link, you can assign the link to a link category you have already created.
Link Categories
To create a link category, select Links > Link Categories in your WP dashboard navigation menu …
(WordPress Links – Link Categories)
You will be taken to the ‘Link Categories’ screen.
Type in information into the following fields:
- Name: Enter the link category name here.
- Slug: The slug appears in the search-engine friendly URL of the 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.
When done, click Add New Link Category to save …
(Link Categories)
Your category details will be added to the list …
(Link Categories area)
Tip: The default WordPress link category is called Blogroll . Unless you specify the category for a new link, WordPress automatically assigns new links to the default category …
(Default link category name)
You may want to change this to something better suited to your business. This will not only make it easier for visitors, but any new links that you add to the Links section will automatically appear under the new category name …
(Change the default ’blogroll’ to something better suited to your business)
To edit the ‘Blogroll’ link title, 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)
Replace the link category name ‘Blogroll’ with a more suitable name (e.g. ‘Recommended’, ‘Links’ etc).
Let’s add a description for this link category. To add a description to an existing link category, hover over the link category name and click Edit …
(Link category description)
Add your link category description field and click Update done to save your settings …
(Edit Link Category area)
Repeat this process to add as many new link categories as your site requires.
After configuring your link categories, you can being adding your links.
How To Add New Links
To add a new link, go to the WP admin menu and select Links > Add New …
(WordPress Links – Add New)
This loads the Add New Link’ page in your web browser …
(Add New Link page)
You can also reach this page by clicking on the ‘Add New’ button in the main Links page …
(Links screen – Add New Link button)
The ‘Add New Links’ page has a number of sections:
Name, Web Address & Description
The first section is where you enter details about your link …
(Name, Web Address, Description area – Add New Link)
Type in 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 be in lowercase letters and contain no spaces (use hyphens to separate words).
- Description: Some themes may display your link category description. (Optional)
Categories & Target
After typing in link details, select a Category and Target for your link …
(Categories & Target fields)
In the Categories section, select one of the link categories you’ve already set up, or click on ’+ Add New Category’ 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 where you want your link to open when clicked on:
- _blank means that when visitors click on the link, a new browser window will open up to display the information for that link. This lets your visitors see the information without leaving your site
- _none means that when a visitor clicks on the link, they will exit your site and a new website 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 section provides some additional link functionality …
(Link Relationship (XFN) section)
Link Relationship (XFN) – XFN stands for XML Friends Network – allows you to define your relationship to the linked person. For example, if you work with Zane Schwartz and you link to his blog, you would probably tick co-worker or colleague.
XFN relationships are optional for WordPress links. You can leave everything in this section blank 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 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. Separate multiple ‘rel’ keywords using spaces.
To learn more about XFN, visit the site below:
Advanced
The last section allows you to enter Advanced features for your links (You can ignore this section, unless there’s a good reason to use it) …
(Advanced link settings)
The Advanced link settings section contains the following options:
- Image Address: Lets you specify an image to be displayed with the link. 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: 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 essential.
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 update your link settings)
Note: If you select the checkbox next to Keep this link private, the link will not be visible when links are displayed on your site …
(You can make links private by checking the box)
Making links private lets you toggle their visibility on or off without deleting these (this is useful if you want to have seasonal links) …
(Toggle link visibility on and off)
To view a list of all the links you have added, choose Links > All Links in the main dashboard navigation menu …
(Links – All Links)
This loads the ‘Links’ page in your web browser. The Links screen displays a list of all of your links and link information (e.g. URL, link categories, relationship, etc.) …
(Table of links)
Tip: To view additional columns in the Links page, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab near the top of the screen …
(Links table – Screen Options)
Enable/disable information on your table of links by ticking/unticking their check boxes …
(Show/hide links)
Editing Link Information
To modify a link, click on Links > All Links in the main dashboard navigation menu to bring up the links screen …
(WP Links – All Links)
Select the item to be edited and click on Edit to bring up the item’s link details …
(Editing link information)
Make changes to the link fields …
(Edit Link page)
After editing the 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 everything correctly (your link will open up in a new window),
- Click Delete to delete the link from your table of links …
(Edit Link: Update Link button)
How To Delete Your Links
To remove links, choose Links > All Links in the WP navigation menu …
(WP Links – All Links)
This takes you to the ‘Links’ screen.
You can delete links individually, delete multiple links by selecting their check boxes, or delete all links at once.
To delete individual links, hover your cursor over the link title that you want to remove and click on Delete …
(Deleting your links)
To delete a number of links at once, either click on the checkboxes next to individual items that you would like deleted, or select all links by clicking on the checkbox next to the ‘Name’ column header …
(Delete multiple links)
Select Delete from the ‘Bulk Actions’ pulldown menu, and click Apply to remove all selected links …
(Links: bulk-delete function)
Your selected links will be removed …
(Deleted links notification)
Plugin Usage
Now that you know how to configure link categories and how to add, edit and delete links, it’s time to learn how to make links display 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, select Appearance > Widgets in your WP dashboard menu …
(Appearance – Widgets)
This loads the ‘Widgets’ screen 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 widget bars and drop it wherever you would like the links to show up …
(Drag and drop the links widget to add it to your WordPress widget bar)
The Links widget offers various settings. For example, you can specify what information you would like displayed about your links and how many links you would like displayed on your sidebar menu …
(Link widget - configurable settings)
You can add as many link widgets as you want. This allows you to add and feature different link lists on your site …
(You can add multiple link widgets to your widget bars)
Select a link category from the ‘Select Link Category:’ pull-down menu …
(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 options – Sort by options)
When you have finished setting up the links widget, click Save to update your settings. Your links should display 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 more help with widgets? We have written a detailed article about adding widgets. For more details, go here:
Links Manager – Additional Information
If you have added many links, the Link Manager plugin allows you to easily administer these using sort, search, and filter features.
Sorting 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 …
(You can easily sort your links)
Searching Links Function
Search for links using the ‘Search Links’ function …
(Searching your links)
Filter Links
You can filter links by link category …
(Filter your links by categories)
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 category links in the ‘Links’ column …
(searching and filtering links in the Link Categories screen)
This brings up a list of all links listed for a specific link category …
(Links filtered by category)
Additional Link Options
If you plan to use links extensively on your website, or if you would like to add a ‘Links’ page 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)
Plugin URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-library/
Plugin Description
Link Library lets you display a list of your link categories with a complete list of all your links with notes and descriptions …
(List of links created with Link library. Image sourced from Link Library plugin documentation.)
Link Library creates a page on your web site that contains a list of all of the link categories in your Links area, 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 additions to your link library.
To learn more about Link Library:
Congratulations! Now you know how to add a featured links section to WordPress.
To learn more about adding HTML links to WordPress posts, refer to this article:
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)