As you discover more about WordPress, you may occasionally come across references to the term blogroll.
A blogroll is a list of links pointing to other websites or blogs 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 set of links using the Links menu in your WP Dashboard. These links will display on your sidebar or footer once you add the Links widget.
Before the release of WordPress v 3.5, Links were a core feature of the WordPress CMS. From v3.5 onwards, the Link Manager section was hidden by default in new WordPress installations …
Before …
(WordPress Links Manager Feature – pre version 3.5)
After …
(Post version 3.5 – no WordPress Links feature)
If you were using the Links feature in previous versions of WordPress, then it will still be available when you upgrade to newer WordPress versions. If you’ve never used Link Manager, however, or if your WordPress site installation is new, then this function will remain hidden – you won’t see it displayed on your dashboard 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 you can’t see the Links Manager section when you log into your WP dashboard you will need to install a plugin. This tutorial shows you how to add and manage links on your site’s sidebar using plugins.
Link Manager
(Link Manager)
Download URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-manager
Description Of Plugin
You can use this plugin to restore the default 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 code to WordPress 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 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)
Plugin Download URL
https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-links/
Description Of Plugin
This plugin recreates the same concept as the built-in Link Manager while removing the shortcomings of the deprecated functionality.
How To Install Link Manager
To install the Link Manager plugin on your site, follow these instructions:
In the WordPress administration menu, select Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins Menu – Add New)
Click on the Install Plugins > Search tab, type in “link manager” into the search field and hit Enter …
Find the plugin in the results area and click Install Now …
Activate the plugin after it has been installed …
After activating the plugin, a ‘Links’ item will be added to your WP sidebar menu area …
(Links menu)
Configuring The Plugin
We recommend setting up your link categories first before adding any new links. This way, when you create a new link, you can assign your link to a link category you have already created.
Link Categories
To create a new link category, click on Links > Link Categories in your admin menu …
(Links – Link Categories)
You will be taken to the ‘Link Categories’ page.
Enter information into the following sections:
- Name: Whatever you type here displays as the category your links will be assigned to.
- Slug: The slug is the web address part of your link category name. Use only lowercase letters and do not include spaces (use hyphens to separate words).
- Description: Some themes may display a link category description. (Optional)
after entering your information, click the Add New Link Category button …
(Link Categories area)
The new category will be added to the list …
(Link Categories screen)
Tip: Blogroll is the default link category name. Unless you specify the category when adding a link, WordPress automatically assigns new links to the default category …
(Default link category)
You may want to change the default link category name to something that will make sense to visitors. 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 link category name to something your visitors will understand)
To change the ‘Blogroll’ link title, hover your mouse over the category name and click on the Quick Edit link …
(Editing the link category name)
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 Update Link Category …
(Quick Edit)
Replace the category name ‘Blogroll’ with an appropriate links section name (e.g. ‘Recommended’, ‘Our Partners’ etc).
Let’s now 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 …
(You can add/edit your category description)
Add your link category description field and click Update …
(Edit Link Category page)
Repeat this process and add as many link categories as your site needs.
Once you have set up your link categories, you can add new links.
Adding Links
To add a new link, click on Links > Add New in the WP admin menu …
(Links – Add New)
The ‘Add New Link’ page will display in your web browser …
(Add New Link screen)
You can also access this page by clicking on the ‘Add New’ button in the main Links page …
(Links page – Add New Link button)
The ‘Add New Links’ page has various sections:
Name, Web Address & Description
Enter your link details in this section …
(Add New Link – Name, Web Address& Description area)
Enter information into the following fields:
- Name: What you enter here displays as the link category name.
- Slug: The slug displays in the SEO friendly URL of the link category. Only use lower case letters without spaces (use hyphens to separate words).
- Description: Some themes may display your link category description.
Categories & Target
Select a Category and Target for the link …
(Add New Link – Categories & Target)
In the Categories section, select a link category you’ve already created, or click on ’+ Add New Category’ to add 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 your link should open when a visitor clicks on it:
- _blank means that when visitors click on your link, a new, separate window will open up in their web browser to display the information associated with the link. This allows your visitors to access the information without leaving your page
- _none means that when visitors click on the link, they will leave your site and a new website 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 section provides some additional link functionality …
(Add New Link – Link Relationship (XFN) section)
Link Relationship (XFN) – XFN (XML Friends Network) is a way to define your relationship to the linked person. For example, if you have a professional relationship with Tennyson Gould and you link to his blog, you would probably check co-worker or colleague.
XFN relationships are optional for WordPress links. You can leave everything in this section blank and your links will work just fine. Defining relationships with XFN makes the links defined on your site 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 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. Separate multiple ‘rel’ keywords using spaces.
To learn more about XFN, visit the site below:
Advanced
The last section of the Add New Link’ page allows you to enter 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) …
(Add New Link screen – Advanced link settings)
The Advanced link settings section includes the following options:
- Image Address: Lets you 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 link’s RSS feed will display next to your link.
- Notes: Add notes about the link in this section 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).
Type in your information into the above fields or just leave this section blank, as these are not essential.
When you are done adding your new link information, click on Add Link to save your new link …
(Click on the Add Link button to save your new link)
Note: If you tick Keep this link private, your link will not be visible in your Blogroll section …
(Make links private by checking the box)
Making a link private lets you add a link and then toggle its visibility on or off without deleting it (this is useful if you want to add seasonal links) …
(Making links private toggles their visibility on and off)
To see all your links, click on Links > All Links in the main admin menu …
(Links – All Links)
This brings up the ‘Links’ screen in your web browser. The Links table displays all your links and link information (e.g. URL, link categories, visibility, etc.) …
(Links table)
Tip: To display additional columns in the list of links, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab near the top of the screen …
(List of links – Screen Options)
Enable/disable fields on your Links table by ticking/unticking their checkboxes …
(Table of links – Show/hide screen options)
Editing Link Information
To modify a link, click on Links > All Links in the main navigation menu to bring up your table of links …
(Links Menu – All Links)
Select the link to be edited and click on Edit to bring up the item’s link details …
(Editing your links)
Make changes to your link …
(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 see your link and check that you have set up its URL correctly (your link will open in a new window),
- Click Delete to delete the link from your table …
(Update Link button)
Deleting Your Links
To delete links, go to the main admin menu and click on Links > All Links …
(WordPress Links – All Links)
This loads the ‘Links’ page in your browser.
You can delete links individually, delete multiple links, or perform a bulk delete.
To delete individual links, hover over the link title that you want to remove and click on Delete …
(Delete your links)
To delete a number of links at once, either click on the checkboxes next to individual links that you want removed, or select all links by clicking on the check box next to the ‘Name’ column header at the top of the list …
(Delete multiple links)
Choose Delete from the ‘Bulk Actions’ menu, and click the Apply button to delete all selected links …
(Bulk-delete links)
Your links will be deleted …
(links deleted 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 display your links on your site.
Links Widget
Installing the Links Manager plugin adds a ‘Links’ widget to your ‘Widgets’ section.
To access and configure your Link widgets, click on Appearance > Widgets in your dashboard navigation menu …
(Appearance Menu – Widgets)
You will be taken to the ‘Widgets’ page.
You will see that a ‘Links’ widget has been added to the Available Widgets section …
(Links widget)
Drag the ‘Links’ widget to one of your active widget areas in the Widgets page and drop it wherever you would like the links to show up …
(Add a links widget to your WordPress widget bar)
The Links widget offers various settings. For example, you can specify what information you want displayed about your links and how many links you want to display on your sidebar menu …
(Link widget - options)
You can also add multiple link widgets to your sidebars and footers. This lets you add and display link lists sorted by categories on your site …
(Add a number of link widgets to your widget bars)
Display a list of links for a specific category …
(Link widget settings – Select Link Category)
You can sort links by Link title, Link ID, Link rating, or display links in Random order …
(Link widget settings – Sorting options)
When you have finished setting up your links widget, click Save to update your settings. Your links should show on your website or blog’s sidebar …
(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 help using widgets? We have written a detailed article on adding widgets here:
Link Manager – Additional Information
If you have many links, the Link Manager plugin allows you to easily administer these using searching, sorting, and filtering functionality.
Sort Links
To sort links, hover your mouse cursor over the title of the column you want to sort and click on the little triangle displayed next to the column title …
(You can easily sort your links)
Finding Links
Type a search term into the search field and click the Search Links button to find links …
(You can search links using the search function)
Filtering Links Function
You can filter links by category …
(Filter links by link category)
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 links in the ‘Links’ column …
(Search and filter links in the Link Categories page)
This brings up a list of all links listed for a specific link category …
(Links filtered by category)
Links – Additional Options
If you plan to add a lot of links to your website, or if you intend 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, like Link Library.
Link Library
(Link Library)
Download Plugin URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-library/
Plugin Description
Link Library gives you the ability to display a list of all your link categories with a complete list of links 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 containing all the link categories in your Links section, 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 for your link collection that lets your site users be made aware of any additions made to to your link library.
To learn more this WordPress plugin, go here:
Congratulations! Now you know how to how to add a blogroll and manage links to external sites in WordPress.
We have also written a comprehensive article about inserting links into WordPress posts and pages here:
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now