As you become more familiar with WordPress, you may occasionally come across something called a blogroll.
In WordPress terminology, a list of links displayed on your sidebar area is often referred to 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 easily add a links section to a widgetized theme.
Before WordPress v3.5 was released, Links were a built-in feature of the WordPress CMS. From version 3.5 onwards, the Links manager and blogroll sections were removed …
Before …
(Links displayed in the WordPress dashboard menu until the release of WP v 3.5)
After …
(Post v3.5 – no WP Links Manager)
If you have had an earlier version of WordPress than v3.5 installed and upgraded your installation, the Link Manager would be removed, unless you’ve previously used it. If you’ve never used the Links feature, however, or if your site installation is new, then this function will become invisible – it will not be 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 Link Manager section when you log into your WP admin area you will need to install a plugin. In this step-by-step tutorial, you will learn how to add, edit, delete and manage links on your sidebar using plugins.
Link Manager
(Link Manager WordPress Plugin)
Plugin Download URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-manager
Plugin Description
Use this plugin to display the Links feature on your WP dashboard, even if you update WordPress to a later version or remove all of your current links.
Note: All this plugin does is add a single line of 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 template code.
Simple Links
(Simple Links – Links Manager Plugin For WordPress)
Plugin Download URL
https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-links/
Description Of Plugin
This plugin recreates the concept of the built-in WP Link Manager while addressing the shortcomings of the deprecated functionality.
Plugin Installation
To install the Link Manager plugin on your site, follow the instructions below:
From your WordPress administration 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 results area and click Install Now …
Activate the plugin …
Once you’ve activated the plugin, a ‘Links’ item will be displayed on your WP sidebar menu …
(Links menu)
Plugin Setup
Before you start adding links, it’s a good idea to first set up your link categories. This way, you can assign new links to the link category you have already created.
Link Categories
To create a link category, go to the WP admin menu and click on Links > Link Categories …
(Links – Link Categories)
You will be taken to the ‘Link Categories’ screen.
Type in information into the following sections:
- Name: Whatever you enter in this field displays as the link category name.
- Slug: The slug shows up in the SEO friendly URL of the link category. 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. (Optional)
Click the Add New Link Category button to save your new link category …
(Link Categories)
The new category will now show in the table …
(Link Categories)
Tip: WordPress calls its default link category Blogroll . Unless you specify a category when adding a new link, WordPress automatically assigns new links to the default category …
(Default link category name)
You may want to change the default link category name to something that your visitors can relate to. This not only makes it easier for visitors, but any new links that you add to the Links section will automatically be assigned to the new category name …
(Consider changing the default link category name to something your visitors will understand)
To change the default category name, hover your mouse over the list item and click on Quick Edit …
(Edit the default link category)
Change both the Name and the Slug with a new category name, then click on the Update link Category button …
(Quick Edit)
Replace the link category ‘Blogroll’ with (e.g. ‘Recommended’, ‘Links’ etc).
Let’s insert a description for this link category. To add a link category description, click on the Edit link under the category name …
(You can add/edit the category description)
Enter your link category description field and click Update …
(Edit Link Category screen)
Repeat the above process to add as many different link categories as your site needs.
After setting up your link categories, you can being adding new links.
How To Add New Links
To add a new link, click on Links > Add New in your navigation menu …
(Links – Add New)
You will be taken to the ‘Add New Link’ screen …
(Add New Link page)
You can also reach this page by clicking on the ‘Add New’ button at the top of the main Links screen …
(Links page – Add New Link button)
The ‘Add New Links’ page has several sections:
Name, Web Address & Description
Enter your link details in this section …
(Name, Web Addressand Description)
Type in the following information:
- Name: Enter the category name.
- Slug: The slug shows up in the URL of the link category name. Use lowercase letters only without 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)
In the Categories section, select a link category you’ve already set up, or click on ’+ Add New Category’ to create a new category link.
Next, select a target frame radio button for your link in the Target section. This lets you specify where the link should open when a visitor clicks on it:
- _blank means that when a visitor clicks on the link, a separate window will open up in their web browser to display the content for that link. This lets your visitors access the 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 links at the top level of the frame system if you’re using frames. Ignore 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) area)
Link Relationship (XFN) – XFN stands for XML Friends Network – is a way to define your relationship with the linked person. For example, if you have a professional relationship with Megan Schwartz and you link to her 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 all of 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 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, type nofollow into this field. Other ‘rel’ attributes include author, start, index, help, 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’ screen allows you to enter Advanced features for your links (some themes will ignore this. You can leave the fields in this section blank unless you have a reason to use them) …
(Advanced area – Add New Link)
The Advanced section fields include the following:
- Image Address: Lets you specify an image to be displayed with the link. 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 link’s RSS feed will display next to the 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).
Type in your information into the above fields or just leave this section ignore this section.
When you have finished adding your new link information, click on Add Link to save your new link …
(Click on Add Link to save your new link)
Note: If you select the Keep this link private checkbox, the link will not be visible when links are displayed on your site …
(Private link checkbox)
Making links private lets you toggle their visibility on and off without deleting your links (this is useful if you want to add seasonal links) …
(Making links private toggles their visibility on and off)
To see all your links, go to the navigation menu and choose Links > All Links …
(Links Menu – All Links)
You will be taken to the ‘Links’ screen. The table of links displays your links and link information (e.g. link URL, link categories, relationship, etc.) …
(Links screen)
Tip: To display or hide columns in the Links table, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab at the top of the screen …
(Screen Options – Table of links)
Enable/disable information on your table of links by selecting/deselecting their checkboxes …
(Links screen – Hide or display screen options)
Editing Links
To edit links in the Link Manager, go to your navigation menu and choose Links > All Links to bring up your list of links …
(WP Links – All Links)
Locate the item to be edited and click on Edit to bring up the link’s information …
(Editing links)
Change your link information …
(Edit Link screen)
After you’re done 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 its URL correctly (the link will open up in a new window),
- Click Delete to remove the link if it’s no longer required …
(Edit Link: Update Link button)
How To Delete Links
To remove links, go to the WP dashboard menu and click on Links > All Links …
(Links Menu – All Links)
The ‘Links’ screen will load in your browser.
You can delete links individually, delete multiple links, or remove all your links.
To delete links individually, hover your cursor over the link that you want to remove from the link table and click Delete …
(Deleting your links)
To delete multiple links, either tick the checkbox next to each item that you would like deleted, or select all links by clicking on the checkbox next to the ‘Name’ column header …
(Delete multiple links)
Choose Delete from the ‘Bulk Actions’ dropdown menu, and click Apply to remove your selected links …
(Bulk-deletion of links)
The links you have selected will be deleted …
(Deleted links message)
Plugin Usage
Now that you know how to set up link categories and how to add, edit and delete links, let’s show you how to display links on your website or blog.
Links Widget
The Links Manager plugin adds a ‘Links’ widget to your ‘Widgets’ section.
To access and configure your Link widgets, go to your WP dashboard menu and select Appearance > Widgets …
(Appearance Menu – Widgets)
This loads the ‘Widgets’ screen in your web browser.
You will notice that a ‘Links’ widget has been added to the Available Widgets section …
(Links widget)
To make the ‘Links’ widget active, drag it to one of the active widget sections and drop it wherever you want your links to display …
(Add a links widget to your WordPress sidebar using drag & drop)
The Links widget provides various options. 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 display a number of lists of links throughout your site …
(You can add a number of link widgets to your sidebar)
Select a link category to display a specific list of items …
(Link widget options – Select Link Category)
You can sort links by Link rating, Link title, Link ID, or display links in Random order …
(Link widget settings – Sort by options)
After setting up the Links widget, click the Save button to update your settings. Your link section will become visible on your site’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 more help using widgets? We have written a detailed article on widgets. Go here to learn more about this:
Links Manager – Additional Information
If you have loads of links, the Links Manager plugin allows you to easily administer these using search, sort, and filter features.
Sort Links Function
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 …
(Sort your links)
Finding Your Links
Type a search term into the search field and click the Search Links button to find links …
(Finding links)
Filtering Links
You can filter links by 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 search for link categories, or click on the category links in the ‘Links’ column …
(searching and filtering links in the Link Categories page)
This displays a list of all links grouped under 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 page containing a list of links to your site (i.e. not just add links on your sidebar), then you may want to consider using a plugin that can help you administer links, like Link Library.
Link Library
(Link library – WordPress Link Management Plugin)
Plugin Download URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-library/
Plugin Description
The Link Library plugin gives you the ability to publish a list of all your link categories with a complete list of links plus notes and descriptions …
(Link Library links. Image: Link Library plugin documentation.)
This plugin can be used to create a page on your website containing all 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 for your links that lets your site users become aware of any additions made to to your link library.
For more details about the benefits of using this plugin, go here:
Congratulations! Now you know how to how to add and manage links to external websites and pages in WordPress.
We have written a comprehensive article on how to add HTML links to WordPress posts & pages. For more details:
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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)