As you continue to discover more about the benefits of using WordPress, you may occasionally come across the term blogroll.

A blogroll is a list of hyperlinks pointing to other websites or web pages displayed on your sidebar section.

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 manage a link section using the Links menu in your Dashboard. These links will then display on your site if you have added the Links widget.

Prior to the release of version 3.5, Links were a core feature of the WordPress CMS. From version 3.5 onwards, the Link Manager section was hidden by default in new WordPress installations …

Before …

(WP Links Menu – pre v3.5)

After …

(The Link Manager feature – no longer displayed in the WordPress admin menu after WordPress version 3.5)

If you have had an earlier version of WordPress than v 3.5 installed and upgraded your installation, then the Link Manager would have been 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 you can’t see the Links feature when you log into your WordPress dashboard you will need to install a plugin. This step-by-step tutorial explains how to add, edit, delete and manage links on your site’s sidebar using WordPress plugins.

Link Manager

(Link Manager – WordPress Links Management Plugin)

Download URL

http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-manager

Description Of Plugin

Use this plugin to display the default Links feature on your WordPress dashboard, 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 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 this plugin, then use the plugin below instead, or contact us for help editing your site’s template code.

Simple Links

(Simple Links WordPress Plugin)

Download URL

https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-links/

Plugin Description

This plugin recreates the concept of the built-in WordPress Link Manager while removing the shortcomings of the deprecated feature.

How To Install Link Manager

Let’s install the Link Manager plugin.

From the WordPress admin area, select Plugins > Add New …

(Plugins – Add New)

Select the Install Plugins > Search tab, type in “link manager” into the search field and hit Enter …

Locate the plugin in the results area and click Install Now …

Activate the plugin …

After activating the plugin, a ‘Links’ item will show on your admin menu …

(Links menu)

Configuring The Plugin

Before adding links, it’s a good idea to set up your link categories. This way, you can assign new links to a link category you have already created.

Link Categories

To create a link category, go to the navigation menu and select Links > Link Categories …

(WordPress Links Menu – Link Categories)

You will be taken to the ‘Link Categories’ page.

Enter the following information:

• Name: Enter the category name.
• Slug: The slug displays in the URL 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 your link category description.

When done, click the Add New Link Category button to save your new link category name …

(Link Categories)

The link category will be added to the table …

(Link Categories screen)

Tip: Blogroll is the default link category name. Unless you specify a category when adding a link, WordPress automatically assigns new links to the default category …

(Default link category)

You may want to change this default WordPress link category name to something that will make sense to your readers. 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 …

(Change the default ’blogroll’ to something better suited to your business)

To edit the default category name, hover your mouse over the category name and click on Quick Edit …

(Edit the link category name)

Change 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), then click on Update Link Category …

(Quick Edit)

Replace the category ‘Blogroll’ with an appropriate links section category name (e.g. ‘Recommended’, ‘Links’ etc).

Let’s add a link category description. 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 when finished …

(Edit Link Category screen)

Repeat this process and add as many different link categories as you need.

After setting up your link categories, you can start adding your links.

Adding Links

To add a new link, select Links > Add New in the dashboard menu …

(Links Menu – Add New)

This brings up the Add New Link’ screen in your web browser …

(Add New Link page)

You can also access this screen by clicking on the ‘Add New’ button at the top of the main Links page …

(Links – Add New Link button)

The ‘Add New Links’ page has a number of sections:

Name, Web Address & Description

Enter your link details in this section …

(Name, Web Address& Description section – Add New Link page)

Type in information into the following sections:

• Name: What you type here is the category name that will display on your site.
• Slug: The slug is the search-engine friendly URL bit of your link category. Use only lowercase letters and do not include spaces (use hyphens to separate words).
• Description: Some themes may display your link category description in the links section, or as a tool tip when visitors hover over the link name.

Categories & Target

Select a Category and Target for the link …

(Add New Link – Categories & Target)

In the Categories section, select a link category you have already created, or click on the ‘+ Add New Category’ link to create a new category.

Next, select a target frame radio button for your link in the Target section. This lets you specify how you want the link to open when clicked on:

• _blank means that a separate web browser window will open up to display the information associated with the link. Your visitor can see the link information without leaving your website
• _none means that when visitors click on your 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 …

(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 Asher Schwartz 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 your links 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 is used to define 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. Other ‘rel’ attributes include author, start, index, help, etc. Separate multiple ‘rel’ keywords with spaces.

To learn more about XFN, visit the site below:

• WordPress Codex: Defining Relationships With XFN

Advanced

The last section of the Add New Link’ page allows you to specify Advanced features for your links (You can ignore this section, unless there’s a good reason to use it) …

(Advanced section)

The Advanced section fields are as follows:

• 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 can display next to your links.
• Notes: This section lets you add notes for your own internal reference.
• Rating: You can 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 in the above fields or just leave this section blank, as these fields are not required.

When you have finished adding information about your link, click on the Add Link button to save your new link …

(Click on the Add Link button to save your new link)

Note: If you tick the Keep this link private checkbox, the link will not be visible in your Links section …

(Make your links private)

Making a link private allows you to add a link and then toggle its visibility on or off without deleting it (this is useful if you would like a link to display during certain times and hide it after it’s no longer required) …

(Toggle link visibility on and off)

To see all the links you have added to the Link Manager, go to the dashboard navigation menu and click on Links > All Links …

(WP Links Menu – All Links)

This brings up the ‘Links’ page in your web browser. The table of links displays all your links and link information (e.g. URL, categories, rating, etc.) …

(Table of links)

Tip: To show or hide information in the Links page, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab near the top of your screen …

(Links page – Screen Options)

Enable/disable fields on your table of links by selecting/deselecting their check boxes …

(Table of links – Show/hide screen options)

Editing Your Link Information

To edit links, click on Links > All Links in the main dashboard menu to bring up the list of links …

(Links – All Links)

Locate the link you want to edit and click on Edit to bring up the link’s information …

(Editing your link information)

Edit your link …

(Edit Link screen)

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 check that you have set up everything correctly (the link will open up in a new window),
• Click Delete to remove the link …

(Edit Link: Update Link button)

Deleting Your Links

To remove a link from the Link Manager, choose Links > All Links in the navigation menu …

(Links – All Links)

The ‘Links’ page will load in your web 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 from the link table and click on Delete …

(Delete links)

To delete multiple links, either tick the checkbox next to every item that you would like to remove, or select all links by clicking on the 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 …

(links deleted notice)

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 make links display on your website.

Links Widget

Installing the Link Manager plugin adds a ‘Links’ widget to your ‘Widgets’ screen.

To access and configure your Link widgets, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WP dashboard menu …

(WP Appearance – Widgets)

You will be taken to the ‘Widgets’ screen.

You will see a ‘Links’ widget in the Available Widgets section …

(Links widget)

Drag the ‘Links’ widget to one of the widget bars and drop it wherever you want the links section to show up …

(Adding a links widget to a widgetized menu using drag and drop)

The Links widget includes various configurable settings. For example, you can specify what information you want to show about your links and how many links you would like displayed on your sidebar …

(Link widget - configurable options)

You can also add as many link widgets as you want. This lets you create and display specific links on your site …

(Add a number of link widgets to your widget bars)

Display a list of links for a specific 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 – Sort by options)

After configuring your links widget, click the Save button to update your settings. A link section will display on your sidebar, footer or wherever you add the links widget to …

(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? We have written a detailed article about adding widgets. To learn more, go here:

• How To Add WordPress Widgets To The Sidebar Area

Link Manager – Additional Information

If you have loads of links, the Link Manager plugin lets you easily administer these with sort, search, and filter features.

Sort Your Links

To sort links, hover your cursor over the title of the column you want to sort and click on the black triangle displayed next to the column title …

(Sort links)

Search Links

You can search for links using the ‘Search Links’ button …

(Search your links)

Filter Your Links

You can filter links by link categories …

(Filter links by link 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 links in the ‘Links’ column …

(Search and filter links in the Link Categories screen)

This brings up a list of all links grouped under a specific link category …

(Links filtered by link category)

Links – Additional Options

If you plan to add a lot of links to your website or blog, 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)

Download Plugin URL

http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-library/

Plugin Description

Link Library lets you display a list of all your link categories and a complete list of links plus descriptions and notes …

(List of links created with Link library. Image sourced from Link Library plugin documentation.)

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 links that lets your site users become aware of additions to your link library.

To learn more about the benefits of using this WordPress plugin, go here:

• Link Library – WordPress Plugin

Congratulations! Now you know how to add a link section to your WordPress site.

We have also created a detailed article about how to add hyperlinks to your WordPress posts here:

• Using The Internal Linking Tool In WordPress

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