As you become more familiar with WordPress, you may occasionally come across references to the term blogroll.
WordPress refers to a list of hyperlinks pointing to other websites or pages that display on your sidebar area 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.”
You can display links on your sidebar or footer using the WordPress Link Manager plugin.
Before WordPress v 3.5 was released, Links were a core feature of the WordPress CMS. From v 3.5 onwards, the Links Manager section was hidden by default in new WordPress installations …
Before …
(Links – part of the WordPress menu until the release of WP version 3.5)
After …
(Post version 3.5 – no WP Links feature)
If you were using the Links feature in previous versions of WordPress, then it will still be available when your WordPress installation updates to a newer version. If you’ve never used Link Manager, however, or if your website 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 a Links item on the main menu when you log into your WordPress admin area, you can add it by installing a plugin. This tutorial shows you how to add and manage blogroll links on your sidebar using plugins.
Link Manager
(Link Manager WordPress Plugin)
Download URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-manager
Plugin Description
This plugin restores the default Link Manager, even if you upgrade to a later version of WordPress or remove all of your existing links.
Note: This plugin adds a single line of code to restore the hidden feature. When we last 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 plugin 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/
Plugin Description
Simple Links recreates the concept of the built-in Link Manager while removing the shortcomings of the deprecated feature.
Installing Link Manager
Let’s install the Link Manager plugin.
From your WordPress admin area, go to Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins – Add New)
Click on the Install Plugins > Search tab, type in “link manager” into the search field and hit Enter …
Locate the plugin in the results screen and click Install Now …
Activate the plugin …
After activation, a ‘Links’ item will show up on your navigation menu screen …
(WordPress links menu section)
Setting Up The Plugin
We recommend setting up link categories first before you start adding new links. This way, you can assign any new links to link categories you have already created.
Link Categories
To create a new link category, choose Links > Link Categories in your navigation menu …
(Links – Link Categories)
The ‘Link Categories’ screen will display in your browser.
Type in information into the following sections:
- Name: Enter the category name here.
- Slug: The slug is the SEO friendly URL part 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 a link category description.
When finished, click the Add New Link Category button to save …
(Link Categories area)
Your new category will now show in the table …
(Link Categories)
Tip: Blogroll is the default link category name. Unless you specify a category when creating a new link, WordPress automatically assigns new links to the default category …
(Default link category)
You may want to change this 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 edit the default category name, hover your mouse over the item and click on the Quick Edit link …
(Quick Edit)
Replace both the Name and the Slug with a new category name, then click on the Update link Category button …
(Update Link Category)
In our example, the category ‘Blogroll’ has been replaced with an appropriate links section name (e.g. ‘Recommended’).
Let’s create a link category description. To add a description to an existing link category, hover over the link category name and click Edit …
(Link category description)
Add your description in the ‘Edit Link Category’ page and click Update …
(Edit Link Category page)
Repeat the above process and add as many different link categories as you need.
After configuring your link categories, you can being adding your links.
How To Add Links
To create a new link, go to the main dashboard menu and click on Links > Add New …
(Links – Add New)
This loads the Add New Link’ page in your web browser …
(Add New Link screen)
You can also access this page by clicking on the ‘Add New’ button at the top of the main Links screen …
(Add New Link button)
The ‘Add New Links’ page includes the following sections:
Name, Web Address & Description
Enter your link details in this section …
(Name, Web Address, Description – Add New Link page)
Enter the following information:
- Name: What you enter here displays as the link category name.
- Slug: The slug appears in the SEO friendly 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. (Optional)
Categories & Target
After adding link details, select a Category and Target for your new link …
(Categories & Target section)
In the Categories section, tick one of the link categories you have already set up, 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 where you want your link to open when clicked on:
- _blank means that a new browser window will open up to display the information associated with the link. This lets your visitors see the information without leaving your website
- _none means that when a visitor clicks on the link, they will leave 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. 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 …
(Add New Link screen – Link Relationship (XFN))
Link Relationship (XFN) – XFN (XML Friends Network) allows you to define your relationship to the linked person. For example, if you work with Lucy Fields and you link to her blog, you would probably check co-worker or colleague.
XFN relationships are optional. You can leave everything in this section blank and your links will still work. XFN makes the links defined on your site more understandable to some websites 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 what relationship exists 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, help, index, etc.
You can learn more about XFN by visiting this site:
Advanced
The last section lets you enter Advanced features for your links (some themes will ignore this. You can leave these fields blank unless there’s a good reason to use them) …
(Add New Link screen – Advanced link settings)
The Advanced section contain the following fields:
- Image Address: Specify an image to be displayed with the link. Add the URL of where the image is stored 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 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).
Enter information in the above fields or just leave this section ignore this section.
When you are done adding information about your link, click on Add Link to save your new link …
(Click on Add Link to save your new link)
Note: If you select Keep this link private, the link will not be visible when links are displayed on your site …
(Make your links private)
Making a link private lets you toggle its visibility on and off without deleting it (this is useful if you want your link to display during certain times and hide it afterwards) …
(Toggle link visibility on and off)
To see a list of all the links you have created, go to the navigation menu and select Links > All Links …
(WordPress Links – All Links)
This brings up the ‘Links’ screen in your browser. The list of links displays your links and link information (e.g. URL, link categories, relationship, etc.) …
(Links page)
Tip: To display additional columns in the Links table, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab near the top of the screen …
(Links page – Screen Options)
Enable/disable fields on your Links table by ticking/unticking their checkboxes …
(Show/hide – Links table)
How To Edit Link Information
To modify links, select Links > All Links in your WP navigation menu to bring up your table of links …
(Links Menu – All Links)
Locate the link you want to edit and click on Edit to bring up the item’s link information …
(Editing links)
Edit your link information …
(Edit Link page)
After you’re done editing your link, you can:
- Click the Update Link button to save and update your link details,
- Click on Visit Link to see your link and check that you have set up the link’s URL correctly (your link will open in a new window),
- Click Delete to delete the link from your link table if it’s no longer required …
(Update Link button)
How To Remove Your Links
To delete a link, go to the main navigation menu and select Links > All Links …
(Links – All Links)
This brings up the ‘Links’ table.
You can delete links individually, delete multiple links by selecting their check boxes, or perform a bulk delete.
To delete links individually, hover your mouse cursor over the link that you want removed and click Delete …
(Deleting your links)
To delete links in bulk, either click on the check box next to every link that you would like removed, or select all links by clicking on the main check box next to the ‘Name’ column header …
(Delete multiple links)
Choose Delete from the ‘Bulk Actions’ dropdown menu, and click Apply to delete all selected links …
(Bulk-deletion of 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, let’s show you how to display links on your website.
Links Widget
Installing the Link Manager plugin adds a ‘Links’ widget to your ‘Widgets’ page.
To access and configure your Link widgets, go to your WP dashboard menu and select Appearance > Widgets …
(WordPress Appearance Menu – Widgets)
The ‘Widgets’ screen will display in your web browser.
You will see a ‘Links’ widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links widget)
To make the ‘Links’ widget active, drag the widget to one of your active widget sections in the Widgets page and drop it wherever you want your links to display …
(Drag & drop your links widget to add it to a widgetized menu)
The Links widget offers 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 settings)
You can also add as many link widgets to your sidebar as you want. This allows you to add and display link sections on your site …
(You can add a number of link widgets to your widget bars)
Display links for a specific category …
(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 options – Sorting options)
Once you are done configuring the links widget, click the Save button to update your settings. Your link section will now appear on your website …
(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 with widgets? We have written a detailed article about widgets. For more details:
Links Manager – Additional Information
If you have added many links, the Links Manager plugin lets you easily administer these using search, sort, and filter functions.
Sorting Links Function
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 your links)
Find Links Function
Type a search term into the search field and click the Search Links button to find links …
(Finding links)
Filtering Your Links
You can filter links by categories …
(Filter your 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 displays a list of all links listed 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 ‘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)
Download Plugin URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-library/
Plugin Description
The Link Library plugin lets you output a list of all your link categories with a complete list of links plus notes and descriptions …
(Link Library links. Image: Link Library plugin website.)
This useful plugin creates a page on your web site that contains a list of all of the link categories in your Links section, 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 for your links that lets your site users become aware of additions to your link library.
To learn more about the Link Library plugin:
Congratulations! Now you know how to add external links to your WordPress sidebar.
To learn more about how to add links into WordPress posts, see this article:
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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