As you continue to learn more about the benefits of using 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 Manager lets you easily add and manage a links section to a widget-ready theme.
Before WordPress version 3.5 was released, Links were a visible feature of the WordPress CMS. After the release of v3.5, the Link Manager section was kept hidden by default in new installations …
Before …
(Links was part of the WordPress dashboard menu until the release of WP v3.5)
After …
(The Link Manager – excluded from WordPress after WP v 3.5)
If you’ve used an earlier version of WordPress than v 3.5 and updated your installation, the Link Manager would be 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 the Links menu section is not displayed when you log into your WP backend, you can add this feature via a plugin. In this tutorial, you will learn how to add, edit, delete and manage links on your site’s sidebar using WordPress plugins.
Link Manager
(Link Manager – Plugin For WordPress)
Download URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-manager
Description
The Link Manager plugin displays the default Links Manager, even if you update WordPress to a later version or remove all of your existing links.
Note: This plugin adds a single line of template 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 plugin below instead, or contact us for help editing your template code.
Simple Links
(Simple Links)
Download URL
https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-links/
Plugin Description
This plugin attempts to recreate the concept of the built-in Link Manager while addressing the shortcomings of the deprecated feature.
Installing Link Manager
To install the Link Manager plugin, follow these step-by-step instructions:
In your WP dashboard menu, select Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins – 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 search results screen and click Install Now …
Activate the plugin after it has been installed …
After activation, a ‘Links’ item is added to the WP navigation menu …
(WordPress links management menu section)
Plugin Configuration
Before you start adding links, it’s a good idea to set up your link categories. This way, when adding a new link, you can assign your link to a link category you have already created.
Link Categories
To create a link category, select Links > Link Categories in your WP navigation menu …
(Links Menu – Link Categories)
This loads the ‘Link Categories’ page in your web browser.
Type in the following information:
- Name: Enter the category name.
- Slug: The slug is the search-engine friendly URL part of your link category. Use lowercase letters only without spaces (use hyphens to separate words).
- Description: Some themes may display a link category description.
after entering your information, click Add New Link Category …
(Link Categories screen)
Your new category will now show in the table …
(Link Categories)
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 this to something that your visitors can understand. This will not only make it easier for users of your site, 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 better suited to your business)
To edit the default category name, hover your mouse over the item and click on Quick Edit …
(Quick Edit)
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), then click on the Update link Category button …
(Quick Edit)
Replace the category name ‘Blogroll’ with (e.g. ‘Recommended’, ‘Our Partners’ etc).
Let’s insert a description for this link category. To add a description to an existing link category, click on Edit under the category name …
(Link category description)
Enter your link category description field and click Update when finished …
(Edit Link Category area)
Repeat this process and add as many different link categories as you need.
Once you have finished setting up your link categories, you can add new links.
Adding New Links
To add a new link, go to the dashboard menu and click on Links > Add New …
(Links Menu – Add New)
This loads the Add New Link’ screen in your web browser …
(Add New Link page)
You can also reach this screen by clicking on ’Add New’ at the top of the main Links screen …
(Add New Link button)
The ‘Add New Links’ page includes several sections:
Name, Web Address & Description
This section is where you enter your link details …
(Add New Link page – Name, Web Addressand Description section)
Enter the following information:
- Name: Enter the link category name here.
- Slug: The slug appears 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 a link category description in the links section, or as a tool tip when visitors hover over the link name with their mouse. (Optional)
Categories & Target
After typing in link details, select a Category and Target for the link …
(Add New Link – Categories & Target)
In the Categories section, select a link category you’ve already added, or click on ’+ Add New Category’ to create a new category.
Also, select a target frame radio button for your link in the Target section. This lets you specify where you want the link to open when clicked on by visitors:
- _blank means that when a visitor clicks on your link, a new, separate browser window will open up to display the content for that link. This allows your visitors to see the information without leaving your site
- _none means that when a visitor clicks on your link, they will exit your site and a new website or page will load in your web browser window instead.
- _top opens the link at the top level of the frame system if you’re using frames. Don’t worry about 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) section – Add New Link page)
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 Dexter Larsson 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. 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 specifies 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 with spaces.
You can learn more about XFN by visiting the site below:
Advanced
The last section lets you enter Advanced features for your links (You can ignore this section, unless there’s a good reason to use it) …
(Advanced link settings – Add New Link)
The Advanced section fields are as follows:
- Image Address: Specify an image to be displayed with the link. To use this feature, add the URL of where the image is located and make sure that the image is small (around 16×16 like a favicon).
- RSS Address: If your theme allows it, the link’s RSS feed can be displayed next to the 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).
Enter information into the above fields or just leave this section blank.
When you are done 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 tick Keep this link private, your link will not be visible in your Blogroll section …
(You can make links private by checking the box)
Making a link private lets you add a link and then toggle its visibility on and off without deleting it (this is useful if you would like the link to display during certain times and hide it afterwards) …
(Toggle link visibility on and off)
To see all the links you have created, select Links > All Links in the WP dashboard navigation menu …
(WordPress Links Menu – All Links)
This loads the ‘Links’ table in your browser. The table of links displays all of your links and link information (e.g. link URL, link categories, visibility, etc.) …
(Links table)
Tip: To view or hide columns in the table of links, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab at the top of the screen …
(Links table – Screen Options)
Show/hide fields on your table of links by ticking/unticking their checkboxes …
(Hide or show – Links screen)
Editing Your Link Information
To edit a link, go to the dashboard menu and click on Links > All Links to bring up your list of links …
(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)
Edit the link …
(Edit Link screen)
After you’re done editing the link, you can:
- Click on Update Link to save your link details,
- Click on Visit Link to check that you have set up your link’s URL correctly (the link will open in a new window),
- Click Delete to delete the link …
(Update Link button)
How To Delete Links
To remove a link from the Link Manager, select Links > All Links in the WP admin menu …
(WP Links Menu – All Links)
This loads the ‘Links’ screen in your browser.
You can delete links individually, delete multiple links by selecting their check boxes, or perform a bulk delete.
To delete individual links, hover over the link title that you want removed and click on Delete …
(Deleting your links)
To delete multiple links, either tick the checkboxes next to individual links that you want 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’ menu, and click Apply to remove your selected links …
(Bulk-deletion of links)
The links you have selected will be deleted …
(links deleted notice)
Plugin Usage
Now that you know how to configure link categories and how to add, edit and delete links, it’s time to make links display on your site.
Links Widget
The Link Manager plugin adds a ‘Links’ widget to your ‘Widgets’ section.
To access and configure your Link widgets, go to your WP dashboard menu and click on Appearance > Widgets …
(Appearance – Widgets)
This brings up 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 your active widget sections and drop it wherever you want the links section to show up …
(Drag and drop your links widget to add it to a widgetized area)
The Links widget includes a number of configurable options. For example, you can specify what information you would like to display about your links and how many links you would like to display on your sidebar menu …
(Link widget - options)
You can also add as many link widgets to your sidebars and footers as you want. This lets you create and feature specific link lists on your site …
(You can add multiple link widgets to your widget bars)
Select a link category from the ‘Select Link Category:’ dropdown menu …
(Link widget settings – Select Link Category)
You can sort links by Link ID, Link title, Link rating, or display links in Random order …
(Link widget settings – Sort by options)
Once you are done setting up your links widget, click Save to update your settings. A 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? Go here to learn more about adding widgets:
Links Manager – Additional Information
If you have many links, the Link Manager plugin lets you easily administer these using sort, filter, and search functionality.
Sorting Links Function
To sort links, hover your mouse cursor over the title of the column you want to sort and click on the little black triangle displayed next to the column title …
(Sorting your links)
Find Your Links
Find links using the ‘Search Links’ feature …
(Finding links)
Filter Your Links
You can filter links by category …
(Filtering 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 category links in the ‘Links’ column …
(searching and filtering links in the Link Categories page)
This displays a list of all links listed for a specific link category …
(Links filtered by link category)
Links – Additional Options
If you plan to use links extensively on your site, or if you intend to add a ‘Links’ page to your site (i.e. not just add a links section to your sidebar), then you may want to look at using a plugin that can help you administer links.
Link Library
(Link library – WordPress Links Management Plugin)
Download 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 website.)
Link Library creates a page on your web site that contains a list of all of the link categories in your Links area, and all links listed in these categories. 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 be made aware of any additions made to to your link library.
For more details about the benefits of using this WordPress plugin, visit the plugin website:
Congratulations! Now you know how to add a featured links section to WordPress.
We have written a detailed article about how to easily insert HTML hyperlinks into your WordPress content. Go here to learn more:
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