As you learn more about WordPress, you may occasionally come across the term blogroll.
WordPress refers to a list of hyperlinks pointing to other websites or pages that display on your sidebar 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 add external hyperlinks to your WordPress sidebar section (e.g. a “Resources” section) using widgets.
Before WordPress v.3.5 was released, Links were a core feature of the WordPress CMS. After v 3.5, the Links Manager section was hidden by default in new WordPress installations …
Before …
(WordPress Links Manager Feature – pre v3.5)
After …
(Post v 3.5 – no WordPress Links Manager)
If you’ve had an earlier version than 3.5 installed and updated your installation, the Link Manager would have been 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 Link Manager is not visible when you log into your WordPress dashboard you will need to install a plugin. In this tutorial, you will learn how to add, edit, delete and manage blogroll links on your site’s sidebar using WordPress plugins.
Link Manager
(Link Manager)
Plugin Download URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-manager
Description
The Link Manager plugin displays the Links menu on your WP dashboard, even if you upgrade WordPress to a later version or remove all of your current links.
Note: All this plugin does is add 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 one below instead, or contact us for help editing your site’s template code.
Simple Links
(Simple Links WordPress Plugin)
Plugin Download URL
https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-links/
Description Of Plugin
Simple Links recreates the same concept as the built-in Link Manager while removing the shortcomings of the deprecated functionality.
Installing Link Manager
Let’s install the Link Manager plugin.
In the WordPress admin area, 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 you’ve activated the plugin, WordPress adds a ‘Links’ item to the dashboard menu area …
(WordPress links management menu section)
Plugin Configuration
We recommend setting up your link categories first before adding links. This way, you can assign any new links to link categories you have already created.
Link Categories
To create a link category, go to your WP dashboard navigation menu and choose Links > Link Categories …
(WordPress Links Menu – Link Categories)
This loads the ‘Link Categories’ page in your browser.
Type in the following information:
- Name: Enter the category name here.
- Slug: The slug is the SEO friendly URL bit of your 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)
When done, click Add New Link Category to save …
(Link Categories)
Your new category will now show in the list …
(Link Categories)
Tip: Blogroll is the default link category name. Unless you specify the category when creating a link, WordPress will automatically assign new links to the default category …
(Default link category name)
You may want to change this to something that will make sense to your visitors. This will not only make it easier for visitors, but any new links that you add to your site will automatically be assigned to the new category name …
(Consider changing the default ’blogroll’ to something your visitors will relate to)
To change 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 Update Link Category …
(Quick Edit)
Replace the link category ‘Blogroll’ with (e.g. ‘Recommended’, ‘XYZ Sites’ etc).
Let’s create a link category description. To add a description to an existing link category, hover over the item name and click Edit …
(Link category description)
Enter your link category description field and click Update when you’re done …
(Edit Link Category page)
Repeat the above process and add as many new link categories as your site needs.
Once you have set up your link categories, you can add new links.
How To Add Links
To create a new link, select Links > Add New in the dashboard navigation menu …
(Links Menu – Add New)
This brings up the Add New Link’ screen in your web browser …
(Add New Link screen)
You can also access this page by clicking on ’Add New’ at the top of the main Links page …
(Links page – Add New Link button)
The ‘Add New Links’ page includes various sections:
Name, Web Address & Description
The first section lets you enter details about your link …
(Add New Link – Name, Web Address, Description section)
Enter the following information:
- Name: Whatever you enter in this field will display as the link category name.
- Slug: The slug shows up in the 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 a link category description in the links section, or as a tool tip when visitors hover over the link name. (Optional)
Categories & Target
After adding your link details, select a Category and Target for your link …
(Categories & Target fields)
In the Categories section, tick a link category you’ve already added, or click on the ‘+ Add New Category’ link to create a new category link.
Next, select a target frame for your link in the Target section by choosing one of the radio buttons. This lets you specify how you want the link to open when clicked on:
- _blank means that a separate browser window will open up to display the information for that link. This lets your visitors access the information without leaving your website
- _none means that when visitors click on the 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. 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 section provides some additional link functionality …
(Link Relationship (XFN) – Add New Link page)
Link Relationship (XFN) – XFN stands for XML Friends Network – lets you define your relationship to the linked person. For example, if you have a professional relationship with Ananya Jones and you link to her blog, you would probably check co-worker or colleague.
XFN relationships are optional. You can ignore this section and all your links will work just fine. Defining relationships with XFN makes your links more understandable to some websites 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.
To learn more about XFN, visit this site:
Advanced
The last section of the Add New Link’ page allows you to specify Advanced features for your links (some themes will ignore this. You can leave these fields blank unless you have a reason to use them) …
(Advanced link settings)
The Advanced section fields are as follows:
- Image Address: Specify an image to be displayed with the link. To use this feature, add an image URL 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 can be displayed next to your links.
- Notes: Add notes about the link in this section for your own internal reference.
- Rating: 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 into the above fields or just leave this section blank.
When you are done adding information about your link, click on the Add Link button to save your new link …
(Click on Add Link to update your link settings)
Note: If you tick the checkbox next to Keep this link private, the link will not be visible when links are displayed on your site …
(Private link checkbox)
Making a link private allows you to toggle link visibility on and off without deleting it (this is useful if you want to use seasonal links) …
(Making links private toggles their visibility on and off)
To see all your links, select Links > All Links in your WP dashboard menu …
(Links – All Links)
The ‘Links’ table will load in your browser. The Links screen displays all of your links and link information (e.g. URL, categories, rating, etc.) …
(Links table)
Tip: To show or hide options in the Links table, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab near the top of your screen …
(Screen Options – Links page)
Display/hide information on your table of links by ticking/unticking their check boxes …
(Show/hide links)
Editing Your Links
To modify a link in the Link Manager, go to the main navigation menu and select Links > All Links to bring up the list of links …
(Links Menu – All Links)
Select the link to be edited and click on Edit to bring up the link’s information …
(Editing link information)
Make changes to the link fields …
(Edit Link screen)
After you’re done editing the 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 the link’s URL correctly (your link will open up in a new window),
- Click Delete to remove the link from your list if it’s no longer required …
(Update Link button)
Deleting Links
To remove links, go to your WP admin menu and click on Links > All Links …
(Links Menu – All Links)
This loads the ‘Links’ screen in your web browser.
You can delete links individually, delete multiple links by selecting their check boxes, or remove all of your links.
To delete links individually, hover over the link that you want to remove from the link table and click Delete …
(Deleting links)
To delete a number of links at once, either tick the check boxes next to individual links that you would like to remove, or select all links by clicking on the main checkbox next to the ‘Name’ column header at the top of the list …
(Deleting multiple links)
Choose Delete from the ‘Bulk Actions’ dropdown menu, and click the Apply button to remove your selected links …
(Bulk-deletion of links)
All the links you have selected will be removed …
(links deleted notice)
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 make links display on your site.
Links Widget
Installing the Link Manager plugin adds a ‘Links’ widget to your ‘Widgets’ section.
To access and configure your Link widgets, go to your WP navigation menu and choose Appearance > Widgets …
(Appearance Menu – Widgets)
This loads the ‘Widgets’ screen in your browser.
You will see a ‘Links’ widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links widget)
To make the ‘Links’ widget active, drag it to one of your widget bars in the Widgets page and drop it wherever you want your links to show up …
(Adding a links widget to a widgetized menu)
The Links widget provides various configurable options. For example, you can specify what information you want to display about your links and how many links you would like to display on your sidebar menu …
(Link widget options)
You can add multiple link widgets to your sidebar. This allows you to add and feature a number of links sorted by categories on your site …
(You can add multiple link widgets to your sidebar)
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 – Sort by options)
After setting up the links widget, click the Save button to update your settings. A links should now be visible 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 more help with widgets? To learn more about widgets, see this article:
Link Manager – Additional Information
If you have loads of links, the Links Manager plugin allows you to easily administer these with searching, filtering, and sorting functionality.
Sorting Links
To sort links, hover your mouse over the title of the column you want to sort and click on the black triangle displayed next to the column title …
(Sorting links)
Search Links
Search for links using the ‘Search Links’ feature …
(You can search links with the search function)
Filtering Links Function
You can filter links by categories …
(Filter your links by category)
You can also search and filter links in the Link Categories screen. 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 page)
This brings up a list of all links listed under a specific link category …
(Links filtered by link category)
Links – Additional Options
If you plan to use links extensively on your website or blog, 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 Plugin)
Download Plugin URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-library/
Plugin Description
Link Library lets you publish a list of your link categories with a complete list of all your links together with descriptions and notes …
(Link Library links. Image sourced from Link Library plugin website.)
Link Library creates a page on your web site that contains all the link categories in your Links area, and 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 of your links that lets your site users become aware of any additions made to to your link library.
To learn more about the Link Library plugin:
Congratulations! Now you know how to how to add and manage links in WordPress.
We have also created a detailed article on how to easily insert HTML links into your WordPress posts and pages here:
***
"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum