As you learn more about WordPress, you may occasionally come across something called a blogroll.
A blogroll is a list of links pointing to other sites or pages that display on your sidebar area.
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 blogroll using the Links menu in your WordPress Dashboard. These links will then display on your site if you have added the Links widget.
Before WordPress version 3.5 was released, Links were a core feature of the WordPress CMS. From v 3.5 onwards, the Links Manager section was removed …
Before …
(WordPress Links Manager Feature – pre v 3.5)
After …
(Post v3.5 – no WordPress Links Manager feature)
If you have used an earlier version of WordPress than v.3.5 and upgraded 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 Manager is not visible when you log into your WordPress admin area you will need to install a plugin. This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to add and manage blogroll links on your sidebar using WordPress plugins.
Link Manager
(Link Manager – WordPress Links Management Plugin)
Plugin Download URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-manager
Description Of Plugin
Use this plugin to restore the Link Manager, even if you upgrade to a later version of WordPress or remove all of your current links.
Note: This plugin adds a single line of template code to your installation in order 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 this plugin, then use the plugin below instead, or contact us for help editing your template code.
Simple Links
(Simple Links Plugin)
Plugin Download URL
https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-links/
Plugin Description
Simple Links attempts to recreate the concept of the built-in WP Link Manager while removing the shortcomings of the deprecated functionality.
How To Install The Plugin
To install the Link Manager plugin, follow these instructions:
From your WordPress admin area, go to Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins – Add New)
Select the Install Plugins > Search tab, then 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 in the WP navigation menu area …
(WordPress links management menu)
Plugin Setup
Before you start adding new links, we recommend setting up your link categories. This way, you can assign any new links to the link category you have already created.
Link Categories
To create a link category, go to the admin menu and choose Links > Link Categories …
(Links – Link Categories)
The ‘Link Categories’ screen will load in your browser.
Enter information into the following sections:
- Name: Enter the category name here.
- Slug: The slug is the URL part of the link category name. Only use lower case letters without spaces (use hyphens to separate words).
- Description: Some themes may display your link category description.
after entering your information, click Add New Link Category to save your new link category name …
(Link Categories area)
Your link category will be added to the list …
(Link Categories)
Tip: The default WordPress link category is called Blogroll . Unless you specify the category when adding a link, WordPress automatically assigns new links to the default category …
(Default link category name)
You may want to change this to something better suited to your business. This not only makes 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 …
(Change the default link category name to something better suited to your business)
To change the default category name, hover your mouse over the category name and click on the Quick Edit link …
(Edit the link category)
Replace both the Name and the Slug with a new category name, and click on the Update link Category button …
(Editing the link category name)
Replace the link category ‘Blogroll’ with a more suitable name (e.g. ‘Recommended’, ‘Resources’ etc).
Let’s insert a description for this link category. To add a link category description, hover over the item name and click Edit …
(You can add/edit the category description)
Add your description in the ‘Edit Link Category’ screen and click Update …
(Edit Link Category area)
Repeat the above process and add as many link categories as your site requires.
After you have finished configuring your link categories, you can add new links.
How To Add New Links
To add a new link, click on Links > Add New in the main navigation menu …
(Links Menu – Add New)
You will be taken to the ‘Add New Link’ screen …
(Add New Link screen)
You can also access this screen by clicking on the ‘Add New’ button at the top of the main Links page …
(Links screen – Add New Link button)
The ‘Add New Links’ page is divided into several sections:
Name, Web Address & Description
Enter details about your link in this section …
(Name, Web Addressand Description)
Type in the following information:
- Name: Enter the link category name here.
- Slug: The slug appears in the web address 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 your link details, select a Category and Target for your link …
(Categories & Target – Add New Link)
In the Categories section, tick a link category you have already added, or click on ’+ Add New Category’ to create a new category link.
Also, select a target frame for your link in the Target section by choosing one of the radio buttons. This lets you specify how the link should open when clicked on by visitors:
- _blank means that a separate web browser window will open up to display the information for that link.
- _none means that when visitors click on the 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. 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 …
(Add New Link – Link Relationship (XFN) section)
Link Relationship (XFN) – XFN (XML Friends Network) allows you to define your relationship to the linked person. For example, if you work with Veer Jones and you link to his 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. Defining relationships with 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 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, help, index, etc. Separate multiple ‘rel’ keywords with spaces.
To learn more about XFN, visit this site:
Advanced
The last section of the Add New Link’ page allows you to enter Advanced features for your links (some themes will ignore this. You can ignore this section, unless there’s a good reason to use it) …
(Add New Link – Advanced area)
The Advanced link settings section contains the following options:
- Image Address: Specify an image to be displayed with the link. Add the 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 the links.
- Notes: This section lets you add notes 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, as these are not essential for links to work.
When you are done adding your new link information, click on the Add Link button to save your new link …
(Click on Add Link to save your new link)
Note: If you tick the checkbox next to Keep this link private, the link will not be visible in your Blogroll section …
(Private link checkbox)
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 want a link to display during certain times and hide it afterwards) …
(Making links private toggles their visibility on and off)
To see all the links you have added to the Link Manager, go to the main navigation menu and click on Links > All Links …
(WP Links – All Links)
This brings up the ‘Links’ table in your web browser. The list of links displays all of your links and link information (e.g. URL, categories, visibility, etc.) …
(Table of links)
Tip: To view or hide options in the Links page, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab at the top of the screen …
(Screen Options – Table of links)
Show/hide information on your table of links by selecting/deselecting their checkboxes …
(List of links – Show/hide screen options)
How To Edit Links
To modify links, go to the WP navigation menu and click on Links > All Links to bring up the links screen …
(Links – All Links)
Select the item to be edited and click on Edit to bring up the item’s link information …
(Editing your link information)
Edit your link …
(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 make sure that you have set up its URL correctly (your link will open up in a new window),
- Click Delete to delete the link …
(Update Link button)
How To Delete Your Links
To remove a link, click on Links > All Links in the WP dashboard menu …
(WP Links Menu – All Links)
This loads the ‘Links’ page 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 that you want to remove from the link table and click Delete …
(Delete links)
To delete a number of links at once, either tick the checkbox next to each item that you would like to remove, or select all links by clicking on the main check box next to the ‘Name’ column header at the top of the list …
(Delete multiple links)
Choose Delete from the ‘Bulk Actions’ menu, and click Apply to delete all selected links …
(Links: bulk-delete function)
The selected links will be deleted …
(Link deletion message)
Plugin Usage
Now that you know how to configure link categories and how to add, edit and delete links, it’s time to learn how to display links on your website.
Using The Links Widget
Installing the Link Manager plugin adds a ‘Links’ widget to your ‘Widgets’ page.
To access and configure your Link widgets, go to the admin menu and click on Appearance > Widgets …
(WordPress Appearance Menu – Widgets)
You will be taken to the ‘Widgets’ page.
You will notice that a ‘Links’ widget has been added to the Available Widgets section …
(Links widget)
To make the ‘Links’ widget active, drag the widget to one of the active widget sections and drop it wherever you would like your links to show up …
(Adding a links widget to a widgetized menu using drag & drop)
The Links widget provides various configurable options. For example, you can specify what information you would like to display about your links and how many links you want displayed on your sidebar …
(Link widget - configurable settings)
You can also add as many link widgets to your sidebars and footers as you want. This allows you to create and display specific links 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 title, Link rating, Link ID, or display links in Random order …
(Link widget options – Sorting options)
Once you are done setting up your links widget, click Save to update your settings. A link section will now appear on your website or blog’s sidebar menu …
(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? We have written a comprehensive article about widgets. For more details, go here:
Links Manager – Additional Information
If you have many links, the Link Manager plugin allows you to 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 little triangle displayed next to the column title …
(Sort links function)
Finding Links
Type a search term into the search field and click the Search Links button …
(Search links function)
Filter Your Links
You can filter links by link categories …
(Filtering your links by link category)
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 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)
Links – Additional Options
If you plan to add a lot of links to your website, or if you intend to add a ‘Links’ page 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.
Link Library
(Link library – WordPress Link Management Plugin)
Plugin Download URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-library/
Plugin Description
Link Library allows you to display a list of all your link categories and a complete list of all your links together with notes and descriptions …
(Link Library links. Image: Link Library plugin documentation.)
This useful plugin can be used to create a page on your site containing a list of all of the link categories in your Links section, 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.
Visit the plugin site to learn more about using this handy plugin:
Congratulations! Now you know how to add external links to WordPress.
We have written a detailed article on how to add hyperlinks to WordPress. Go here to learn more:
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