As you discover more about WordPress, you may occasionally come across something called a blogroll.
A blogroll is a list of hyperlinks pointing to external sites or blogs 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.”
The Links feature lets you add a links section to a widget-ready theme.
Before WordPress v.3.5 was released, Links were a visible feature of the WordPress CMS. From version 3.5 onwards, the Links manager and blogroll sections were removed …
Before …
(The Link Manager feature was part of the menu until the release of WP version 3.5)
After …
(Post v3.5 – no WordPress Links feature)
If you’ve used an earlier version of WordPress than 3.5 and updated your installation, then the Links 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 Link Manager is not visible when you log into your WordPress admin area you will need to install a plugin. In this tutorial, you will learn how to add and manage blogroll links on your sidebar using WordPress plugins.
Link Manager
(Link Manager Plugin)
Plugin URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-manager
Description Of Plugin
The Link Manager plugin displays the default Links 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 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 one 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/
Description
This plugin attempts to recreate the same concept as the built-in Link Manager while removing the shortcomings of the deprecated feature.
Installing Link Manager
To install the Link Manager plugin on your website or blog, follow these instructions:
In your WordPress administration menu, select Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins Menu – Add New)
Select the Install Plugins > Search tab, type ”link manager” into the search field and hit Enter …
Find the plugin in the results screen and click Install Now …
Activate the plugin after it has been installed …
After activation, a ‘Links’ item will get added to your dashboard menu area …
(WordPress links management menu section)
Plugin Configuration
We recommend setting up link categories first before adding new links. This way, when adding a new link, you can assign the link to a link category you have already created.
Link Categories
To create a link category, click on Links > Link Categories in your dashboard menu …
(WP Links Menu – Link Categories)
The ‘Link Categories’ page will load in your web browser.
Enter the following information:
- Name: What you enter here is the link category name that will display on your site.
- Slug: The slug is the search-engine friendly URL bit of the link category name. Only use lower case letters without spaces (use hyphens to separate words).
- Description: Some themes may display a link category description. (Optional)
When finished, click the Add New Link Category button to save your new link category name …
(Link Categories)
The new category will display in the table …
(Link Categories area)
Tip: Blogroll is the default link category name. Unless you specify the category for a link, WordPress will automatically assign new links to the default category …
(Default link category name is ‘blogroll’)
You may want to change the default link category name to something that your visitors can relate to. This will not only make 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 …
(we recommend changing the default link category name to something your visitors will understand)
To change the ‘Blogroll’ link title, hover your mouse over the category name and click on Quick Edit …
(Quick Edit)
Replace both the Name and the Slug with a new category name, then click on the Update link Category button …
(Editing the link category name)
Replace the category ‘Blogroll’ with a name more suitable to your purposes (e.g. ‘Recommended’, ‘Related Items’ etc).
Let’s insert a description for this link category. To add a link category description, hover over the item name and click Edit …
(Link category description)
Enter your link category description field and click Update …
(Edit Link Category screen)
Repeat this process to add as many new link categories as your site needs.
After you have finished configuring your link categories, you can being adding your links.
Adding Links
To add a new link, go to your WP admin menu and choose Links > Add New …
(Links – Add New)
The ‘Add New Link’ page will display in your web browser …
(Add New Link page)
You can also reach this screen by clicking on ’Add New’ in the main Links page …
(Links – Add New Link button)
The ‘Add New Links’ page has several sections:
Name, Web Address & Description
Enter your link details in this section …
(Name, Web Address& Description area – Add New Link)
Enter the following information:
- Name: Enter the link category name here.
- Slug: The slug is the URL bit of your link category name. Use only lowercase letters without spaces (use hyphens to separate words).
- Description: Some themes may display your link category description. (Optional)
Categories & Target
Select a Category and Target for your new link …
(Categories & Target section – Add New Link)
In the Categories section, select one of the link categories you’ve 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 how you want the link to open when clicked on by visitors:
- _blank means that when visitors click on the link, a new window will open up in their web browser to display the content for that link. This allows your visitors to access the information without leaving your site
- _none means that when visitors click on the link, they will leave your site and a new site 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 area provides some additional link functionality …
(Link Relationship (XFN))
Link Relationship (XFN) – XFN (XML Friends Network) allows you to define your relationship with the linked person. For example, if you have a professional relationship with Sue 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 all of 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 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, enter nofollow into this field. Other ‘rel’ attributes include author, index, help, start, etc.
You can learn more about XFN by visiting the site below:
Advanced
The last section allows you to specify Advanced features for your links (You can ignore this section, unless there’s a good reason to use it) …
(Add New Link – Advanced link settings)
The Advanced section fields are as follows:
- Image Address: Lets you specify an image to be displayed with the link. 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 your link.
- Notes: Add notes about the link in this section for your own internal reference.
- Rating: 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 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 Keep this link private checkbox, the link will not be visible when links are displayed on your site …
(Make your links private)
Making a link private lets you toggle link visibility on or off without deleting it (this is useful if you would like a link to display during certain periods and hide it after it’s no longer required) …
(Toggle link visibility on and off)
To see a list of all the links you have created, choose Links > All Links in your WP navigation menu …
(Links – All Links)
This loads the ‘Links’ table in your web browser. The list of links displays all of your links and link information (e.g. link URL, link categories, visibility, etc.) …
(Links page)
Tip: To display or hide columns in the Links table, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab at the top of your screen …
(Screen Options – Links page)
Enable/disable fields on your Links table by ticking/unticking their check boxes …
(Hide or display – Links screen)
Editing Link Information
To modify links in the Link Manager, choose Links > All Links in your WP navigation menu to bring up the links table …
(Links – All Links)
Locate the link you want to edit and click on Edit to bring up the item’s link details …
(Editing your link information)
Change the link …
(Edit Link page)
After editing your link, you can:
- Click the Update Link button to save your link details,
- Click on Visit Link to make sure that you have set up its URL correctly (the link will open up in a new window),
- Click Delete to delete the link from your table if it’s no longer required …
(Edit Link: Update Link button)
How To Remove Links
To remove a link from the Link Manager, click on Links > All Links in the main navigation menu …
(WP Links Menu – All Links)
The ‘Links’ table will display in your browser.
You can delete links individually, delete multiple links, or perform a bulk delete.
To delete individual links, hover your cursor over the link that you want to remove and click on Delete …
(Deleting links)
To delete links in bulk, either tick the checkbox next to each link that you would like to delete, or select all links by clicking on the main check box next to the ‘Name’ column header …
(Deleting multiple links)
Choose Delete from the ‘Bulk Actions’ drop-down menu, and click the Apply button to delete your selected links …
(Bulk-delete links)
The links you have selected will be removed …
(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 display links on your website.
Using The Links Widget
Installing the Links Manager plugin adds a ‘Links’ widget to your ‘Widgets’ screen.
To access and configure your Link widgets, choose Appearance > Widgets in the WP dashboard navigation menu …
(Appearance Menu – Widgets)
The ‘Widgets’ page will load in your browser.
You will notice a ‘Links’ widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links widget)
Drag the ‘Links’ widget to one of your active widget bars and drop it wherever you want the links to display …
(Add a links widget to your widget bar)
The Links widget provides a number of options. You can specify what information you would like displayed about your links and how many links you want to display on your sidebar …
(Link widget - configurable options)
You can add as many link widgets as you want. This lets you add and display lists of links on your site …
(You can add a number of link widgets to your sidebar)
Select a link category to display a specific list of items …
(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 configuring the links widget, click Save to update your settings. Your link section will appear on your sidebar …
(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 using widgets? Go here to learn more about configuring widgets:
Links Manager – Additional Information
If you have loads of links, the Links Manager plugin allows you to easily administer these with search, filter, and sort functions.
Sort 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 links)
Finding Your Links
Type a search term into the search field and click the Search Links button to search for links …
(You can easily search your links using the search function)
Filter Links Function
You can filter links by link category …
(Filter links by categories)
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 category links in the ‘Links’ column …
(Search and filter links in the Link Categories screen)
This brings up a list of all links listed under a specific link category …
(Links filtered by category)
Links – Additional Options
If you plan to add lots of links to your website, or if you intend 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 look at using a plugin that can help you administer links, like Link Library.
Link Library
(Link Library)
Plugin Download URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-library/
Plugin Description
This plugin lets you output a list of your link categories and a complete list of links plus notes and descriptions …
(List of links created with Link library. Image sourced from Link Library plugin documentation.)
This useful plugin creates a page on your web site containing a list of all of 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 link collection so that your site users can be made aware of any additions made to to your link library.
To learn more about using this WordPress plugin, go here:
Congratulations! Now you know how to add a featured links section to WordPress.
We have written a detailed article about how to easily add HTML hyperlinks to WordPress posts. For more details, go here:
***
"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum