As you continue to learn more about using WordPress, you may occasionally come across the term blogroll.
A blogroll is a list of links pointing to other websites or pages that display on your sidebar.
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 add a links section to a widgetized theme.
Before the release of WP v.3.5, Links were a core feature of the WordPress CMS. From v 3.5 onwards, the Links manager and blogroll sections were removed …
Before …
(WP Links Manager Feature – pre version 3.5)
After …
(Links – excluded from the WordPress dashboard menu after WP v 3.5)
If you have had an earlier version of WordPress than v3.5 installed and updated your installation, then the Links 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 you can’t see the Link Manager section when you log into your WP dashboard you will need to install a plugin. In this step-by-step tutorial, you will learn how to add and manage blogroll links on your site’s sidebar using plugins.
Link Manager
(Link Manager WordPress Plugin)
Plugin URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-manager
Plugin Description
You can use this plugin to restore the built-in 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 code to restore the hidden feature. When we last checked, this plugin had not been updated for some time, but it should still work fine. If you don’t want to use this plugin, then use the one below instead, or contact us for help editing your site’s template code.
Simple Links
(Simple Links – Link Manager Plugin For WordPress)
Plugin Download URL
https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-links/
Description Of Plugin
This plugin recreates the same concept as the built-in Link Manager while removing the shortcomings of the deprecated feature.
How To Install The Plugin
To install the Link Manager plugin, follow these instructions:
From the WP dashboard menu, select Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins – Add New)
Click on the Install Plugins > Search tab, then type in “link manager” into the search field and hit Enter …
Locate the plugin in the search results screen and click Install Now …
Activate the plugin …
After activation, WordPress displays a ‘Links’ item in your dashboard menu …
(Links menu section)
Configuring The Plugin
Before adding new links, we recommend setting up your link categories. This way, when you create a new link, you can assign the link to the link category you have already created.
Link Categories
To create a new link category, click on Links > Link Categories in the WP dashboard navigation menu …
(WordPress Links Menu – Link Categories)
This brings up the ‘Link Categories’ page in your browser.
Enter the following information:
- Name: Whatever you enter in this field is the link category name that will display on your site.
- Slug: The slug is the search-engine friendly URL part of your 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.
after entering your information, click Add New Link Category …
(Link Categories)
The link category will display in the table …
(Link Categories area)
Tip: Blogroll is the default link category name. Unless you specify a category for a link, WordPress will automatically assign new links to the default category …
(Default link category)
You may want to change this to something that will make sense to site visitors. This will not only make it easier for users of your site, but any new links that you add to your site will automatically appear under the new category name …
(Consider changing the default link category name to something better suited to your business)
To edit the ‘Blogroll’ link name, hover your mouse over the item and click on Quick Edit …
(Edit the link category name)
Replace both the Name and the Slug with a new category name, and click on Update Link Category …
(Quick Edit)
Replace the category name ‘Blogroll’ with a name more suitable to your purposes (e.g. ‘Recommended’, ‘Our Partners’ etc).
Let’s now add a link category description. To add a link category description, hover over the link category name and click Edit …
(Link category description)
Enter your link category description field and click Update when done …
(Edit Link Category screen)
Repeat the above process to add as many link categories as your site requires.
After setting up your link categories, you can being adding new links.
Adding New Links
To create a new link, select Links > Add New in the dashboard navigation menu …
(WP Links Menu – Add New)
You will be taken to the ‘Add New Link’ page …
(Add New Link screen)
You can also reach this page by clicking on the ‘Add New’ button at the top of the main Links page …
(Links – Add New Link button)
The ‘Add New Links’ page is divided into a number of sections:
Name, Web Address & Description
This section lets you enter details about your link …
(Add New Link page – Name, Web Addressand Description)
Enter information into the following fields:
- Name: Enter 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 a link category description in the links section, or as a tool tip when visitors hover over the link name with their mouse.
Categories & Target
Select a Category and Target for your new link …
(Categories & Target area – Add New Link)
In the Categories section, select a link category you’ve already created, or click on ’+ Add New Category’ to create a new category.
Next, select a target frame for your link in the Target section by choosing one of the radio buttons. This lets you specify how your link should open when visitors click on it:
- _blank means that when visitors click on the link, a new web browser window will open up to display the content for that link.
- _none means that when a visitor clicks on the link, they will exit your site and a new website or page will load in your 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 section provides some additional link functionality …
(Link Relationship (XFN) section – Add New Link page)
Link Relationship (XFN) – XFN (XML Friends Network) allows you to define your relationship to the linked person. For example, if you have a professional relationship with Emma Silva and you link to her blog, you would probably tick co-worker or colleague.
XFN relationships are optional. You can ignore this section and all your links will still work. 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 defines 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, help, index, start, etc.
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 leave the fields in this section blank unless you have a reason to use them) …
(Advanced link settings)
The Advanced link settings section contains the following options:
- Image Address: Lets you 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 your image is small (around 16×16 like a favicon).
- RSS Address: If your theme allows it, the link’s RSS feed will display next to the link.
- 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).
Type in your information in the above fields or just leave this section ignore this section.
When you are done adding information about your link, click on the Add Link button to update your link settings …
(Click on Add Link to save your new link)
Note: If you tick the Keep this link private checkbox, the link will not be visible when links are displayed on your site …
(Make links private by selecting the checkbox)
Making a link private lets you toggle its visibility on or off without deleting it (this is useful if you want to have seasonal links) …
(Toggle link visibility on and off)
To view a list of all your links, go to your WP navigation menu and choose Links > All Links …
(Links – All Links)
This brings up the ‘Links’ page. The list of links displays your links and link information (e.g. link URL, link categories, relationship, etc.) …
(List of links)
Tip: To view additional information in the Links page, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab near the top of your screen …
(Screen Options – Table of links)
Show/hide fields on your Links table by ticking/unticking their checkboxes …
(Links screen – Hide or show screen options)
How To Edit Your Link Information
To edit a link in the Link Manager, click on Links > All Links in your dashboard navigation menu to bring up your list of links …
(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 your link details …
(Edit Link screen)
After editing your 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 everything correctly (your link will open in a new window),
- Click Delete to remove the link from your table if you no longer require it …
(Update Link button)
How To Remove Your Links
To remove a link, go to your WP dashboard navigation menu and select Links > All Links …
(Links Menu – All Links)
This loads the ‘Links’ table in your browser.
You can delete links individually, delete multiple links, or delete all your links.
To delete individual links, hover your cursor over the link title that you want to remove from the link table and click Delete …
(Deleting links)
To delete a number of links at once, either click on the checkbox next to every link that you want deleted, 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 delete your selected links …
(Links: bulk-deletion function)
The links you have selected will be removed …
(links deleted notification)
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.
Links Widget
Installing the Links Manager plugin adds a ‘Links’ widget to your ‘Widgets’ section.
To access and configure your Link widgets, go to the main dashboard navigation menu and click on Appearance > Widgets …
(WP Appearance Menu – Widgets)
The ‘Widgets’ page will display in your browser.
You will notice that a ‘Links’ widget has been added to the Available Widgets section …
(Links widget)
Drag the ‘Links’ widget to one of the active widget sections in the Widgets screen and drop it wherever you would like the links section to display …
(Drag & drop your links widget to add it to a widgetized area)
The Links widget offers various configurable options. For example, you can specify what information you would like to show about your links and how many links you want to display on your sidebar menu …
(Link widget - configurable options)
You can also add as many link widgets to your sidebar and footer as you want. This lets you add and feature link sections on your site …
(You can add multiple link widgets to your sidebar)
Select a link category from the ‘Select Link Category:’ pull-down menu …
(Link widget options – Select Link Category)
You can sort links by Link rating, Link ID, Link title, or display links in Random order …
(Link widget settings – Sorting options)
After configuring your links widget, click the Save button to update your settings. Your link section will show up immediately on your site …
(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 configuring widgets. Go here to learn more about this:
Link Manager – Additional Information
If you have many links, the Link Manager plugin allows you to easily administer these using searching, sorting, and filtering features.
Sort Links Function
To sort links, hover your mouse cursor over the title of the column you want to sort and click on the little triangle displayed next to the column title …
(Sorting links function)
Finding Links Function
Type a search term into the search field and click the Search Links button to find links …
(You can easily search links with the search function)
Filter Links Function
You can filter links by categories …
(Filtering 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 category links in the ‘Links’ column …
(searching and filtering links in the Link Categories screen)
This displays a list of all links listed under a specific link category …
(Links filtered by link category)
Links – Additional Options
If you plan to add a lot of links to your site, 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 your links, like Link Library.
Link Library
(Link Library Plugin)
Plugin URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-library/
Plugin Description
Link Library gives you the ability to output a list of your link categories and a complete list of links plus notes and descriptions …
(Link Library links. Image: Link Library plugin documentation.)
Link Library can be used to create a page on your web site that contains all the link categories in your Links area, plus all links defined for 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 become aware of any additions made to to your link library.
To learn more about this handy plugin, visit the plugin website:
Congratulations! Now you know how to how to add a blogroll and manage links in WordPress.
We have written a comprehensive article on adding hyperlinks in your WordPress posts. For more details:
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