As you discover more about WordPress, you may occasionally come across references to the term blogroll.
WordPress refers to a list of hyperlinks pointing to other sites or pages that display on your sidebar section 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 add external hyperlinks to your WordPress sidebar (e.g. a “We Use And Recommend” section) using widgets.
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 removed …
Before …
(WP Links Menu – pre version 3.5)
After …
(Post v3.5 – no WP Links feature)
If you’ve used an earlier version than v 3.5 and updated your installation, the Links Manager would have been removed, unless you’ve previously used it. If you’ve never used Link Manager, however, or if your installation of WordPress is new, then this function will become invisible – it will not be displayed on your menu.
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 a Links item on your main menu when you log into your WordPress backend, you can add this feature by installing a plugin. In this tutorial, you will learn how to add, edit, delete and manage links on your site’s sidebar using plugins.
Link Manager
(Link Manager Plugin)
Download URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-manager
Plugin Description
The Link Manager plugin restores the default Link Manager, even if you upgrade to a later version of WordPress or remove all of your current links.
Note: All this plugin does is add a single line of code to your installation to restore the hidden feature. When we last checked, the plugin had not been updated for some time, 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/
Description
This plugin attempts to recreate the same concept as the built-in WordPress Links Manager while removing the shortcomings of the deprecated functionality.
Plugin Installation
Let’s install the Link Manager plugin.
From your WordPress administration 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 screen and click Install Now …
Activate the plugin after installing it …
After activation, a ‘Links’ section is added to your dashboard menu …
(WordPress links menu)
Plugin Configuration
Before adding new links, we recommend setting up your link categories. This way, you can assign new links to a link category you have already created.
Link Categories
To create a new link category, go to your admin menu and choose Links > Link Categories …
(WordPress Links Menu – Link Categories)
This loads the ‘Link Categories’ screen in your web 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. Use only lowercase letters without spaces (use hyphens to separate words).
- Description: Some themes may display a link category description. (Optional)
Click the Add New Link Category button to save …
(Link Categories)
The new category will display in the list …
(Link Categories)
Tip: Blogroll is the default link category name. Unless you specify a category when creating a link, WordPress automatically assigns new links to the default category …
(Default link category)
You may want to change this to something better suited to your business. This not only makes it easier for visitors, but any new links that you add to the Links section will automatically be assigned to the new category name …
(we recommend changing the default ’blogroll’ to something better suited to your business)
To edit the ‘Blogroll’ link title, hover your mouse over the list item and click on Quick Edit …
(Edit the link category)
Replace both the Name and the Slug with a new category name, then click on the Update link Category button …
(Edit the link category)
Replace the category name ‘Blogroll’ with a name more suitable to your purposes (e.g. ‘Recommended’, ‘XYZ Products’ etc).
Let’s now add a description for this link category. To add a link category description, hover over the link category name and click Edit …
(Link category description)
Add your link category description field and click Update done to save your settings …
(Edit Link Category page)
Repeat the above process and add as many different link categories as your site needs.
Once you have set up your link categories, you can add your links.
How To Add Links
To create a new link, go to your WP admin menu and click on Links > Add New …
(Links – Add New)
This brings up the Add New Link’ page in your web browser …
(Add New Link page)
You can also access this page by clicking on the ‘Add New’ button in the main Links screen …
(Add New Link button)
The ‘Add New Links’ page is divided into the following sections:
Name, Web Address & Description
This section is where you enter details about your link …
(Name, Web Addressand Description – Add New Link page)
Enter information into the following fields:
- Name: Enter the link category name.
- Slug: The slug displays in the web address of the link category. Use lowercase letters only without spaces (use hyphens to separate words).
- Description: Some themes may display a link category description. (Optional)
Categories & Target
Select a Category and Target for your link …
(Add New Link screen – Categories & Target fields)
In the Categories section, select one of the link categories you’ve already created, or click on ’+ Add New Category’ to add a new category.
Next, select a target frame radio button for your link in the Target section. This lets you specify where you want your link to open when visitors click on it:
- _blank means that when visitors click on your link, a new, separate window will open up in their browser to display the content for that link. Your visitor will be able to access the information without leaving your site
- _none means that when visitors click on your link, they will leave your site and a new site 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. 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 screen – Link Relationship (XFN))
Link Relationship (XFN) – XFN stands for XML Friends Network – lets you define your relationship to the linked person. For example, if you work with Anna Larsson and you link to her blog, you would probably tick co-worker or colleague.
XFN relationships are optional for WordPress links. You can ignore this section and all of your links will work just fine. Defining relationships with XFN makes the links defined on your site more understandable to some sites 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 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.
To learn more about XFN, visit this site:
Advanced
The last section lets you enter Advanced features for your links (some themes will ignore this. You can leave the fields in this section empty unless you have a reason to use them) …
(Advanced section – Add New Link)
The Advanced section fields are as follows:
- Image Address: Lets you specify an image to be displayed with the link. Add the URL of your image 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 will display next to your 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 would like to sort links by rating (see the ‘Links’ widget section below).
Enter information into the above fields or just leave this section blank, as these are not essential.
When you are done adding your new link information, click on the Add Link button to save your new link …
(Click on the Add Link button to update your link settings)
Note: If you select the Keep this link private checkbox, your link will not be visible in your Blogroll section …
(Private link checkbox)
Making a link private allows you to toggle link visibility on and off without deleting it (this is useful if you would like your link to display during certain times and hide it after it’s no longer required) …
(Making links private toggles their visibility on and off)
To see all your links, choose Links > All Links in your WP dashboard menu …
(Links Menu – All Links)
You will be taken to the ‘Links’ page. The Links screen displays a list of all your links and link information (e.g. URL, link categories, rating, etc.) …
(List of links)
Tip: To display additional information in the list of links, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab at the top of the screen …
(Screen Options – Table of links)
Display/hide fields on your table of links by selecting/deselecting their check boxes …
(Show/hide links)
Editing Your Links
To modify a link, go to your WP dashboard menu and click on Links > All Links to bring up the links page …
(WordPress Links – All Links)
Locate the item you want to edit and click on Edit to bring up the item’s link information …
(Editing links)
Make the changes you want to your link …
(Edit Link screen)
After you’re done editing the link, you can:
- Click the Update Link button to save and update your link details,
- Click on Visit Link to view your link and make sure that you have set up everything correctly (the link will open in a new window),
- Click Delete to delete the link from your table …
(Update Link button)
Removing Links
To delete links from the Link Manager, click on Links > All Links in the main navigation menu …
(WP Links Menu – All Links)
This loads the ‘Links’ page in your web browser.
You can delete links individually, delete multiple links by selecting their check boxes, or remove all of your links at once.
To delete links individually, hover your cursor over the link that you want removed and click on Delete …
(Deleting your links)
To delete multiple links, either click on the check boxes next to individual links that you want 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’ drop menu, and click Apply to delete all selected links …
(Bulk-deletion of links)
Your links will be deleted …
(links deleted message)
Using The Plugin
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 your links on your website or blog.
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 menu and choose Appearance > Widgets …
(WordPress Appearance Menu – Widgets)
The ‘Widgets’ page will load in your web browser.
You will see a ‘Links’ widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links widget)
To make the ‘Links’ widget active, drag the widget to one of your widget areas in the Widgets page and drop it wherever you want your links to show up …
(Adding a links widget to your WordPress widget bar using drag and drop)
The Links widget provides a number of configurable settings. For example, you can specify what information you want to display about your links and how many links you want to display on your sidebar …
(Link widget - settings)
You can also add multiple link widgets to your sidebar and footer. This allows you to create and feature specific different link sections on your site …
(You can add multiple link widgets to your widget bars)
You can create and display a list of items for a specific category …
(Link widget options – 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)
When you have finished configuring your links widget, click the Save button to update your settings. Your link section will show on your site …
(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? We have written a comprehensive article on using widgets. For more info, see this article:
Link Manager – Additional Information
If you have added many links, the Link Manager plugin lets you easily administer these using sort, filter, and search features.
Sorting Links Function
You can sort links by hovering your mouse cursor over the title of the column you want to sort and clicking on the little black triangle displayed next to the column title …
(You can sort links)
Find Your Links
Find links using the ‘Search Links’ feature …
(Searching links)
Filtering Links Function
You can filter links by category …
(Filter your 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 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)
Additional Link Options
If you plan to add lots 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 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
The Link Library plugin gives you the ability to publish a list of your link categories and a complete list of all your links plus notes and descriptions …
(Link Library links. Image sourced from Link Library plugin site.)
This useful plugin creates a page on your site that contains a list of all of the link categories in your Links area, and 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 of your link collection that lets your site users become aware of additions to your link library.
Visit the plugin site to learn more about using this great plugin:
Congratulations! Now you know how to add a featured links section to WordPress.
Go here if you would like to learn more about creating links in WordPress posts:
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)