As you learn more about WordPress, you may occasionally come across the term blogroll.
A blogroll is a list of links pointing to other sites or web pages displayed on your sidebar section.
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 links to your sidebar menu (e.g. a “Recommended Resources” section) using a widget.
Before the release of v3.5, Links were a core feature of the WordPress CMS. After version 3.5, the Links manager and blogroll sections were hidden by default in new WordPress installations …
Before …
(The Link Manager feature – part of the menu until the release of WordPress v3.5)
After …
(The Links Manager – no longer included in the admin menu after WP v.3.5)
If you have used an earlier version than v.3.5 and updated your installation, then the Links Manager would have been removed, unless you have 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 menu section is not displayed when you log into your WordPress admin area, you can add it via a plugin. This tutorial explains how to add, edit, delete and manage blogroll links on your site’s sidebar using WordPress plugins.
Link Manager
(Link Manager Plugin)
Plugin Download URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-manager
Description
The Link Manager plugin displays the Link Manager, even if you update WordPress to a later version or remove all of your current links.
Note: All this plugin does is add a single line of code to WordPress to restore the hidden feature. The last time we checked, this 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 site’s template code.
Simple Links
(Simple Links – Links Manager Plugin For WordPress)
Plugin Download URL
https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-links/
Description
Simple Links recreates the same concept as the built-in Link Manager while removing the shortcomings of the deprecated functionality.
Plugin Installation
Let’s install the Link Manager plugin.
From the WP dashboard area, select Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins – Add New)
Select the Install Plugins > Search tab, type ”link manager” into the search field and hit Enter …
Locate the plugin in the search results area and click Install Now …
Activate the plugin after installing it …
After activation, a ‘Links’ section will be displayed on your WP dashboard menu screen …
(Links management menu)
Configuring Link Manager
Before you start adding new links, we recommend setting up your link categories. This way, you can assign new links to link categories you have already created.
Link Categories
To create a link category, select Links > Link Categories in the WP dashboard menu …
(WordPress Links Menu – Link Categories)
You will be taken to the ‘Link Categories’ screen.
Enter the following information:
- Name: Enter the category name.
- Slug: The slug appears in the search-engine friendly 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 your link category description.
after entering your information, click Add New Link Category to save your new link category …
(Link Categories area)
The new category will be added to the table …
(Link Categories screen)
Tip: Blogroll is the default link category name. Unless you specify the category when creating a new link, WordPress will assign new links to the default category …
(Default link category)
You may want to change this to something better suited to your business. This will not only make it easier for users of your site, but any new links that you add to the Links section will automatically display under the new category name …
(Change the default ’blogroll’ to something better suited to your business)
To change the default category name, hover your mouse over the category name 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 …
(Update Link Category)
In our example, we’ve replaced the category ‘Blogroll’ with an appropriate links section name (e.g. ‘Recommended’).
Let’s now add a description for this link category. To add a description to an existing link category, hover over the link category name and click Edit …
(You can add/edit your category description)
Add your description in the ‘Edit Link Category’ page and click Update finished to save your settings …
(Edit Link Category area)
Repeat the above process and add as many different link categories as your site needs.
Once you have configured your link categories, you can being adding new links.
Adding New Links
To add a new link, go to your navigation menu and choose Links > Add New …
(Links – Add New)
This loads the Add New Link’ page in your browser …
(Add New Link page)
You can also access this screen by clicking on ’Add New’ in the main Links screen …
(Links – Add New Link button)
The ‘Add New Links’ page is divided into several sections:
Name, Web Address & Description
Enter your link details in this section …
(Add New Link – Name, Web Addressand Description area)
Enter information into the following fields:
- Name: Whatever you enter here will display as the link category name.
- 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 in the links section, or as a tool tip when visitors hover over the link name. (Optional)
Categories & Target
Select a Category and Target for your link …
(Add New Link – Categories & Target fields)
In the Categories section, select a link category you’ve already set up, or click on the ‘+ Add New Category’ link to add a new category link.
Next, select a target frame radio button for your link in the Target section. This lets you specify where the link should open when clicked on by visitors:
- _blank means that a separate window will open up in their web browser to display the information 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. 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 …
(Link Relationship (XFN) – Add New Link)
Link Relationship (XFN) – XFN stands for XML Friends Network – lets you define your relationship to the linked person. For example, if you work with Noah Silva and you link to his blog, you would probably tick co-worker or colleague.
XFN relationships are optional. You can leave everything in this section blank and your links will work just fine. XFN makes the links defined on your site more understandable to some sites 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 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, start, help, 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 these fields empty unless there’s a good reason to use them) …
(Advanced area – Add New Link)
The Advanced section fields include the following:
- Image Address: Specify an image to be displayed with the link. To use this feature, add the URL of where the image is stored 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 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 would like to sort links by rating (see the ‘Links’ widget section below).
Type in your information in the above fields or just leave this section blank, as these are not essential.
When you have finished adding information about your link, click on Add Link to save your new link …
(Click on Add Link to update your link settings)
Note: If you tick Keep this link private, the link will not be visible when links are displayed on your site …
(Make your links private)
Making links private lets you toggle link visibility on or off without deleting these (this is useful if you want links to display during certain periods and hide them when not required) …
(Making links private toggles their visibility on and off)
To view all the links you have added to the Link Manager, go to the WP dashboard menu and choose Links > All Links …
(Links Menu – All Links)
This takes you to the ‘Links’ screen. The Links page displays all your links and link information (e.g. URL, link categories, visibility, etc.) …
(Table of links)
Tip: To view additional information in the table of links, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab at the top of your screen …
(Screen Options – List of links)
Enable/disable fields on your table of links by ticking/unticking their check boxes …
(List of links – Show/hide screen options)
Editing Your Link Information
To edit links in the Link Manager, choose Links > All Links in your navigation menu to bring up your links screen …
(Links Menu – All Links)
Locate the link you want to edit and click on Edit to bring up the link’s details …
(Editing link information)
Change your link details …
(Edit Link screen)
After you’re done editing your link, you can:
- Click the Update Link button to save and update your link details,
- Click on Visit Link to see your link and make sure that you have set up everything correctly (your link will open in a new window),
- Click Delete to remove the link from your link table if you no longer require it …
(Edit Link: Update Link button)
How To Delete Links
To remove links, choose Links > All Links in the main admin menu …
(Links – All Links)
This takes you to the ‘Links’ page.
You can delete links individually, delete multiple links by selecting their check boxes, or remove all links at once.
To delete individual links, hover your mouse cursor over the link that you want to remove and click on Delete …
(Deleting links)
To delete multiple links, either tick the checkbox next to every item that you would like deleted, or select all links by clicking on the check box next to the ‘Name’ column header …
(Deleting multiple links)
Choose Delete from the ‘Bulk Actions’ drop menu, and click Apply to delete your selected links …
(Links: bulk-delete function)
The selected links will be deleted …
(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 make links display on your website.
Using The Links Widget
Installing the Links Manager plugin adds a ‘Links’ widget to your ‘Widgets’ page.
To access and configure your Link widgets, go to the WP admin menu and choose Appearance > Widgets …
(Appearance Menu – Widgets)
The ‘Widgets’ screen 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 page and drop it wherever you would like the links section to show up …
(Add a links widget to your WordPress widget bar using drag and drop)
The Links widget provides various configurable options. You can specify what information you want to show about your links and how many links you want displayed on your sidebar menu …
(Link widget - settings)
You can add multiple link widgets to your sidebar. This lets you create and display link sections on your site …
(Add multiple link widgets to your sidebar)
Select a link category to display specific links …
(Link widget settings – Select Link Category)
You can sort links by Link ID, Link title, Link rating, or display links in Random order …
(Link widget options – Sorting options)
After setting up your links widget, click Save to update your settings. Your link section should show on your site …
(An example of how 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 help with widgets? We have written a detailed article on configuring widgets. To learn more about this go here:
Links Manager – Additional Information
If you have loads of links, the Link Manager plugin allows you to easily administer these using sorting, searching, and filtering functionality.
Sorting Links Function
You can sort links by hovering your cursor over the title of the column you want to sort and clicking on the black triangle displayed next to the column title …
(Sorting your links)
Search Links Function
Search for links using the ‘Search Links’ feature …
(Search links)
Filtering Links Function
You can filter links by categories …
(Filter links by 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 …
(searching and filtering links in the Link Categories page)
This brings up a list of all links listed for 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 ‘Links’ page to your site (i.e. not just add a links section to your sidebar), then you may want to consider using a plugin that can help you administer your links, like Link Library.
Link Library
(Link Library WordPress Plugin)
Download Plugin URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-library/
Plugin Description
This plugin allows you to output a list of all your link categories with a complete list of all your links with notes and descriptions …
(List of links created with Link library. Screenshot taken from Link Library plugin website.)
This useful plugin can be used to create a page on your website containing all the link categories in your Links section, plus all links listed in 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 link collection that lets your site users become aware of additions to your link library.
To learn more about the Link Library plugin:
Congratulations! Now you know how to how to add a blogroll and manage links to external websites and pages in your WordPress sidebar menu.
We have written a comprehensive article about how to easily add HTML links to WordPress posts. Go here to learn more about this:
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