As you continue to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, you may occasionally come across something called a blogroll.
WordPress refers to a list of links pointing to other sites or pages that display on your sidebar 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.”
You can add a blogroll using the Links menu in your WordPress Dashboard. These links will display on your sidebar or footer once you add the Links widget.
Before the release of v3.5, Links were a built-in feature of the WordPress CMS. After the release of WordPress v3.5, the Links Manager section was removed …
Before …
(Links appeared in the WordPress dashboard menu until the release of WordPress v.3.5)
After …
(Post version 3.5 – no WordPress Links Manager feature)
If you’ve used an earlier version than v 3.5 and upgraded your installation, then the Link 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 item is not displayed when you log into your WordPress dashboard, you can add it via a plugin. This step-by-step tutorial explains how to add and manage links on your site’s sidebar using WordPress plugins.
Link Manager
(Link Manager – Plugin For WordPress)
Download URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-manager
Description Of Plugin
This plugin displays the built-in Links 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 template code 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 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)
Download URL
https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-links/
Plugin Description
Simple Links recreates the same concept as the built-in Link Manager while removing the shortcomings of the deprecated feature.
Plugin Installation
Let’s install the Link Manager plugin.
From your WordPress admin menu, go to 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 results area and click Install Now …
Activate the plugin after installing it …
After activation, WordPress adds a ‘Links’ section to the dashboard menu area …
(WordPress links menu)
Setting Up Link Manager
We recommend setting up link categories first before you start adding links. This way, you can assign new links to link categories you have already created.
Link Categories
To create a new link category, choose Links > Link Categories in the WP dashboard navigation menu …
(Links Menu – Link Categories)
The ‘Link Categories’ screen will load in your browser.
Enter the following information:
- Name: Enter the link category name here.
- Slug: The slug is the search-engine friendly URL part 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 your link category description. (Optional)
Click Add New Link Category to save …
(Link Categories)
Your new category will now show in the table …
(Link Categories page)
Tip: WordPress calls its default link category Blogroll . Unless you specify a category when creating a link, WordPress automatically assigns new links to the default category …
(Default link category name)
You may want to change the default WordPress link category name to something that will make sense to site visitors. This not only makes 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 …
(Consider changing the default ’blogroll’ to something your visitors will understand)
To edit the ‘Blogroll’ link name, hover your mouse over the category name and click on Quick Edit …
(Quick Edit)
Change both the Name and the Slug with a new category name, then click on the Update link Category button …
(Quick Edit)
In our example, the link category name ‘Blogroll’ has been replaced with an appropriate links section category name (e.g. ‘Recommended’).
Let’s add a link category description. To add a link category description, click on the Edit link under the category name …
(Link category description)
Add your description in the ‘Edit Link Category’ screen and click Update …
(Edit Link Category screen)
Repeat the above process to add as many different link categories as your site needs.
After you have finished configuring your link categories, you can being adding your links.
Adding Links
To create a new link, go to the admin menu and select Links > Add New …
(Links – Add New)
The ‘Add New Link’ screen will load in your web browser …
(Add New Link screen)
You can also reach this screen by clicking on the ‘Add New’ button in the main Links screen …
(Links – Add New Link button)
The ‘Add New Links’ page has various sections:
Name, Web Address & Description
Enter your link details in this section …
(Add New Link – Name, Web Addressand Description area)
Type in the following information:
- Name: Enter the category name here.
- Slug: The slug displays in the URL of the link category. Only use lower case letters without spaces (use hyphens to separate words).
- Description: Some themes may display your 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 …
(Add New Link – Categories & Target area)
In the Categories section, select a link category you have already added, 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 your link, a new, separate window will open up in their web browser to display the information associated with the link. This allows your visitors to see the link information without leaving your website
- _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. Ignore this option if you don’t use frames, or if you don’t know what frames are.
Link Relationship XFN
This area provides some additional link functionality …
(Add New Link screen – Link Relationship (XFN) section)
Link Relationship (XFN) – XFN stands for XML Friends Network – is a way to define your relationship to the linked person. For example, if you have a professional relationship with Lisa Jones and you link to her blog, you would probably tick co-worker or colleague.
XFN relationships are optional for WordPress links. You can leave everything in this section blank and 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 specifies the ‘rel’ attribute that will be assigned to your link. The rel attribute defines 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. Separate multiple ‘rel’ keywords with spaces.
You can learn more about XFN by visiting this site:
Advanced
The last section allows you to enter Advanced features for your links (You can ignore this section, unless there’s a good reason to use it) …
(Add New Link page – Advanced section)
The Advanced link settings section includes 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 stored and make sure that the 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 the links.
- 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).
Enter information in the above fields or just leave this section ignore this section.
When you have finished 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 select 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 links private allows you to add links and then toggle their visibility on and off without deleting your links (this is useful if you want to add seasonal links) …
(Toggle link visibility on and off)
To view a list of all the links you have added, go to your admin menu and select Links > All Links …
(Links Menu – All Links)
You will be taken to the ‘Links’ screen. The list of links displays all of your links and link information (e.g. link URL, link categories, rating, etc.) …
(List of links)
Tip: To show or hide information in the Links page, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab near the top of the screen …
(Screen Options – Table of links)
Enable/disable fields on your Links table by ticking/unticking their checkboxes …
(Table of links – Hide or show screen options)
How To Edit Link Information
To edit links, go to the WP admin menu and select Links > All Links to bring up the links page …
(Links – All Links)
Select the link you want to edit and click on Edit to bring up the item’s link details …
(Editing links)
Change your link …
(Edit Link screen)
After 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 its URL correctly (the link will open up in a new window),
- Click Delete to delete the link if you no longer require it …
(Edit Link: Update Link button)
How To Remove Your Links
To remove a link, go to your WP admin menu and select Links > All Links …
(Links Menu – All Links)
The ‘Links’ page will load in your browser.
You can delete links individually, delete multiple links by selecting their check boxes, or delete all links at once.
To delete individual links, hover over the link that you want removed and click Delete …
(Deleting links)
To delete links in bulk, either click on the check boxes next to individual links that you would like deleted, or select all links by clicking on the main checkbox next to the ‘Name’ column header …
(Delete multiple links)
Choose Delete from the ‘Bulk Actions’ pulldown menu, and click the Apply button to remove all selected links …
(Links: bulk-delete function)
The links you have selected will be deleted …
(Link deletion notification)
Using The Link Manager 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 make links display on your site.
Using The Links Widget
The Link Manager plugin adds a ‘Links’ widget to your ‘Widgets’ section.
To access and configure your Link widgets, go to your WP dashboard menu and click on Appearance > Widgets …
(Appearance – Widgets)
This loads the ‘Widgets’ screen in your browser.
You will see a ‘Links’ widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links widget)
Drag the ‘Links’ widget to one of your widget areas in the Widgets screen and drop it wherever you want your links section to display …
(Drag and drop the links widget to add it to a widgetized area)
The Links widget provides a number of configurable settings. For example, you can specify what information you want displayed about your links and how many links you want to display on your sidebar …
(Link widget settings)
You can also add as many link widgets as you want. This lets you add and display link categories throughout your site …
(Add a number of link widgets to your widget bars)
Display a list of items for a specific category …
(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)
Once you are done configuring the links widget, click the Save button to update your settings. A link section should display 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 more help with widgets? We have written a comprehensive article on adding widgets. For more info, see this article:
Link Manager – Additional Information
If you have loads of links, the Links Manager plugin lets you easily administer these using search, filter, and sort features.
Sorting Links
To sort links, hover your cursor over the title of the column you want to sort and click on the little black triangle displayed next to the column title …
(Sorting links function)
Search Links
Search for links using the ‘Search Links’ button …
(Search links)
Filter Links
You can filter links by link categories …
(Filtering your links by link categories)
You can also search and filter links in the Link Categories page. 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 brings up a list of all links listed for a specific link category …
(Links filtered by category)
Links – Additional Options
If you plan to use links extensively on your site, or if you would like 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 consider using a plugin that can help you administer your links.
Link Library
(Link library – Plugin For WordPress)
Download Plugin URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-library/
Plugin Description
This plugin gives you the ability to display a list of all your link categories with a complete list of all your links with notes and descriptions …
(Link Library links. Screenshot taken from Link Library plugin website.)
Link Library creates a page on your website containing all the link categories in your Links area, plus 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 for your link collection that lets your site users become aware of any additions made to to your link library.
To learn more about using this WordPress plugin, visit the plugin website:
Congratulations! Now you know how to add a link section to WordPress.
We have also written a detailed article on creating links in WordPress here:
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now