As you become more familiar with WordPress, you may occasionally come across references to the term blogroll.
In WordPress terminology, a list of links displayed on your sidebar menu is often referred to 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 feature lets you easily add and manage a links section to a widgetized theme.
Prior to the release of version 3.5, Links were a visible feature of the WordPress CMS. After v 3.5, the Links manager and blogroll sections were hidden by default in new installations …
Before …
(Links – part of the menu until the release of WordPress v3.5)
After …
(Post version 3.5 – no WP Links Manager feature)
If you have had an earlier version of WordPress than 3.5 installed and updated 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 you can’t see the Links feature when you log into your WP admin area you will need to install a plugin. This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to add, edit, delete and manage blogroll links on your sidebar using plugins.
Link Manager
(Link Manager Plugin)
Plugin URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-manager
Description
You can use this plugin to display the built-in Links feature on your dashboard, even if you update to a later version of WordPress or remove all of your current links.
Note: This plugin adds a single line of code to your installation in order 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 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 Plugin)
Plugin URL
https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-links/
Description Of Plugin
Simple Links attempts to recreate the same concept as the built-in WordPress Links Manager while removing the shortcomings of the deprecated functionality.
How To Install Link Manager
Let’s install the Link Manager plugin.
From your WordPress admin menu, 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 results screen and click Install Now …
Activate the plugin …
After activation, WordPress displays a ‘Links’ item on your admin menu screen …
(Links menu section)
Configuring Link Manager
We recommend setting up your link categories first before you start adding links. This way, when you add a new link, you can assign your link to a link category you have already created.
Link Categories
To create a link category, go to the admin menu and click on Links > Link Categories …
(Links – Link Categories)
The ‘Link Categories’ page will display in your browser.
Type in information into the following fields:
- Name: Enter the category name.
- Slug: The slug is the web address bit 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.
Click the Add New Link Category button …
(Link Categories)
Your category details will now show in the table …
(Link Categories screen)
Tip: Blogroll is the default link category name. Unless you specify the category when creating a link, WordPress will assign new links to the default category …
(Default link category name is ‘blogroll’)
You may want to change this to something better suited to your business. This not only makes 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 …
(Change the default ’blogroll’ to something better suited to your business)
To edit the default category name, hover your mouse over the category name and click on the Quick Edit link …
(Quick Edit)
Replace both the Name and the Slug with a new category name (remember to keep the slug in lowercase letters and replace all spaces with a hyphen), and click on Update Link Category …
(Editing the default link category)
Replace the link category ‘Blogroll’ with (e.g. ‘Recommended’, ‘Our Sponsors’ etc).
Let’s add a description for this link category. To add a link category description, click on Edit under the category name …
(Link category description)
Enter your description in the ‘Edit Link Category’ page and click Update …
(Edit Link Category page)
Repeat this process and add as many link categories as your site needs.
After you have finished setting 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 choose Links > Add New …
(Links – Add New)
This loads 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 at the top of the main Links page …
(Add New Link button)
The ‘Add New Links’ page is divided into several sections:
Name, Web Address & Description
Enter details about your link in this section …
(Name, Web Address& Description section)
Enter information into the following fields:
- Name: Enter the category name here.
- Slug: The slug is the search-engine friendly URL part of your 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)
Categories & Target
Select a Category and Target for your link …
(Categories & Target – Add New Link)
In the Categories section, tick a link category you’ve already set up, or click on the ‘+ Add New Category’ link to add 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 a visitor clicks on it:
- _blank means that a separate web browser window will open up to display the information for that link.
- _none means that when visitors click on your link, they will exit 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 ignore this option.
Link Relationship XFN
This section provides some additional link functionality …
(Add New Link – Link Relationship (XFN) section)
Link Relationship (XFN) – XFN stands for XML Friends Network – lets you define your relationship with the linked person. For example, if you have a professional relationship with Homer Anderson and you link to his blog, you would probably tick co-worker or colleague.
XFN relationships are optional. You can ignore this section and your links will work just fine. XFN makes your links 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 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.
You can learn more about XFN by visiting the site below:
Advanced
The last section of the Add New Link’ screen lets you enter Advanced features for your links (some themes will ignore this. You can leave these fields empty unless there’s a good reason to use them) …
(Advanced link settings)
The Advanced link settings section includes the following options:
- Image Address: 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 will be displayed next to the 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 ignore this section.
When you are done adding information about your link, click on Add Link to update your link settings …
(Click on the Add Link button to save your new link)
Note: If you tick Keep this link private, your link will not be visible when links are displayed on your site …
(Make links private by selecting the checkbox)
Making links private lets you toggle their visibility on or off without deleting these (this is useful if you want to have seasonal links) …
(Toggle link visibility on and off)
To see a list of all your links, click on Links > All Links in your admin menu …
(Links Menu – All Links)
This takes you to the ‘Links’ table. The Links table displays a list of all of your links and link information (e.g. link URL, categories, visibility, etc.) …
(Links page)
Tip: To view additional columns in the Links table, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab near the top of your screen …
(List of links – Screen Options)
Enable/disable information on your Links table by ticking/unticking their check boxes …
(Table of links – Hide or show screen options)
Editing Links
To edit a link in the Link Manager, choose Links > All Links in your WP dashboard menu to bring up your links page …
(WP Links – All Links)
Select the link you want to edit and click on Edit to bring up the item’s link information …
(Editing your links)
Change the link information …
(Edit Link page)
After editing your link, you can:
- Click on Update Link to save your link details,
- Click on Visit Link to check that you have set up its URL correctly (the link will open in a new window),
- Click Delete to delete the link from your table of links …
(Edit Link: Update Link button)
How To Remove Links
To remove links, choose Links > All Links in your admin menu …
(Links – All Links)
This brings up the ‘Links’ screen.
You can delete links individually, delete multiple links, or perform a bulk delete.
To delete individual links, hover over the link that you want removed and click Delete …
(Deleting links)
To delete links in bulk, either tick the check boxes next to individual items that you want deleted, or select all links by clicking on the checkbox next to the ‘Name’ column header …
(Deleting multiple links)
Choose Delete from the ‘Bulk Actions’ menu, and click the Apply button to delete all selected links …
(Links: bulk-delete function)
Your selected links will be removed …
(Deleted links notice)
Plugin Usage
Now that you know how to configure link categories and how to add, edit and delete links, it’s time to make links display on your website or blog.
Links Widget
The Links Manager plugin adds a ‘Links’ widget to your ‘Widgets’ screen.
To access and configure your Link widgets, go to your dashboard menu and click on Appearance > Widgets …
(WordPress Appearance – Widgets)
The ‘Widgets’ page will load in your web 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 your widget sections and drop it wherever you would like your links to show up …
(Adding a links widget to a widgetized menu using drag and drop)
The Links widget provides a number of configurable settings. For example, you can specify what information you would like to show about your links and how many links you would like to display on your sidebar menu …
(Link widget options)
You can also add multiple link widgets to your sidebars and footers. This allows you to add and feature a number of lists of links sorted by categories throughout your site …
(You can add a number of link widgets to your sidebar)
You can add and 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 – Sort by options)
After configuring your Links widget, click the Save button to update your settings. A links will become visible on your website’s sidebar …
(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 more help with widgets? We have written a detailed article about widgets. To learn more about this go here:
Links Manager – Additional Information
If you have many links, the Link Manager plugin lets you easily administer these with sorting, searching, and filtering functions.
Sorting Links
To sort links, hover your mouse cursor over the title of the column you want to sort and click on the black triangle displayed next to the column title …
(You can easily sort your links)
Find Links Function
Search for links using the ‘Search Links’ button …
(You can find your links using the search function)
Filtering Links
You can filter links by link category …
(Filter your links by 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 category links in the ‘Links’ column …
(searching and filtering links in the Link Categories screen)
This brings up 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 website, 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, like Link Library.
Link Library
(Link library – Plugin For WordPress)
Download Plugin URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-library/
Plugin Description
Link Library gives you the ability to display 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 website.)
This useful plugin creates a page on your site that contains a list of all of 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 of your links so that your site users can become aware of additions to your link library.
For more information about using this WordPress plugin, go here:
Congratulations! Now you know how to how to add a blogroll and manage links to external sites in your WordPress sidebar menu.
We have written a detailed article on how to add links into your WordPress content. Go here to learn more:
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