As you become more familiar with WordPress, you may occasionally come across references to the term blogroll.
In WordPress terminology, a list of hyperlinks displayed on your sidebar menu is sometimes 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 Manager lets you easily add and manage links to your WordPress sidebar area (e.g. a “Recommended Resources” section) using widgets.
Before the release of WordPress v.3.5, Links were a visible feature of the WordPress CMS. After the release of version 3.5, the Link Manager section was hidden by default in new WordPress installations …
Before …
(WP Links Feature – pre v 3.5)
After …
(Post v.3.5 – no WordPress Links Manager feature)
If you have had an earlier version of WordPress than v 3.5 installed and upgraded your installation, then the Link Manager would be 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 visible when you log into your WP admin area, you can add this feature via a plugin. This tutorial will show you how to add, edit, delete and manage blogroll links on your sidebar using plugins.
Link Manager
(Link Manager Plugin)
Download URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-manager
Plugin Description
Use this plugin to display the built-in Links Manager, even if you update 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 in order to restore the hidden feature. When we last checked, the plugin had not been updated for a while, but it should still work fine. If you don’t want to use this plugin, then use the plugin below instead, or contact us for help editing your site’s template code.
Simple Links
(Simple Links – WordPress Link Management Plugin)
Plugin Download URL
https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-links/
Description
Simple Links attempts to recreate the same concept as the built-in Link Manager while removing the shortcomings of the deprecated feature.
How To Install Link Manager
Let’s install the Link Manager plugin.
In your WP dashboard menu, go to Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins – Add New)
Select the Install Plugins > Search tab, type ”link manager” into the search field and hit Enter …
Find the plugin in the results screen and click Install Now …
Activate the plugin after it has been installed …
After activation, WordPress will restore the ‘Links’ feature to your WP admin menu area …
(WordPress links menu)
Configuring Link Manager
Before adding new links, it’s a good idea to first set up your link categories. This way, when adding a new link, you can assign your link to the link category you have already created.
Link Categories
To create a new link category, go to the WP navigation menu and choose Links > Link Categories …
(Links Menu – Link Categories)
You will be taken to the ‘Link Categories’ screen.
Type in the following information:
- Name: Whatever you enter here is the category name that will display on your site.
- Slug: The slug displays in the SEO friendly URL of the link category. Only use lower case letters and do not include 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 your new link category …
(Link Categories screen)
The new category will be added to the list …
(Link Categories)
Tip: Blogroll is the default link category name. Unless you specify the category when creating a new link, WordPress will automatically assign new links to the default category …
(Default link category name)
You may want to change this to something that will make sense to your readers. 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 …
(Consider changing the default ’blogroll’ to something your visitors will understand)
To edit the ‘Blogroll’ link name, hover your mouse over the item and click on Quick Edit …
(Editing the link category name)
Replace both the Name and the Slug with a new category name, and click on the Update link Category button …
(Quick Edit)
Replace the category name ‘Blogroll’ with an appropriate links section name (e.g. ‘Recommended’, ‘Related Items’ etc).
Let’s 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)
Enter your link category description field and click Update done to save your settings …
(Edit Link Category area)
Repeat the above process and add as many new link categories as your site requires.
Once you have configured your link categories, you can add your links.
How To Add Links
To add a new link, go to the WP admin menu and choose Links > Add New …
(Links – Add New)
You will be taken to the ‘Add New Link’ screen …
(Add New Link screen)
You can also access this page by clicking on ’Add New’ in the main Links page …
(Add New Link button)
The ‘Add New Links’ page is divided into a number of sections:
Name, Web Address & Description
Enter details about your link in this section …
(Add New Link – Name, Web Address, Description)
Type in the following information:
- Name: Enter the link category name here.
- Slug: The slug is the URL part of the link category. It must be in lowercase letters and contain no spaces (use hyphens to separate words).
- Description: Some themes may display your link category description.
Categories & Target
After adding your link details, select a Category and Target for your new link …
(Categories & Target section)
In the Categories section, select a link category you’ve already added, 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 a new browser window will open up to display the information for that link. This lets your visitors access the link information without leaving your page
- _none means that when visitors click on your link, they will exit your site and a new website or page will load in your web browser window instead.
- _top opens links 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 screen – Link Relationship (XFN) area)
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 Edwin Fields 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 all your links will still work. 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 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, start, index, help, etc.
To learn more about XFN, visit the site below:
Advanced
The last section allows you to specify Advanced features for your links (some themes will ignore this. You can leave these fields empty unless you have a reason to use them) …
(Advanced area – Add New Link page)
The Advanced link settings section contains the following:
- Image Address: Specify an image to be displayed with the link. To use this feature, add the image URL 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 your links.
- 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).
Type in your information in the above fields or just leave this section blank.
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 update your link settings)
Note: If you tick the Keep this link private checkbox, your link will not be visible when links are displayed on your site …
(Make links private by selecting the checkbox)
Making a link private allows you to toggle its visibility on or off without deleting it (this is useful if you want to have seasonal links) …
(Making links private toggles their visibility on and off)
To view all your links, go to the dashboard menu and select Links > All Links …
(Links – All Links)
The ‘Links’ page will load in your web browser. The list of links displays all your links and link information (e.g. link URL, link categories, visibility, etc.) …
(Table of links)
Tip: To view additional fields in the Links page, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab at the top of the screen …
(List of links – Screen Options)
Show/hide information on your Links table by ticking/unticking their checkboxes …
(Links page – Hide or display screen options)
How To Edit Link Information
To edit links, go to the main admin menu and click on Links > All Links to bring up your links screen …
(WordPress Links – All Links)
Locate the link you want to edit and click on Edit to bring up the item’s link details …
(Editing your link information)
Edit the link …
(Edit Link screen)
After you’re done editing the link, you can:
- Click the Update Link button to save your link details,
- Click on Visit Link to make sure that you have set up its URL correctly (your link will open up in a new window),
- Click Delete to delete the link from your table of links if you no longer require it …
(Edit Link: Update Link button)
How To Remove Links
To delete links from the Link Manager, choose Links > All Links in the dashboard navigation menu …
(WordPress Links – All Links)
You will be taken to the ‘Links’ screen.
You can delete links individually, delete multiple links, or delete all links at once.
To delete individual links, hover your mouse cursor over the link title that you want removed and click Delete …
(Delete your links)
To delete a number of links at once, either click on the check box next to each link that you would like to be removed, 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-down menu, and click Apply to delete your selected links …
(Bulk-deletion of links)
The links will be deleted …
(links deleted message)
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 site.
Using The Links Widget
Installing the Links Manager plugin adds a ‘Links’ widget to your ‘Widgets’ page.
To access and configure your Link widgets, select Appearance > Widgets in the admin menu …
(WP Appearance – Widgets)
This loads the ‘Widgets’ screen in your browser.
You will see that a ‘Links’ widget has been added to the Available Widgets section …
(Links widget)
To make the ‘Links’ widget active, drag the widget to one of the widget sections and drop it wherever you would like your links to show up …
(Adding a links widget to a widgetized area using drag & drop)
The Links widget offers a number of options. 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 as many link widgets to your sidebar and footer as you want. This allows you to create and display link lists on your site …
(You can add multiple link widgets to your widget bars)
Select a link category to display links for a specific category …
(Link widget settings – Select Link Category)
You can sort links by Link ID, Link rating, Link title, or display links in Random order …
(Link widget options – Sorting options)
When you have finished setting up your Links widget, click Save to update your settings. Your links should appear on your website or blog’s sidebar menu …
(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 comprehensive article on using widgets here:
Link Manager – Additional Information
If you have many links, the Link Manager plugin lets you easily administer these using sort, search, and filter functionality.
Sorting Your Links
To sort links, hover your mouse over the title of the column you want to sort and click on the black triangle displayed next to the column title …
(You can sort links)
Searching Links
Type a search term into the search field and click the Search Links button to find links …
(You can easily search your links with the search function)
Filtering Links
You can filter links by categories …
(Filtering links by link category)
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 page)
This brings up a list of all links grouped 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 ‘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 your links.
Link Library
(Link Library WordPress Plugin)
Plugin URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-library/
Plugin Description
The Link Library plugin gives you the ability to publish a list of all your link categories and a complete list of links plus descriptions and notes …
(List of links created with Link library. Image source: Link Library plugin website.)
Link Library can be used to create a page on your site containing a list of all of the link categories in your Links area, and 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 of your links so that your site users can become aware of additions to your link library.
To learn more about the Link Library plugin:
Congratulations! Now you know how to add external links to WordPress.
We have written a comprehensive article on adding links into your WordPress content. Go here to learn more about this:
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)