As you learn more about WordPress, you may occasionally come across references to the term blogroll.
WordPress refers to a list of links pointing to other websites or pages that display on your sidebar area 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 external links to a widgetized theme.
Before WordPress v.3.5 was released, Links were a built-in feature of the WordPress CMS. After v3.5, the Links manager and blogroll sections were removed …
Before …
(WP Links Feature – pre v.3.5)
After …
(The Links Manager – no longer included in the WordPress admin menu after WP v 3.5)
If you’ve had an earlier version than v 3.5 installed and upgraded your installation, 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 you can’t see the Links feature when you log into your WordPress dashboard you will need to install a plugin. In this tutorial, you will learn how to add and manage blogroll links on your site’s sidebar using WordPress plugins.
Link Manager
(Link Manager Plugin)
Download URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-manager
Description Of Plugin
You can use this plugin to display the Links feature on your dashboard, even if you upgrade WordPress to a later version or remove all of your existing links.
Note: All this plugin does is add a single line of template code 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 one below instead, or contact us for help editing your template code.
Simple Links
(Simple Links WordPress Plugin)
Download URL
https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-links/
Description Of Plugin
This plugin recreates the same concept as the built-in Link Manager while removing the shortcomings of the deprecated feature.
Installing Link Manager
Let’s install the Link Manager plugin.
From the WP dashboard area, select Plugins > Add New …
(Plugins Menu – Add New)
Select the Install Plugins > Search tab, then 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 activation, the ‘Links’ function will be restored to your sidebar menu area …
(WordPress links management menu)
Plugin Configuration
We recommend setting up link categories first before you start adding new links. This way, you can assign any new links to link categories you have already created.
Link Categories
To create a new link category, go to your navigation menu and select Links > Link Categories …
(WordPress Links Menu – Link Categories)
This brings up the ‘Link Categories’ page in your browser.
Type in the following information:
- Name: Enter the link category name here.
- Slug: The slug is the 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.
When finished, click the Add New Link Category button to save your new link category name …
(Link Categories)
Your link category will be added to the list …
(Link Categories page)
Tip: WordPress calls its default link category Blogroll . Unless you specify a category when adding a link, WordPress automatically assigns new links to the default category …
(Default link category name)
You may want to change this default link category name to something that your visitors can understand. This will not only make it easier for visitors, but any new links that you add to your site will automatically be assigned to the new category name …
(we recommend changing the default link category name to something better suited to your business)
To edit the default category name, hover your mouse over the item and click on Quick Edit …
(Editing the link category name)
Change 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), then click on the Update link Category button …
(Quick Edit)
In our example, the category name ‘Blogroll’ has been replaced with a more suitable name (e.g. ‘Recommended’).
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 …
(You can add/edit your category description)
Enter your link category description field and click Update when you’re done …
(Edit Link Category screen)
Repeat the above process and add as many link categories as your site needs.
Once you have configured your link categories, you can start adding your links.
How To Add New Links
To add a new link, go to the admin menu and select Links > Add New …
(Links – Add New)
The ‘Add New Link’ page will display in your browser …
(Add New Link screen)
You can also reach this page by clicking on ’Add New’ in the main Links page …
(Links page – Add New Link button)
The ‘Add New Links’ page is divided into various sections:
Name, Web Address & Description
Enter details about your link in this section …
(Name, Web Addressand Description – Add New Link page)
Enter information into the following sections:
- Name: Enter the link category name here.
- Slug: The slug displays in the URL of the link category name. Use only lowercase letters without spaces (use hyphens to separate words).
- Description: Some themes may display a link category description. (Optional)
Categories & Target
After typing in your link details, select a Category and Target for your link …
(Categories & Target)
In the Categories section, tick a link category you’ve already created, or click on ’+ Add New Category’ to add a new category link.
Also, 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 clicked on by visitors:
- _blank means that when a visitor clicks on the link, a new browser window will open up to display the content for that link.
- _none means that when a visitor clicks on the link, they will leave your site and a new site 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. Ignore this option if you don’t use frames, or if you don’t know what frames are.
Link Relationship XFN
This section provides some additional link functionality …
(Link Relationship (XFN) fields – Add New Link page)
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 Romy Schwartz and you link to her blog, you would probably check co-worker or colleague.
XFN relationships are optional for WordPress links. You can ignore this section and all of your links will still work. Defining relationships with XFN makes your links more understandable to some websites 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, start, index, help, etc.
You can learn more about XFN by visiting the site below:
Advanced
The last section of the Add New Link’ page allows you to specify Advanced features for your links (You can ignore this section, unless there’s a good reason to use it) …
(Add New Link – Advanced fields)
The Advanced link settings section includes 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 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 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).
Type in your information in the above fields or just leave this section ignore this section.
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 save your new link)
Note: If you select the checkbox next to Keep this link private, your link will not be visible when links are displayed on your site …
(Private link checkbox)
Making links private allows you to add links and then toggle their visibility on or off without deleting your links (this is useful if you want links to display during certain periods and hide them afterwards) …
(Toggle link visibility on and off)
To see all your links, go to your admin menu and select Links > All Links …
(WordPress Links – All Links)
The ‘Links’ screen will display in your web browser. The table of links displays all your links and link information (e.g. link URL, categories, visibility, etc.) …
(List of links)
Tip: To view or hide information in the list of links, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab at the top of your screen …
(Links screen – Screen Options)
Enable/disable information on your Links table by selecting/deselecting their checkboxes …
(Show/hide links)
How To Edit Links
To modify a link in the Link Manager, click on Links > All Links in the dashboard navigation menu to bring up your table of links …
(Links Menu – All Links)
Locate the link to be edited and click on Edit to bring up the link’s information …
(Editing your link information)
Change your link …
(Edit Link page)
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 make sure that you have set up your link’s URL correctly (the link will open in a new window),
- Click Delete to remove the link …
(Edit Link: Update Link button)
Removing Links
To delete links from the Link Manager, click on Links > All Links in your WP admin menu …
(Links Menu – All Links)
The ‘Links’ page will display in your browser.
You can delete links individually, delete multiple links, or delete all your links.
To delete links individually, hover over the link title that you want to remove and click Delete …
(Delete links)
To delete multiple links, either tick the checkboxes next to individual links that you want removed, or select all links by clicking on the checkbox next to the ‘Name’ column header …
(Delete multiple links)
Choose Delete from the ‘Bulk Actions’ dropdown menu, and click Apply to remove your selected links …
(Bulk-delete links)
The links you have selected will be removed …
(links deleted notification)
Plugin Usage
Now that you know how to configure link categories and how to add, edit and delete links, let’s show you how to make links display on your site.
Links Widget
The Links Manager plugin adds a ‘Links’ widget to your ‘Widgets’ section.
To access and configure your Link widgets, select Appearance > Widgets in your WP dashboard menu …
(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 it to one of your active widget areas in the Widgets screen and drop it wherever you want your links to show up …
(Drag & drop your links widget to add it to your WordPress sidebar)
The Links widget includes a number of settings. You can specify what information you would like to show about your links and how many links you want displayed on your sidebar …
(Link widget - settings)
You can add as many link widgets as you want. This allows you to create and display a number of different link lists sorted by categories throughout your site …
(You can 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 title, Link rating, Link ID, or display links in Random order …
(Link widget settings – Sorting options)
When you have finished setting up the links widget, click Save to update your settings. A links should show on your sidebar menu …
(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 help with widgets? We have written a comprehensive article about adding widgets here:
Links Manager – Additional Information
If you have many links, the Links Manager plugin allows you to easily administer these using sorting, filtering, and searching functionality.
Sorting Links
To sort links, hover your mouse over the title of the column you want to sort and click on the little black triangle displayed next to the column title …
(Sort links)
Search Your Links
Type a search term into the search field and click the Search Links button …
(Finding links function)
Filter Links Function
You can filter links by link categories …
(Filtering your links by link category)
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 grouped under a specific link category …
(Links filtered by category)
Links – Additional Options
If you plan to add a lot of links to your site, or if you want 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 look at using a plugin that can help you administer links, like Link Library.
Link Library
(Link Library)
Plugin URL
http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-library/
Plugin Description
Link Library lets you display a list of your link categories with a complete list of all your links plus notes and descriptions …
(List of links created with Link library. Image sourced from Link Library plugin site.)
Link Library creates a page on your web site that contains a list of all of 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 of your link collection that lets your site users be made aware of any additions made to to your link library.
To learn more about Link Library:
Congratulations! Now you know how to add a blogroll to WordPress.
We have written a detailed article on how to easily create links in WordPress posts & pages. For more info, see this article:
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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)