Links Menu (Blogroll)
As bloggers, we often link to our friends, our favorite posts, and popular websites. Links make the Internet what it is. Without them, it would be very hard to get from one site to another. WordPress.com gives you many different ways to use links on your blog.
The Links menu in the WP Admin dashboard can be used to create a blogroll. A blogroll is essentially a list of links that appears in your sidebar. 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 instructions from this guide are referring to the WP Admin dashboard. You can get to this dashboard by clicking WP Admin under My Site(s), or by adding /wp-admin to the end of your site’s URL (e.g.: example.wordpress.com/wp-admin)
Add New Links
You can manage a blogroll (a set of links) using the Links menu in the WP Admin dashboard. These links will display on your blog if you have added the Links Widget.
To add a new link to your blogroll, click on Add New in the Links menu:
The Add New Link page will load. This is where you’ll enter the URL of the link and specify its name, among other things:
Name Module
In the Name module, add your link text. This is the clickable text that will appear in your blogroll. For example, if you add a link to http://amazon.com/, you might type “Amazon” into the Name text box.
Web Address Module
In the Web Address module, add the site’s URL, beginning with http:// or https://. If you browse to the site, you can copy the full URL from your browser’s address bar. For Amazon, you’d enter https://amazon.com/.
Description Module
In the Description module, add text that describes or explains the link. This text will show when visitors hover their cursors over the link. For Amazon, you might write something like “Cool place to shop online.”
Categories Module
Use the Categories module to organize your links into categories. For example, if you create links to ford.com, toyota.com, and gm.com, you might assign them to an “Automobiles” category. Those links will then display under an “Automobiles” heading on your blog. Read more about managing link categories here.
Target Module
In the Target module, choose where the link will open when clicked.
- _blank forces the link to open in a new window or browser tab, depending on how the visitor has configured their browser.
- _top opens the link in the top frame. WordPress.com doesn’t use frame, so you’d only use this if you were showing your blog inside a frame on another web site. If you don’t know what a frame is, don’t worry about this option.
- _none loads the link in the current window or browser tab. This is the default option.
Link Relationship
The Link Relationship (XFN) module provides a simple way to represent the human relationships behind your links. Please see the XFN site for more details.
Advanced Module
In the Advanced module, you can add some additional details: the address of an image to display above the link, the RSS Address of the site’s RSS feed, any notes you’d like to add, and a rating from 1-10.
Save Module
In the Save module, you can select the option to keep the link private so it won’t display on your blog. Click the Add Link button when you are finished.
Edit a Blogroll Link
The following screen will load, with a list of all your links:
To delete a link, hover over the link name and click the Delete option that appears below it. To delete multiple links, select one or more links using the checkboxes on the left, select Delete from the Bulk Actions menu, and click Apply.
You can use the filter option to show only one category at a time, or to show all your links. Select a specific category or View all Categories from the menu, then click the Filter button.
To edit a link, hover over the link name and click the Edit option that appears below it. After you finish editing your link, click the Update Link button.
Watch the “Editing your existing list of links” video from WordPress.tv.
Link Categories
To manage link categories, click on Link Categories in the Links menu:
The following screen will load:
To add a new category, use the Add Category form on the left. Fill out the category Name, add a Description (optional), and then click the Add New Link Category button.
The link categories you create will appear in the list on the right. To modify existing link categories, hover over the category name and then click on the Edit, Quick Edit, Delete, or View options that appear below it. Link categories don’t have many options, so Quick Edit will usually be the best choice.
The Links column on the far right shows the number links assigned to each category. A link category will only display on your blog if at least one link is assigned to it. To learn how to assign link categories, see Add a Blogroll Link. If you click on the number in the Links column, you will be taken to the Edit Links screen filtered by the link category.
Default Link Category
If you don’t assign a link category for a new link, it will be assigned the default link category. You can choose the default link category in Settings -> Writing.
Link Categories Screen Options
The Link Categories screen can be configured in different ways using Screen Options.
Links Widget
Adding links to your blogroll doesn’t do anything for your readers unless you display them on your blog. To display them in your sidebar you need to add the Links Widget to your sidebar.
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