Earlier this week I had a visitor who searched for instructions on setting up a blogroll in WordPress. Looking back, I remember being a little confused by the process when I used WordPress for the first time, so I thought it might be beneficial to write a post.
Setting up a blogroll in WordPress is actually pretty easy, but it takes some time to get used to it, especially if you’re coming from a different platform like Blogger. You have the option to display the blogroll in your sidebar (easiest) or on a page.
Adding Links to Your WordPress Blogroll
To add links to your blogroll, look for the Links section in your dashboard. It’s usually right below the Media section.
If you go to All Links, you’ll notice several links that WordPress includes by default:
Feel free to delete those links (unless you want to include them in your blogroll, of course, but most people don’t). Then look for the Add New option at the top of the screen. Once you click it, you’ll be prompted to add a title, URL, and optional description for the first blogroll link. Add it to the blogroll category, check the box to make it open in a new tab if you’d like, then scroll back up and save your changes.
You can also make different categories, which is especially helpful if your blogroll has a lot of links. To do that, hover over the Links option in the dashboard, then click Link Categories. Once you’ve added the new categories, you can select them when adding a new link, or you can go back and edit your existing links if you’d like them to be included.
How to Display the Blogroll in Your Sidebar
To display your blogroll in your sidebar, just go to Appearance > Widgets and look for the Links widget. Drag it to your sidebar and you’ll be able to choose which category to display, how the links are ordered, and even how many links to show.
How to Display the Blogroll on a Page
Putting your blogroll on a page involves a little more effort, but it’s still really easy to do. Surf over to Plugins > Add New and search for WP Render Blogroll Links. Install and activate it, then create a new page and place
[wp-blogroll]
in the editor box. Publish the page and your blogroll will be there!
The WP Render Blogroll Links plugin also allows a lot of customizations if you’d like to change the way your blogroll displays. You can also get a plugin called Better Blogroll if you’d like to change the way your blogroll behaves in your sidebar. It adds another sidebar widget with extra options (though you can still use the regular WordPress Links widget if you prefer).
So there you go - super simple instructions for creating and displaying the WordPress blogroll! If you ever have questions about blogging, feel free to email me and I’ll write a post to answer them.
a WordPress rating system
Quick Tip: How to Set Up a Blogroll in WordPress,
Another useful post. I’ll get one set up someday. What is the appropriate number to include? I don’t want to list 100 blogs, but how can you not make someone mad? Not really a technical question, I guess.
I would say to include the blogs that are honestly your favorites. I have an enormous blogroll on SOT but it rotates in the sidebar to keep it easier to look at - if I could do it over again, I would pick 10-20 that I absolutely loved and leave it at that.
I like the rotating blogroll idea!
I probably need to cull mine pretty soon. I bet there are bloggers who’ve moved domains or faded away still on my list. I also try to limit it to blogs I absolutely love and whole-heartedly recommend (which isn’t true for ALL of the blogs in my reader).
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