Mastering Blogrolls: A Step-by-Step Guide to Adding One to Your WordPress Site Without Plugins

When we launched CanadaCreate, one of the most valuable features was the blogroll – a carefully curated list of resources that helped our readers find other important WordPress content.

Even today, we continue to utilize blogrolls on our websites to share partner links and useful resources with our audience.

Many WordPress users believe they need a plugin to create a blogroll, but there’s actually a straightforward solution built directly into WordPress.

Let us guide you through the step-by-step process we follow to add blogrolls to WordPress sites without the need for any plugins. This approach is ideal for both beginners and seasoned WordPress users.

What Is a Blogroll?

A blogroll is a collection of links to other blogs that are relevant to your own WordPress blog. It can feature links to your other websites, blogs you admire, or any sites you want your visitors to explore.

In the early days of blogging, it was more personal and community-oriented. People often linked to other blogs they enjoyed.

Here’s how we implement a blogroll on CanadaCreate. You can find links to our free tools, resources, and other product websites.

Initially, many blogging platforms included blogrolls as a standard feature. However, as blogging became more mainstream and competitive, this feature slowly faded away.

WordPress has included a blogroll feature since its inception. Initially named Links, it was rebranded to Blogroll in version 2.1.

In version 2.5, it was renamed back to Links and remained that way until version 3.5, when the WordPress team completely removed the feature from the core.

The functionality was still accessible through a free plugin called ‘Link Manager.’ However, this WordPress plugin has not been updated for years, and it is no longer necessary to add a blogroll in WordPress.

🌟 If you’re curious about the evolution of WordPress, check out our comprehensive article on the history of WordPress.

Why Should You Add a Blogroll to Your WordPress Site?

A blogroll allows your visitors to explore other websites that you recommend.

Typically, these include blogs or websites owned by you or your business. You can also link to other blogs that you admire or want your audience to visit.

This feature enables your users to discover additional blogs you own or explore other recommended sites.

📝 Related Articles: Check out our guide on how to monitor and fix broken links in WordPress.

Let’s explore how to easily add a blogroll to your WordPress site, manage your links, and display them anywhere on your website. You can click the links below to navigate to any section:

Creating a Blogroll Menu in WordPress

WordPress offers a powerful menu management feature, which led the core team to remove the traditional blogroll feature.

Typically, you will use navigation menus in WordPress to add links to your site’s navigation bar, footer, or other areas.

You can also utilize the same navigation menu to create and manage a blogroll in WordPress.

There are several methods to add a navigation menu in WordPress, depending on your theme.

If you can access the ‘Menus’ page in the WordPress admin area under Appearance » Menus, then you are using a classic theme.

Conversely, if you only see the Appearance » Editor If you are using a full site editor (FSE) theme, you can refer to the full site editor instructions here.

We will begin with Classic themes and then guide you on how to add a Blogroll navigation menu in themes that utilize a full site editor.

How to Add Blogroll Links in Classic Themes

Simply navigate to the Appearance » Menus section to create a new menu.

WordPress will create a new blank menu and prompt you to name it. You can name it ‘Blogroll’ for easy identification when managing your WordPress site.

Remember to click the ‘Create Menu’ button to save your changes.

Next, click to expand the ‘Custom Links’ tab under the ‘Add Menu Items’ column on the left.

Here, enter the URL of the blog or WordPress site and add the blog title in the ‘Link Text’ field. Then, click the ‘Add to Menu’ button.

You will see the new item appear in the right column under your blank Blogroll menu.

You can repeat this process to add additional links you wish to display in your blogroll. Once you are done, be sure to click the ‘Save Menu’ button to save your blogroll links.

Open Blogroll Links in a New Window and Set Them as Nofollow

Blogroll links are external links that direct users away from your website while also transferring SEO value.

This highlights the importance of developing a habit of internal linking, ensuring that both users and search engines spend more time on your site.

If you control all the links in your blogroll and are okay with users navigating from one of your sites to another, you don’t need to make any changes.

However, if you do not own those external links, consider opening them in a new window and marking them as ‘nofollow’.

These additional options are initially hidden, but you can easily reveal them.

To access them, click the ‘Screen Options’ button located in the top right corner of your ‘Menus’ page. This will open a dropdown menu where you can check the boxes for ‘Link Target’ and ‘Link Relationship (XFN)’.

Next, scroll down to the links you previously added and click on the ‘Custom Link’ option to expand it.

Now, you can check the box for ‘Open link in a new tab’ and enter ‘nofollow’ in the ‘Link Relationship (XFN)’ field.

Repeat this process for all the links you wish to mark as nofollow or open in a new window. Finally, remember to click the ‘Save Menu’ button to apply your changes.

Discover more about nofollow links and their appropriate usage in our comprehensive guide on adding nofollow links in WordPress.

How to Display the Blogroll on Your WordPress Site

Now that you’ve set up your blogroll, you can proceed to add it to your WordPress blog.

The most popular location for displaying a blogroll is in your website’s sidebar. Alternatively, you can create a dedicated blogroll page to showcase links to all the resources, blogs, and interesting websites that you recommend.

Simply navigate to the Appearance » Widgets section and click the ‘+’ button to add the Navigation Menu widget block to your sidebar.

Next, enter the title you wish to display for the blogroll, and select the menu you created earlier from the dropdown list.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Update’ button to save your widget settings.

You can now visit your website to see your Blogroll featured in the sidebar.

Here’s how it appeared on our test website.

You can also display the blogroll in the footer area if your WordPress theme includes a Footer widget area.

You can verify this by going to the Appearance » Widgets section in your WordPress dashboard and scrolling down to the Footer widget area.

Add the Navigation Menu widget block to the footer widget area.

Next, enter a title for the menu and choose the blogroll menu. Remember to click the ‘Update’ button to save your changes.

You can now check your website to view the blogroll links in action.

Here’s how the blogroll menu appears in the footer section of our test site.

How to Display the Blogroll Menu in the Full Site Editor (FSE)

The full site editor (FSE) is a block-based theme editor for WordPress. It allows you to customize your theme using blocks, similar to editing a blog post.

The full site editor is compatible with specific themes only. For more information, please refer to our article on the best WordPress full site editing themes.

First, navigate to Appearance » Editor in your WordPress dashboard. Then, click the ‘Customize’ button to access the full site editor. For this tutorial, we will use the Twenty Twenty-Two theme.

Once you enter the full site editor, you will see your website’s homepage.

Click on the template details dropdown menu at the top. From there, select the ‘Footer’ section.

After that, you need to add a Navigation block to the footer.

To add the block, simply click the ‘+’ button located at the top.

Next, your navigation menu will be displayed in the footer section.

From the Settings panel on your right, click the ‘Menu’ dropdown and select the blogroll menu you created earlier.

You have options to customize the layout and orientation of your custom links.

After making your changes, remember to save them. You can now visit your website to see your blogroll in action.

How to Display a Blogroll Using a WordPress Theme Builder

If you are using a WordPress theme builder like SeedProd, you can also display your blogroll.

SeedProd is the leading drag-and-drop WordPress website builder, allowing you to create custom themes with pre-built templates and extensive customization options. For more details, check out our comprehensive SeedProd review.

First, you need to install and activate the SeedProd plugin. If you need assistance, please refer to our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once you install SeedProd, you’ll be greeted by the welcome page. Enter your license key and click the ‘Verify key’ button. You can locate your license key in your SeedProd account.

Next, navigate to SeedProd » Theme Builder in your WordPress dashboard.

Then, click the ‘Theme’ button located at the top.

SeedProd provides a variety of pre-designed theme templates for you to choose from.

Simply hover over a template and click the orange checkmark button to select your desired theme.

You’ll then see a selection of different theme templates.

Scroll down to find the ‘Footer’ template and click the ‘Edit Design’ option.

This will open the drag-and-drop website builder.

You can personalize the footer section of your WordPress theme by adding various blocks. To include the blogroll, add the Navigation Menu block to the footer area.

After adding the Nav Menu block, the default Simple menu type will appear.

From the menu on the left, select ‘WordPress Menu’ as the menu type. Then, choose Blogroll from the dropdown menu.

Next, switch to the ‘Advanced’ tab in the left menu to further customize your blogroll navigation menu.

You can customize the list layout to be either vertical or horizontal, adjust the typography, change the text color, hover color, and more.

When you’re finished, simply click the ‘Save’ button at the top and exit the website builder.

Next, ensure that your SeedProd theme is activated.

Just navigate to SeedProd » Theme Builder in your WordPress dashboard and toggle the ‘Enable SeedProd Theme’ option.

You can now visit your website to view the blogroll menu in your custom theme.

For further information, please refer to our guide on how to effortlessly create a custom WordPress theme without any coding.

We hope this article has helped you learn how to easily add a blogroll in WordPress. You may also want to check out our guide on writing an excellent blog post or explore the best examples of successful blogs.

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