How to Add Links to Your WordPress Blog

If you’re new to blogging with WordPress, you might be wondering how to create links from your blog to other pages on the internet.

Creating links enables you to share valuable information from other sites with your readers. This helps you connect with the global internet community, which is why the internet is often referred to as “the web.”

The method for creating a link on your blog varies depending on where you want the link to appear. In this guide, I will show you how to add a link in your blog post as well as in your sidebar menus.

How to Add Links to a Blog Post

Adding a link to within a blog post is actually rather easy.  The process I will explain also works for adding a link to a page.

1.To start with, login to your WordPress dashboard and either create a new post or click to edit an existing post.  When you have done that you should be on the post editor screen.

2.If you don’t have any text in your post yet, you will want to type whatever you want the link text to be.  This is what is known as the “anchor text” of the link.  For example, “Click here” is a popular anchor text.  Once you have the text you want for you link, you will need to select the text with your mouse to highlight it.  In the example below I have highlighted the text, “create a hosting account”. 

3.Now you will need to click on the paperclip icon (circled in red) just above the blog post text box.

4.You will then see a pop-up box.  In the text area called “URL” you will enter the address of the page that you want to link to.  IMPORTANT: The address must start with either http:// or https:// 

5.Once you have put in the address of the page you want to link to, click “Add Link”.  Then you will need to click the blue “Update” button to update your post.  The link will now be visible on your blog for everyone to see!

How to Add Links to Your Menus

Now we are going to see how to insert a link into the sidebar menu of your blog.  The sidebar is the area where you might see things like links to your recent posts, recent comments, or categories.  It is also a popular place for bloggers to put something known as a “blogroll” which is simply a list of links to other recommended blogs.  Here is how to add links to your sidebar menu:

1.Go to “Plugins ==> Add New” and type “link manager” in the search box. Click “Search Plugins”.

2.You should see the Link Manager plugin first in the search results.  Click “Install Now” and then click “Activate Plugin” on the next page. 

3.This plugin has created a new item in the left menu of your WordPress dashboard called “Links”.  Go to “Links ==> Add New” to add a link 

4.Now you can enter in the link text (anchor text) in the “Name” box, and the address of the page you are linking to in the “Web Address” box.  When you are done, click the blue “Add Link” button on the right. 

5.Now that you have created the link, you need to choose where it will go on your blog.  To do this, go to the left menu of your dashboard and select “Appearance ==> Widgets”.

6.Now you are on the widgets page.  Widgets are simply helpful tools that you can add to the menus of your WordPress blog.  On the left of the widgets page you will see the available widgets.  On the right of the page you will see your menu areas (your menu areas may be different from the example depending on the theme you are using for your blog).  To add a widget you simply drag-and-drop it from the available widgets to menu you want it to appear in.  We want to add the “Links” widget, so we are going to drag-and-drop that into the appropriate menu.

7.Once you have put the “Links” widget where you want it you can select any options you want and then click the “Save” button.