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WordPress links are what connects everything together on your blog.
Whether it means linking to:
- Other related blog posts
- External websites and references
- Giving visitors a table of contents so they can jump to specific sections
- Making buttons and images clickable
- Embedding external content from resources like YouTube
Not only are your WordPress links critical for linking everything together. They are also beneficial for things like Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Because linking one of your blog posts or pages. Helps Google to understand exactly what your webpage is about. So it can more accurately rank it in searches.
Oh and don’t forget! Most importantly linking can help your audience too. By giving them related content to help them further understand. Or giving them their next steps.
Here’s the thing though. There are many different types of WordPress links that you will use over the lifetime of your blog. And well, as a beginner blogger these can be daunting to get your head around.
So, that’s why I’ve put together this WordPress guide of all the types of WordPress links. That will give you a detailed reference and cheatsheet that you can refer to later.
Heck, you might even find some new ideas on how to use WordPress links on your blog. That hasn’t occurred to you yet!
Okay, so let’s start!
WordPress Links Attributes
Before I go into how to add different types of links to your WordPress blog. I want to cover the attributes that are commonly assigned within the HTML of your blog.
I’ll cover later how you can see this code. But for now, I want you to understand their uses.
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WordPress Nofollow Links
When nofollow WordPress links are used. This is part of an SEO strategy to tell Google which links to follow and which to ignore.
Firstly, you should never use nofollow on internal links. This means any links on your blog that link to another section of your website.
As you want Google to be able to explore and understand your blog as much as possible. So it can accurately rank your blog in search results.
Secondly, you should always set nofollow for affiliate links. Or any paid links in general.
If you don’t you can get into a lot of trouble with Google. So, watch out for this!
When it comes to other external links. For the most part, many always set these to nofollow as well.
However, don’t be afraid to occasionally include external links. Which are Dofollow rather than Nofollow. So long as the link is high-quality and relevant.
Many bloggers believe that you must set every external link as Nofollow. Otherwise, you will lose link juice.
However, based on the 200 Google Ranking Factors compiled over at Backlinko. Consider this:
Setting all your links as nofollow may be going too far with something called PageRank sculpting. That Google may see as a sign of gaming the system.
But also, too many external dofollow links may hurt your page’s rankings.
So, instead think of dofollow links as voting for a website. That is high-quality and relevant to your content.
Dofollow WordPress Links
Okay, so I’ve mentioned using Dofollow.
Well, many bloggers get confused and think they need to add dofollow to their links.
But this isn’t true. In fact, by not including nofollow in your WordPress links. Google automatically considers your link as Dofollow!
Noreferrer WordPress Links
Here’s one that is a bit more tricky.
If you ever set your links to open in a new tab. Then you might see creeping into your HTML code.
As WordPress in recent updates since around 4.7+ have been automatically adding these.
Why? Because is designed to help prevent a security exploit. That can be triggered when opening links into a new tab.
However, is only beneficial for a tiny fraction of browsers (around 2-5%). As it is only an issue in super old browsers that do not support noopener. Like Internet Explorer. (More on this next.)
Now consider the impact that can have. Because it prevents the tracking of where the original click came from.
What this means for us as bloggers. Is that it can impact your affiliate marketing. In fact, it is against Amazon Associates’ terms.
It also will prevent Google Analytics from tracking stats properly. Overall, is a big blogging headache.
Which is why I strongly encourage removing it using this guide.
Noopener WordPress Links
Now you know how much of a headache is. Here’s the other side of the coin.
For the majority of browsers. Noopener will prevent the same security exploit as .
But without any of the negative consequences or headaches. So, if you have links set to open into a new tab. You should always have this set in the HTML.
WordPress will do it for you automatically. So if you notice it in your HTML make sure you don’t remove it. As it is actually there to help!
WordPress Links With Target=”_Blank”
Okay, so one last thing before we move onto how to add WordPress links to your blog.
WordPress automatically adds another snippet of code to your HTML. Whenever you set your links to open in a new tab. You will often see it as target=”_blank”
This little snippet is actually what creates the behavior of opening links into a new tab.
So, if you’ve toggled the setting on and see this code in your HTML. Then this is perfectly normal!
6 Ways To Add WordPress Links To Your Blog
Now, let’s talk about all the different ways you can add WordPress links to your blog.
1. How To Link To An Internal WordPress Page Or Post
So, one of the first types of WordPress links you’ll likely want to create. Involves linking your post or page to another on your blog. These are called internal links.
As they are all contained on your blog’s domain. For example individualobligation.com.
You’ll usually create these types of links when you want to link together related content.
So, as an example. I have a blog post about writing your first ever blog post using WordPress Gutenberg.
Within this post, I’ve linked to several other blog posts that are related to the topic. Such as the steps you need to take before you start writing.
How do you add internal WordPress links?
Well, from within the WordPress Gutenberg editor for a new blog post or page. You will want to have some text already added to a Paragraph block.
Next, highlight some of the text you want to change into a link. Then click on the chain icon to turn the text you have selected into a link.
A small box will appear. Add in your internal link’s URL or you can type something into the box to search. Keep in mind the search will only find internal content not external.
Once you’ve entered your link. You can click on Apply or the Link Settings button for more options.
If you decide to click on Link Settings this will give you the option to set the link to Open in a New Tab.
If you do toggle the Open in New Tab to on. Then make sure to click Apply to set your link.
If you need to remove this internal WordPress link. Then you can click on the broken chain icon to delete it.
Or if you ever need to go back and edit your WordPress links. You can click on the pencil icon instead to make changes. Remember to click Apply once done!
Before moving on you can check what attributes WordPress Gutenberg has set for you. You’ll likely see some of the attributes we covered earlier.
To do this simply click on More Options for the Paragraph block and then Edit as HTML.
In this example, rel=”noopener” is set because I have toggled on Open in New Tab.
There should not be any reference to nofollow. Since we want Google to follow all internal links for SEO purposes.
Also, there should not be any reference to . If you have showing here. Then you absolutely must follow this guide to disable it in WordPress.
It will prevent Google Analytics from tracking stats. Plus it can cause problems with affiliate links too.
Whether you set Open in New Tab on for internal links is down to your personal preferences.
But as a general rule of thumb, I always toggle this on. As it makes it easier for my audience to keep their place on the current post.
For external WordPress links, I always recommend having Open in New Tab toggled on. Because you want your audience to stay on your blog as much as possible.
2. How To Link To An External Page In WordPress
Next up is setting external WordPress links. This means anything that is not on your blog domain.
The process is similar to setting an internal link in WordPress Gutenberg.
Overall, you need to:
- Highlight the text you want to convert into a WordPress link.
- Click the chain icon
- Paste in a URL into the box for the webpage you want to link to
- Click Link Settings and toggle on Open in New Tab (optional)
- Click Apply to create the link.
Now, the main differences between external and internal links. Is that you will likely want to set the link with the nofollow attribute we discussed earlier.
You can do this by clicking on More Options for the Paragraph block and then Edit as HTML.
Then in the HTML code add nofollow to the rel=”noopener” code.
If this code isn’t present. Then you can copy and paste in the entire code rel=”nofollow”
There is one catch though. Adding lots of external links and setting nofollow this way. Can become time-consuming fast.
So, what can you do?
Here’s the solution I use.
I add all my links to my content first. Then once I am done adding links I go to More Tools & Options for the blog post in Gutenberg. From here I select the Code Editor.
I then press Ctrl+F on my keyboard to bring up the search bar. Here I can type in something like href=”
This will highlight all the links in my content. So going from the top to the bottom I’ll go through these and add in nofollow where required.
I find it’s much quicker this way.
The other alternative is to use a plugin that will add this in for you. I try to avoid something like this though. As it is a significant amount of extra processing and resources.
3. Creating An Anchor Link Or Page Jump Link
Adding internal and external links in WordPress are the most obvious ways you’ll use.
But there are further ways you can add links to your blog. In this case, let’s look at creating anchor links.
Anchor links can also sometimes be called Page Jump links.
This is because these links are often used to create shortcuts within a single webpage.
For example, at the top of this blog post. I’ve created a table of contents for the different sections.
You can click on any of these and it will jump down to the correct part of the webpage for you.
The easiest way to create a table of contents like this for your content. Is with the Ultimate Addons For Gutenberg plugin. As it comes with a customizable WordPress Gutenberg block dedicated to this.
You can read more about how to use this plugin to create anchor links here.
4. Creating A WordPress Button Link
Have you ever considered adding buttons to your blog?
If so then this method of adding WordPress links to buttons might interest you.
Firstly, you’ll want to click on one of the plus icons to add a new block in the WordPress Gutenberg editor.
Then in the search box trying typing in button.
A button block should show that you can click on to add to your content.
Once you have a button you’ll want to customize it using the block settings.
You’ll want to:
- Pick a background color
- Set a text color
- Click the button and add some text
Now, once you’ve customized your button to how you want it to look. We can focus on adding a WordPress link to it.
Underneath the button you may have noticed a place to put your link.
This works the same as adding internal or external links. So add your link URL here.
The second area you want to edit is under the block section for Link settings.
Here you can set whether the button’s link will open in a new tab. As well as any attributes you want to set. Such as nofollow or noopener.
Click Apply once done.
Once done you can preview your button and you should be able to click on it. So it sends you to the URL you set.
5. Adding Links To Images Or Photos
Another place you might want to add links is to your images or photos.
To do this, first, you’ll need to add a new Image block. So click the plus icon to add a new block in the WordPress Gutenberg Editor.
Then search for image and click on the Image block that comes up.
The image block will give you a few options to set your image with:
Once you have an image set you’ll want to click on the chain icon. This will give you a similar box to what you’ve seen before.
Add in your URL into the box.
You can then click on More Options. Where you can then set whether the link will open into a new tab. As well as any attributes such as nofollow or noopener.
Remember to click Apply once everything is set.
6. How To Embed WordPress Links To Other Resources
The last method I want to talk about is embedding links in WordPress that lead to other resources.
You can use this for things like:
- YouTube and Vimeo videos
- Social media accounts
- SoundCloud and Spotify tunes
You can find the blocks to add these embedded WordPress links. All within the Embeds category when you go to add a new block.
As you can see there are lots of options and what I’ve listed above only scratches the surface.
Whichever block you select. You’ll need to add the link you want to embed.
For example, using the YouTube embed. All you need to do is add your link and click Embed.
The block will process for a moment and then display as an embedded video. That can be played straight from your blog.
How To Remove WordPress Links
Now, that we’ve gone through all ways to add WordPress links. How can you remove or edit them at a later stage?
Well, if you add a link using something like one of the embed blocks. You can delete the entire block to get rid of the link.
You can do this by clicking on the block you want to delete. Then click on the More Options > Remove Block.
With a block selected you can also press Shift+Alt+Z as it will do the same thing.
If you’ve added a link to some text within a Paragraph block. You can remove it by clicking within the link and then on the broken chain icon. Or click the pencil icon to edit it instead.
Finally, if you’ve added a link to something like an image block. You might want to only remove the link. Rather than delete the entire Image block.
In this case, you can delete the link you added to an image. Click the image block and then the chain icon.
You can then edit with the pencil icon or click the cross to remove the link altogether.
Tools To Manage Your Links In WordPress
There are several tools you can use to manage your WordPress links. Many of these involve extra plugins and can slow down your blog.
But, the most important one that every blogger should use. Is the Broken Links Checker.
Having broken links on your blog are bad for your audience’s experience. Plus they have zero benefits to your blog in general.
So by using the broken links checker as outlined here. You can use this plugin to check all your links fast.
This way you can update or remove any links in WordPress that are no longer working. In a few simple steps.
Recap Of This WordPress Links Cheatsheet & Reference For Beginner Bloggers
This WordPress guide has covered in-depth WordPress links. Including attributes that can be applied to your links. Such as:
- Nofollow – to tell Google to ignore your links
- Dofollow – so Google understands the link is related to your content
- Noreferrer – something you should disable using this guide
- Noopener – what you should use over when setting links to open in a new tab
- Target=”_blank” – the HTML code that triggers links to open in a new tab
Furthermore, we’ve then covered a ton of different methods to add WordPress links to your blog. Including:
- Internal links – to connect together related content
- External links – refer to other websites for references and context
- Anchor or page jump links – to create easy to navigate shortcuts and table of contents. That will scroll to a specific section of your webpage.
- WordPress buttons – that can link to other URLs to make use of their clickability
- Adding links to images – because some people expect to click on images. And for it to take them to another related page.
- Embedded links – using embed blocks to link to other content like YouTube videos. That can then be embedded as a playable video into your content.
Don’t forget though. Once your links have been added it is easy enough to go back and change them. Or remove them completely if needs be.
You should also be checking on a regular basis for broken links in WordPress. As part of your WordPress maintenance tasks. Which are important to keep your blog in tip-top shape!
Did any of these methods to add WordPress links surprise you? Or do you still have any questions?
Don’t hesitate to leave your thoughts and questions in the comments below!
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