How to Add Links in WordPress Text Widgets

WordPress allows you to add Widgets to your site’s sidebar or other widget ready areas.

Most of these widgets are automated and do not have many options. For example, the recent posts widget will automatically show links to your recent posts.

If you want to add some custom text with links in your sidebar, then you can use the Text Widget.

Text widget allows you to add text and basic HTML inside it.

There are two ways you can add a link into a text widget. First method requires you to write some very basic HTML.

Method 1: Adding a Link in HTML

Creating a link in HTML is very simple. Take a look at the following example.

<a href="http://www.wpbeginner.com">WPBeginner</a>

It will now show WPBeginner linked to wpbeginner.com.

The href tag is where you add the URL. Make sure to add http:// before the domain.

In between the anchor tags, you can add any text that you want to link, in our example WPBeginner.

Here is a screenshot of a text widget with an HTML link inside it.

Method 2: Using a Plugin

If you don’t want to write HTML, then you can enable visual editor for your text widgets.

You would need to install and activate the Black Studio TinyMCE Widgetplugin. If you need help installing a WordPress plugin, then follow our step by step guide to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, simply go to Appearance » Widgets page. You will notice a new widget titled ‘Visual Editor’ under available widgets.

Drag and drop this widget to a sidebar where you want to add your custom text and links. The widget will expand to show a text area with the same Visual Editor as your WordPress posts and pages.

You can now add links and format your text just like you would do in the post editor.