What Is a Blogroll and Why Every Beginner Needs One
Recent Trends: The Quiet Revival of Curated Links
In an era dominated by algorithmic feeds and social media silos, a growing number of bloggers are returning to the blogroll as a deliberate curation tool. Observers note that newsletters, personal websites, and niche blogs have increasingly added "friends of the site" sections in 2023–2024. The trend appears driven by a desire for human-curated discovery over machine recommendations, especially among creators who value long-term relationships over viral reach.
Background: From Web Rings to Community Anchors
A blogroll is simply a list of links to other blogs or websites that a blogger endorses. Historically, they were staples of early blogging communities, often displayed in sidebars as a sign of mutual support. As platforms like WordPress and Blogger standardized sidebars, the blogroll became a way to share traffic and signal trust. Its decline began with the rise of social media widgets and RSS feed overload.
- Early internet (1998–2005): Blogrolls were the primary method for cross-promotion and community building.
- Social media era (2006–2018): Many bloggers replaced blogrolls with Instagram or Twitter follow buttons.
- Current shift (2019–present): A counter-movement toward indie web and hyper-niche communities has revived interest.
User Concerns: Why Beginners Hesitate
New bloggers often worry that a blogroll might look outdated or send visitors away. Common concerns include:
- Loss of traffic: Fear that links bleed readers to competitors rather than building authority.
- Maintenance burden: Worry about broken links or needing to vet every site regularly.
- Privacy or endorsement risk: Uncertainty about whether linking equates to full endorsement of a site's content.
- SEO ambiguity: Confusion about "nofollow" vs. "dofollow" and whether blogroll links affect rankings.
Likely Impact: Why Beginners Should Start One
Despite those worries, a well-managed blogroll offers tangible benefits that outweigh risks, especially for a new site with little existing traffic. Key impacts include:
- Relationship building: A blogroll is an invitation for reciprocal linking and collaboration, ushering in early backlinks and social shares.
- Trust signals: Showing curation signals to readers that you are part of a legitimate, connected community.
- Reduced bounce: A targeted blogroll can guide visitors to relevant resources, increasing time spent on your site.
- Algorithm diversity: A curated link block provides an alternate discovery path outside search engines and social feeds.
A practical rule of thumb: keep your blogroll small (5–15 links), update it quarterly, and only list sites whose content you have personally read and would genuinely recommend. Use “nofollow” if you want to avoid passing link equity to sites you don’t fully trust.
What to Watch Next
The blogroll’s future likely depends on how platforms integrate it. Watch for three developments:
- Plugin innovations: New WordPress plugins are emerging that automatically check link health and show reciprocal badges, reducing maintenance friction.
- Social graph overlaps: Some indie web projects are exploring blogroll-as-identity, where a curated list becomes a portable RSS feed of your trusted network.
- Substack and newsletter cross-links: As newsletters grow, “recommendations pages” are essentially modern blogrolls; their design choices may influence how traditional blogrolls evolve.
For beginners, the decision is simple: a blogroll costs almost nothing in time or money, yet it can be the first step toward building a genuine network. Start with two links today, add one per week, and remove any that stop publishing for more than three months. That minimal effort often yields disproportionate community returns.