The Easiest Linktree Alternative with Kadence Blocks

One of the most frustrating elements of Instagram marketing is the lack of capability for adding links to posts. With Instagram marketing as one of the more powerful ways to connect with new audiences, the lack of clickable links has created a gap filled by a number of businesses. 

Linktree has been one of these successful businesses. A no-code, easy-to-customize tool that helps marketers not only direct users to multiple links, Linktree is an easy way to add numerous links to social bios. As good as Linktree is, many other companies have created similar tools, including Shorby, Pallyy, Tap Bio, Lnk.Bio, and Campsite to name a few. 

Avoiding vendor lock in

Once you choose one of these companies on which to build your links, you’re locked in. Your links stay in their system, and if for some reason they go out of business, you lose your hard work. 

The avoidance of “vendor lock in” is one of the reasons many companies turn to open source platforms like WordPress. No matter what happens in the business world or with any of the businesses that contribute to WordPress, you own your site, your code, and as long as you have your backup, you can migrate your existing site to any number of hosting providers such as Nexcess or Liquid Web. 

As well, when you build your links on another platform, you lose the professionalism of your own branded domain name and link page that your own site can offer. 

In the past, building out a links page that competes with what Linktree and others offer might have seemed difficult.

But not with Kadence.

Kadence makes building link pages easy

Michelle Frechette, the Director of Community Engagement at StellarWP, is one busy individual. Steering a number of WordPress community initiatives, Michelle manages numerous websites to which she wanted to direct her audience. She used Kadence Blocks to create her own links page to rival anything that could have been built with Linktree and other tools, and she did so without touching a line of code. 

You can see her Linktree replacement page here, and a screenshot below.

How to build your own links page for Instagram

Inspired by Michelle’s page, Kadence-friendly golden retriever Bodhi decided to build out his own links page on his site. This is Bodhi.

On Bodhi’s links page, he wanted to make sure that he could not only link to pages on his site, but also other sites where he had posted content. 

Bodhi is a smart dog, so he’s already got Kadence and Kadence Blocks installed. Smart dogs know to get a Bundle so he’s got access to everything he needs He’s not quite sure what he’s going to do with his site yet, but he’s checking out the popular Starter Template Yosemite in dark mode, as it reminds him very much of his California home.  

Creating the Link Page

First, Bodhi’s human (who is a much better typist) heads to the WordPress Pages area of his WordPress site and chooses Add New. Bodhi chose pawsome-links for the name of his page.

He’s got Kadence Blocks ready, so we start building. First, we choose a Row Layout into which we will add our Kadence Advanced Button Blocks.

The Advanced Button Block has a number of settings that make building a Linktree alternative page on our very own Kadence-powered site quite easy. Not only can we set the width and height of every button, we can also add icons to every button, customize the color for every button. Once we have decided on a color scheme, we can also duplicate buttons to build out the rest of his Linktree replacement page. And we can even choose a unique color for one button to highlight it if we choose.

Building our first button

Building the first button is where we’re going to focus on design. Once we’ve got the design for the first button, duplicating that button and changing the text, links, and icon make building out our Linktree alternative page easy.

For our button settings, we enter our link, and then we click the Button Size gear to select top and bottom padding of 20 pixels. We then set our Button Width to 400 pixels.

For our button color settings, we choose a color that complements our brand colors and theme. We also choose button hover colors that are complementary, but we opt to choose colors that are a bit more vibrant.

We decide to add some icons to our buttons to have a little fun. The Kadence Advanced Button Block has icons built into the settings, so we can easily do this without adding additional fonts. Here we select the Instagram icon for our first button.

Once we have our first block built, we can easily use the block editor “duplicate” functionality to create additional blocks. We could even add our Advanced Button Block to a reusable block and built out our Linktree alternative page that way.

Options for customizing the Header and Footer

If you’re going for the full Linktree experience with minimalist headers and footers, there are a few options using Kadence and Kadence Blocks. By default, your page will use the header and footer that you’ve set up for your entire theme. But Kadence offers numerous options for customizing your header and footer, even down to a custom header and footer using Kadence Elements Templates. 

Here are some options. 

Remove the Header and Footer Altogether

Using the page settings in Kadence, you can opt to remove the header and footer altogether. On the right sidebar in the block editor, choose Page Settings and toggle the header and footer off. 

Set up a Conditional Header 

In the Kadence Pro options, turn Conditional Headers on. Then, head to the customizer to set up a header specific for your links page. You can choose to remove all options that you have on your normal header, add some new options, or set up a header any way you want. 

Use Kadence Elements Templates to Replace the Header and Replace the Footer

Using Kadence Elements, you can set up a specific header for your Linktree replacement page. Set up a header with just your logo, set up a footer with your social images. All of these items are possible. Here’s how. 

Create a new elements template and choose “Replace Header” for Placement. For Display Settings, choose “Single Page” and under Select Page By, choose Individually. Then, click “Select Items” to find your Linktree replacement page in the dialog. 

Then, design your header however you wish using the block editor like you normally would. Choose to just add your logo or add a specific image or add an Advanced Heading to add text stylized however you wish. Save your Kadence Elements Template header and see how it looks!

Use the same process to create a custom footer. Create a new elements template and choose “Replace Footer” for Placement. For Display Settings, use the same process to choose a single page and individually choose your Linktree replacement page in the “Select Items” dialog. 

You can create a footer that contains all of your social links using a multiple-column row and adding the Kadence Icon block in those columns. This is what Bodhi’s customized Kadence Elements Templates footer replacement looks like for his Linktree replacement page. 

Own Your Links Page

As with everything on your WordPress site, you own the platform, so you own your Linktree replacement page. You’re avoiding vendor lock in, you’re avoiding another recurring monthly cost, and you have a lot more freedom and flexibility to create a unique links page that suits your brand, your personality, your marketing initiatives, and most importantly the audience you’ve worked so hard to build. 

Bodhi’s Linktree alternative page looks pretty good! And no matter in the doggo universe where he links to his page, he’s sending traffic to his own page on his own site where he owns the content, brand, analytics, and entire experience.

Kadence Bundles

You can easily do most of these things with the Kadence free theme and Kadence Blocks plugin that is available in the WordPress directory, but some things, like Kadence Elements and Conditional Headers are only available in the Pro versions of Kadence and Kadence Blocks.

If you’re just getting started with Kadence, the Kadence Essentials Bundle has everything you need. And if you’re looking to boost sales with Kadence Shop Kit, Kadence Conversions, and other robust WordPress plugins, the Kadence Full Bundle is the best way to ensure you’re getting the most out of everything Kadence offers. 

Show us your Links!

Did you use Kadence to build your links page? Share your work in the comments; we’d love to see your creativity.