Overview
GT Link Manager supports importing links from CSV files and exporting your existing links to CSV. This is useful for migrating from another link management plugin, bulk-creating links from a spreadsheet, or maintaining an offline backup of your link library.
The Import / Export screen is at GT Links → Import / Export.
Exporting links
The export section lets you download your links as a CSV file with optional filtering.
Search — filter exported links by a search term (matches name, slug, and URL).
Category — limit the export to links in a specific category.
Redirect Type — export only links with a specific redirect code (301, 302, or 307).
Rel — export only links with a specific rel attribute set.
You can combine these filters. Leaving all filters at their defaults exports every link.
Click Export CSV to download the file. The file is generated on the fly and streamed directly to your browser — no temporary file is stored on the server.
The exported CSV includes these columns in this order: name, slug, url, redirect_type, rel, noindex, category, tags, notes. The category column contains the category name (not ID). The rel column is a comma-separated string of rel values.
Importing links
The import process is two steps: upload and preview, then run the import.
Step 1: Upload and map columns
Choose your CSV file using the file picker. The first row must be a header row with column names — the plugin reads the header to determine how to map columns.
Preset — select the source format of your CSV.
Generic is the default preset. It expects column names that match the export format: name, slug, url, redirect_type, rel, noindex, category, tags, notes. Extra columns are ignored.
LinkCentral is a preset for importing from the LinkCentral plugin. It maps LinkCentral’s column names (link name, short slug, destination url, redirect type, rel attributes) to GT Link Manager’s data model.
If your CSV uses different column names, you can map them manually using the column mapping dropdowns that appear after upload.
Duplicate handling — choose what happens when an imported slug already exists in the database.
Skip — the duplicate row is ignored. The existing link is not modified.
Overwrite — the existing link’s data is replaced with the values from the CSV row.
Auto-suffix — the slug is made unique by appending a numeric suffix (-2, -3, etc.) until an available slug is found. A new link is created with the suffixed slug.
After selecting the file and options, click Preview (or equivalent submit button). The plugin reads the first five rows of the CSV and stores the parsed data in a transient.
Step 2: Review and import
A preview table shows the first five rows as they will be imported, with the column mapping applied. Review this to confirm the mapping is correct.
If the preview looks right, click Run Import. The plugin processes the entire CSV, applying the duplicate handling mode to each row.
After import, you see a summary: how many links were imported as new records, how many were updated (overwrite mode), and how many were skipped (skip mode or rows that failed validation).
CSV format
When preparing a CSV for import, the minimum required columns are url (or whichever column maps to the destination URL) and either name or slug. All other columns are optional.
url — the destination URL. Required.
name — the display name of the link. If omitted and slug is present, the slug is used as the name.
slug — the URL slug. If omitted, it’s auto-generated from the name.
redirect_type — must be 301, 302, or 307. Defaults to the plugin’s default redirect type if omitted.
rel — a comma-separated string of rel values: nofollow, sponsored, ugc. Any unrecognized values are stripped. Defaults to empty if omitted.
noindex — 1 or true to enable, any other value or omission means disabled.
category — the category name as a string. If a category with this name exists, the link is assigned to it. If not, the field is ignored (categories are not auto-created during import).
tags — a comma-separated string of tag values. Stored as-is.
notes — free-form text. Stored as-is.
Common import scenarios
Migrating from Pretty Links — Pretty Links can export to CSV. The column names won’t match GT Link Manager’s expected names, so you’ll need to use the column mapping dropdowns to align them. Map their pretty-link-url to url, pretty-link-slug to slug, etc.
Migrating from LinkCentral — Use the LinkCentral preset. This handles the column name differences automatically.
Bulk-creating from a spreadsheet — Create a spreadsheet with at minimum name and url columns. Export as CSV. Import using the Generic preset. Leave the slug column out to let the plugin auto-generate slugs.
Restoring a backup — Export your links, make a change (like deleting links by mistake), then re-import the export file with Overwrite mode to restore. Combine with Skip for additive restore if you don’t want to touch existing links.