Media Library Best Practices: Making Good Use of Alt Text Box, Title Box, Description, and More!

byEricCantu

14.5K followers

3 months ago

It's time for your daily dose of Wordpress Wisdom! In today's quick tutorial I'll show you how to get the most out of your media library when uploading images and filling in the the Alt text box, the Title box, Description, and so on. These boxes can serve some SEO purposes and also elevate the user experience, so for that reason, ESPECIALLY with featured images, taking the time to fill them out accordingly will help your website.

This video will show how I do this for my FEATURED images. With the majority of your other complimentary images in a post you can just focus on a relevant alt text and title.

Here is the order of importance for these info boxes:

1. Alt Text (Alternative Text)

• Importance: High
• Purpose: Describes the image for visually impaired users using screen readers and serves as a fallback if the image fails to load.
• SEO Benefit: Helps search engines understand the content of the image, improving your site's SEO.
• Best Practice: Use concise, descriptive text that accurately represents the image content. Incorporate relevant keywords naturally without keyword stuffing.

2. Title

• Importance: Medium-High
• Purpose: Acts as a tooltip when users hover over the image and can provide additional context.
• SEO Benefit: Can contribute to SEO, though its impact is less significant than alt text.
• Best Practice: Provide a descriptive title that complements the alt text. It can be slightly more detailed but should remain concise.

3. Caption

• Importance: Medium
• Purpose: Displays text below the image on your website, offering context or credit.
• User Experience: Enhances the viewer's understanding of the image and can provide additional information.
• Best Practice: Use captions to explain the image, cite sources, or add relevant commentary. Ensure it's relevant and adds value to the content.

4. Description

• Importance: Medium-Low
• Purpose: Provides a more detailed explanation of the image, visible in the media library but not typically displayed on the front end.
• SEO Benefit: Can offer additional context for search engines, but its impact is minimal compared to alt text and captions.
• Best Practice: Include comprehensive details about the image, such as its origin, purpose, or any relevant background information. This can be helpful for site administrators and content managers.

5. File URL (URL)

• Importance: Low
• Purpose: The direct link to the image file on your server.
• Usage: Primarily used internally by WordPress to reference the image in posts and pages.
• Best Practice: Generally managed automatically by WordPress. Avoid altering it unless necessary for specific technical reasons.

6. Copy URL (Link URL)

• Importance: Low
• Purpose: Allows you to link the image to another URL when clicked.
• User Experience: Enhances interactivity by directing users to related content, products, or external sites.
• Best Practice: Use sparingly and ensure that linked URLs are relevant and add value to the user's experience. Avoid linking to unrelated or low-quality sites to maintain trustworthiness.

As always, feel free to share this video to anyone needing help with this. If you have any Wordpress related questions that you'd like to see me create a tutorial for send me a private message or leave me a message on my profile.

If you want to check out all my Wordpress Wisdom tutorials feel free to head over to my blog.

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