After realizing just how many rookie blogging mistakes I’ve been making, I’m attempting to correct them! I’m working on renaming the images that are in my blog posts. I’ve found that I can rename them through HTML view when I edit a post – is it okay to do this? And is there a way to add Alt Text to images on posts that I’ve already blogged? Or should I be re-uploading these images to properly tag, rename, etc.?
Thank you!
Renaming WordPress Images
A
Hi Lindsay, Thanks for your question! Good job on going back through your older content. It will certainly pay off in the long run. So there's 3 things to keep track of here:
- Filename. Often times you can't change this after you've uploaded. But the filename has some SEO value to it, so before you upload your photos, I'd suggest making meaningful file names (ex: lindsay-delisio-portrait-photography-family-portrait-2013-01-24.jpg).
- Alt Attribute Text. This is what shows up in the little yellow tag when you hover over an image. You have 144 characters to describe the image. I would use diversity here. It'll help you broaden the different searches you get over time. Avoid using big keywords like "Your City Wedding Photographer" here. You can change the Alt Text after you've published your post already. You can do it through the Media Manager.
- Title. In WordPress, you can give the image a Title since the photo is an entity in and of itself. If you want to change the Title, I would do so by using the Media Manager dialog to change it rather than changing it through HTML.