A WordPress site that is a few years old often has hundreds of images without alt text. Going through them one by one is daunting: here are three ways to catch up, and how to keep the problem from coming back.
Take stock
In the media library, switch to list view and look at the alt text column: empty cells need work. Start with the images that matter most to your visitors: the home page, sales pages, product pages and your most-read articles.
Three methods
1. By hand
Open each image in the media library and fill in the “Alternative text” field. It is the most precise method, and the slowest. It suits up to a few dozen images, or your strategic visuals.
2. With a plugin
SafeAlt scans the media library, spots images without alt text and suggests one for each, along with a title and a caption, in your site’s language. You can select images in the media library and use “Describe selection”, or process the whole queue.
Two operating modes:
- Automatic: the texts are saved directly.
- Review: SafeAlt prepares proposals that you approve or edit before they are applied.
Texts you have already written are never overwritten without your approval: SafeAlt fills empty fields and offers an alternative for fields that are already filled.
3. From the command line (WP-CLI)
For very large libraries, or if you manage several sites, the wp safealt enqueue command puts images in the processing queue without going through the admin interface. The images are then processed in batches in the background.
What does it cost?
SafeAlt’s free plan processes 25 images per month, without a credit card. That is enough to test on your main pages; paid plans are on the pricing page.
Reviewing matters
An AI can be wrong about what it sees, especially with very technical images, diagrams and visuals containing text. For the pages that matter, turn on review mode and check the proposals before applying them.
Keep the problem from coming back
- Add alt text when you upload the image.
- Keep automatic processing of new images turned on, in review mode if you prefer to approve.
- On the public site, SafeAlt also fills in missing alt text for the images on your pages as they are displayed, without changing the media library.
For the details of the settings, see the SafeAlt documentation.
