How to Easily Add Title Attribute to Images in WordPress (2 Methods)

After publishing thousands of articles on WPBeginner, we’ve learned that small details can have a huge impact. Adding a title attribute to your images is one of those little things that makes a big difference.

It’s an easy step to miss, but forgetting it means you’re losing a chance to improve both website accessibility and image SEO. This simple attribute gives extra context to both your visitors and search engines.

Luckily, WordPress makes it easy to add image titles, and you don’t need any special skills. We’ll walk you through two straightforward methods to get it done.

What Is the Title Attribute in Images?

Web crawlers, bots, and screen reading devices can’t actually see your images. Instead, they see HTML like:

<img src="/path/to/image/fruits.jpg" width="100" height="100" />

Most of the time, this code doesn’t help accessibility tools and search engines understand what the image is about.

That’s why we recommend adding a title tag to your images. For example:

<img src="/path/to/image/fruits.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="A fruit basket" title="Fruit Basket" />

A helpful, relevant title tag will help search engines like Google index your images correctly and then show them to people who are searching for content just like yours. This can improve your image SEO and increase your blog traffic.

Accessibility tools such as screen readers will also read the title out loud, which is helpful for visitors who have problems with their vision.

You can also add an alternate tag attribute, which your WordPress website will display if it can’t show the actual image, for example, due to a WordPress error.

That being said, let’s see how you can add title attributes to images in your WordPress blog or website. Simply use the quick links below to jump to the method you want to use:

Method 1: Adding Title Attribute to Images Using the Block Editor

You can easily add alt text and title attributes to any image in the WordPress WordPress content editor. Simply go to Posts » Add New and create a post.

Then click on the ‘+’ icon and select the Image block to add an image to the post or page.

You can now either choose an image from the media library or upload an image from your computer. No matter what option you choose, make sure you click to select the image in the media library.

You can now add alternative text by typing into the ‘Title’ field.

There’s also a ‘Title’ field, but this is the title that WordPress uses internally to identify media files in the Media Library. For more on this topic, please see our guide on image alt text vs. image title in WordPress – what’s the difference?

To add an HTML image title attribute, you’ll need to go ahead and add the image to your page or post, as normal. Then, click to expand the ‘Advanced’ section in the right-hand menu.

This has a ‘Title attribute’ field, which is the true HTML image title attribute.

Simply type the information you want to use into the field.

You can now go ahead and click on ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ to make your changes live.

Now, simply hover your mouse over the image, and you’ll see a popup containing your title tag.

Method 2: Add Title Attribute to Images Using WordPress Classic Editor

If you are using the older classic editor, then the process of adding a title attribute is slightly different. In the classic editor, click the ‘Add Media’ button and select your image.

Now, either upload a new image or choose an image from the media library. You can then add the alt text and a title using the fields towards the right of the media library.

Once again, keep in mind that ‘Title’ is used internally by WordPress and is not the true image title attribute that can improve SEO and accessibility.

When you are ready, click the ‘Insert into post’ button.

From there, click to select your image and then select the little pencil icon. This will bring up the ‘Image Details’ popup.

Simply click to expand the ‘Advanced Options’ section and then type the title tag into the ‘Image Title Attribute’ field.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Update’ button to save your changes.

You can now go ahead and publish the page or post to make the image alt text and title tag live.

Bonus Tips to Boost Image SEO

Once you upload your images to the media library, it is time to optimize them for search engines. This will make it easier for Google to index your images and rank them higher.

To do this, you must keep in mind to add relevant keywords in the captions, title, and alt text attributes.

For a powerful, automated solution, we recommend using All in One SEO (AIOSEO). It’s the best SEO plugin on the market and the one we use here at WPBeginner to handle our on-page optimization.

Its Image SEO module is a huge time-saver. We use it to automatically generate appropriate title attributes and alt text for our images, ensuring everything is optimized without tedious manual work.

The plugin also adds your images to an XML sitemap to help search engines find and rank them faster. For a complete breakdown of its features, please see our full All in One SEO review.

Plus, the plugin allows you to disable attachment pages. These pages show only a larger version of the actual image, negatively affecting your SEO.

To disable the attachment pages, visit the All in One SEO » Search Appearance page and switch to the ‘Image SEO’ tab. From here, make sure that the ‘Redirect Attachment URLs’ option is set to ‘Attachment.’

Now, the attachment pages will be redirected to the images themselves.

Other than that, you can also use descriptive text for image files, compress images, and add backlinks to boost rankings. For more tips and tricks, you can see our beginner’s guide to image SEO.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Here are answers to some of the most common questions we get about adding image title attributes in WordPress.

What is the difference between image alt text and an image title attribute?

Alt text is displayed when an image can’t load and is vital for screen readers and SEO. The title attribute provides extra information as a tooltip when a user hovers over the image.

While both are useful, alt text is more critical for accessibility and search rankings.

Is the ‘Title’ in the Media Library the same as the ‘Title Attribute’?

No, they serve different purposes. The ‘Title’ field in the Media Library is for your internal use to help organize your files.

The ‘Title Attribute’ is the HTML attribute that search engines read and that creates the hover-over tooltip for visitors.

Can I add image titles automatically in WordPress?

Yes, you can use a plugin like All in One SEO (AIOSEO). Its Image SEO module can automatically generate titles and alt text from your image filenames, which can save a lot of time.

Additional Resources for Image Optimization

We hope this guide helped you add title attributes to your images. For more tips on improving your site’s visuals and SEO, check out these related articles:

• Our expert pick of the best image compression plugins
• How to use AI to generate images in WordPress
• Beginner’s guide to image SEO

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