WordPress Bulk Edit Image Alt Text (Add Alt Tags in Bulk)

You can bulk add or edit alt text or image SEO descriptions for WordPress images by filtering your Media Library for images with missing alt tags, editing the Alt text column in a spreadsheet, applying bulk changes to multiple images, or importing alt text from a CSV file.

How to Add Alt Tags to Images in WordPress

The standard way to add alt tag or alt text to your images in WordPress is to go to the Media page in WordPress, open an image, and enter the alt text in the corresponding field.

Unfortunately, that’s repetitive, tedious, and doesn’t let you make quick progress on your work.

WP Sheet Editor: Your Bulk Alt Text WordPress Editor

WP Sheet Editor – Media Library lets you quickly edit your alt tags in a spreadsheet. You can easily find all the images that don’t have alt text and add alt text to them without having to open the images one by one. You can also edit them in bulk and even export and import alt text.

It turns you WordPress Media Library into a spreadsheet-style editor where you can view your media files in rows and edit fields such as:

• Image title
• Alt text (SEO description)
• Caption
• Description
• File URL
• Metadata and custom fields

You can use the plugin as a bulk alt text editor for WordPress and WooCommerce images! But of course, it serves many other uses!

After installing and activating the plugin, go to Sheet Editor > Edit Media to open the Media Library spreadsheet.

Option 1: How to Change Image Alt Text in WordPress

The process for changing the alt text of your WordPress images is simple. You need to open an image that contains alt text in the WordPress Media Library and edit the text. But that’s too difficult when you want to edit many images. That’s why we’ll show you how to find images that contain specific keywords in their alt text and make bulk changes in a spreadsheet.

First, search for the images containing specific images in the alt text.

Click on Search.

Now select these values:

• Enable advanced filters: Yes
• Field: Alt Text
• Operator: CONTAINS
• Value: Enter the word you want to find. In this example, we will search for all the images containing the T-shirt keyword in the alternative text.
• Click on Run search.

The spreadsheet will display all the images matching the selected keyword.

Now you can start chaging the alt texts in the spreadsheet. Edit the alt text for all the images you want and then click on Save.

Or you can use the Bulk Edit tool to add a completely new alt text for all these images or replace the specific word in all images containing it.

Set a new alt text for all filtered images

Select these values in the Bulk Edit tool:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search
• What field do you want to edit: Alt text
• Select type of edit: Set value
• Replace existing value with this value: Enter the new alt text here.
• Click on Execute Now.

Replace the specific word in bulk

Select these values to replace a specific word in the alt texts:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search
• What field do you want to edit: Alt text
• Select type of edit: Replace
• Replace this: Enter the old word or phrase.
• With this: Enter the new word or phrase
• Click on Execute Now.

Option 2: How to Add Alt Text in Bulk to Images Missing Alt Tag

If you have many images without alt text, you can filter your Media Library to show only the images that need to be updated.

Click Search on the toolbar.

Select these values to find images with missing or empty alt text:

• Tick the Enable advanced filters checkbox.
• Field: Alt text
• Operator: =
• Value: Leave this field empty.
• Click Run search.

After you run the search, the spreadsheet will display the WordPress images that have no alt text.

You can also combine the alt text filter with other search filters to find a specific group of images. The Search tool can filter media files using fields such as:

• Keyword
• User who uploaded the file
• Keyword in title of associated post
• Post type the file is attached to
• Taxonomies in associated post
• Format
• Date
• Comment count
• Etc.

Once you have found the images you want to update, choose one of the following methods.

Edit or Add Alt Tags Directly in the Spreadsheet

If each image needs its own alt text, you can edit the values directly in the spreadsheet.

Go to the Alt text column and enter the appropriate alt text for each image. This lets you give every image its own description without opening the media files individually.

When you’re finished editing the alt text, click Save.

Use Bulk Edit to Update Multiple Images

If you want to apply the same type of change to multiple images, use the Bulk Edit tool. You can apply a value to all the images in your current search or to manually selected images.

Set the Same Alt Text for Multiple Images

If several related images need the same alt text, you can set one value for all the selected images.

In the Bulk Edit tool, select these values:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search
• What field do you want to edit: Alt text
• Select type of edit: Set value
• Replace existing value with this value: Enter your new alt text here
• Click Execute Now.

After you execute the bulk edit, the selected images will have the new alt text.

Copy Alt Text from Another Media Library Field

You can also use Bulk Edit to populate the Alt text field using information that already exists in another Media Library column.

You can copy information from:

• Title
• Attached to this post
• Caption
• Filename

In the Bulk Edit tool, select these values:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search
• What field do you want to edit: Alt text
• Select type of edit: Copy from other columns
• Copy from this column: Title, Attached to this post (associated post), Caption, or Filename
• Click Execute Now.

This is useful when the information you need is already stored in your Media Library and you want to use it to populate the Alt text field in bulk.

Option 3: How to Import Alt Text from CSV File

If you already have alt texts prepared in a CSV file, you can import it into WP Sheet Editor to update your WordPress images.

You can also export the images you want to update, edit the alt texts or seo descriptions in Excel, Google Sheets, or another CSV editor, and then import the changes back into WordPress.

After finding the images you want to update, open the Export tool and download their information as a CSV file. You or your team can then add the alt text to the CSV file before importing it back into WordPress.

When you’re ready to import the file, click Import.

Now select the CSV file you’ll import:

• Source: File from my computer
• Click on Choose File and locate the file.
• Click on Next.

Now click on Import all the columns.

You need to match the rows in the CSV to the corresponding rows in your WordPress database:

• CSV Field: record_id
• WordPress Field: ID
• Click on Next.

Finally, you’ll see a preview of the changes. Check that everything is correct, then click The preview is fine, start import.

Option 4: Generate WordPress Image Alt Text with AI

If you have a large WordPress Media Library with missing or incomplete alt text, you can use AI to speed up the process. Instead of writing descriptions manually, you can analyze your images with a multimodal AI model and generate descriptive alt text in bulk.

See our guide on how to generate WordPress image alt text with AI to learn how to find images without alt text, customize the AI prompt, and generate alt text for hundreds or thousands of images at once.

How to choose a method for bulk editing WordPress image alt text

The best method depends on how you want to prepare the alt text:

• Need Unique Alt Text for Each Image? Edit the Alt text column directly in the spreadsheet.
• Need to Apply the Same Change to Many Images? Use the Bulk Edit tool.
• Already have Useful Information in Another Media Library Field? Use Copy from other columns to copy the title, associated post, caption, or filename.
• Already have the Alt Text in a CSV File? Import it from a CSV file.

Add Alt Attributes to your WordPress Images in Bulk

Updating alt texts for a large WordPress Media Library doesn’t require opening every image individually. With WP Sheet Editor – Media Library, you can find images with missing alt text, edit unique values directly in a spreadsheet, apply changes to multiple images with Bulk Edit, or import prepared alt text from a CSV file.

This gives you a single workflow for finding and updating image alt texts across hundreds or thousands of WordPress media files.