How to bulk add alt text in WordPress

Step by step

1. Find the images that need alt text

Start with the pages that matter: your homepage, top posts and product pages. Hydrogen SEO's per-post SEO score flags images without alt text, and the Content Structure area of the site health score on Hydrogen SEO → Dashboard rolls it up across the site. The images missing alt text page explains what the check looks for.

2. Write the important ones yourself

Product photos, charts, screenshots and anything that carries information deserve alt text written by someone who knows the context. Open Media → Library, click the image, and fill in Alternative Text in the attachment details. One specific sentence is usually enough, for example "Blue ceramic pour-over dripper, size 02, on a wooden stand". Skip "image of".

3. Connect your account

The AI buttons only appear while the site is connected to Hydrogen AI. Connect from Hydrogen SEO → API Key (see connect your account), then reload the Media Library. Signup includes free credits, and when credits run out only AI generation stops.

4. Generate alt text in bulk

1. Go to Media → Library.
2. Select the images you want alt text for. Leave out decorative images such as dividers and background shapes.
3. Click ◆ Generate Alt Text in the toolbar.
4. Confirm when asked. Each selected image uses 1 credit.

For one image at a time, the same button sits above the Alternative Text field in the attachment details panel, including inside the post editor's media modal. The Hydrogen AI agent can also do it from an instruction such as "add alt text to every image in the media library that doesn't have any".

5. Review what the AI wrote

Open the images again and read each description. AI describes what it can see, not what you know: it cannot tell that the person is your founder, or that the screenshot shows version 2 of your app. Ask three questions: is it accurate, does it fit why the image is on the page, and would it help someone who cannot see it? Edit and save anything that fails.

6. Get the new text into existing posts

The block editor stores an image's alt text in the post content when the image is inserted, so updating the Media Library does not change images already placed with an empty alt. Hydrogen SEO's Add Missing ALT Attributes switch, under Hydrogen SEO → General → Images, covers this at print time: images with empty alt use the Media Library text when it is set, and fall back to the Alt Attribute Format (default %title%) when it is not. It writes nothing to your Media Library and uses no credits.

7. Stop the backlog coming back

Switch on Generate Alt Text with AI on Upload under Hydrogen SEO → General → Images if your team uploads many images and rarely fills in alt text. It is off by default, applies to images only, and skips images uploaded with alt text already set.

Decorative images and the fallback switch

Purely decorative images should keep alt="" so screen readers skip them. Add Missing ALT Attributes fills empty alt attributes too, decorative ones included, so if your theme relies on alt="" for decoration, leave that switch off and write alt text for meaningful images instead. A post title used as alt text is also a weak description. Treat the fallback as a safety net, not the fix.

Common mistakes

• Stuffing keywords. "coffee dripper best coffee dripper" helps nobody and reads badly aloud.
• Using the file name. IMG_4032 is not a description.
• Bulk generating and never reviewing. A misidentified product or person is worse than no alt text.
• Identical alt text on every image in a gallery. Describe what differs between them.