Select Page

Introduction to the Media Library

In this guides we will introduce you to the WordPress media library. From here you can access and upload all images, videos and audio files.

WordPress will contain no media upon installation so what you will see after a fresh install is displayed below.

[G-WP-0006] - Introduction to the Media Library 1

To add new files simply navigate to the media library which can be found in the menu on the left hand side. Now select the Add New button to upload files to your media library. You should now be presented with the following screen.

[G-WP-0006] - Introduction to the Media Library 2

When it comes to uploading files to your WordPress site you are presented with two options; you can either click onto the Select Files button located in the center of the page which will then allow you to select the files located on your computer, alternatively you can drag files from your desktop or hard drive straight into the drop files here area.

[G-WP-0006] - Introduction to the Media Library 3

Once the file has been uploaded you will see a small icon to the bottom left along with hyperlinked text labeled edit.

Select the ‘edit’ text to finalise your image upload and fill in the appropriate fields such as the alt text and title field. Many website owners fail to properly set up their website and neglect the importance of setting images up professionally. It may take an extra minute or so to complete the additional tasks but it’s well worth it in the long run.

[G-WP-0006] - Introduction to the Media Library 4

As you can see, each image has it’s own fields for settings and descriptive information. The most important areas to fill in include the title, which you can see at the top and the Alternative Text which this tells search engines such as Google what the image is about. Whilst the caption and description areas are useful, they are not necessary in most instances.

The Caption field is predominantly used if you are referencing an image and the description field is mostly used by photographers or website galleries to describe the image.

Once all aspects have been completed in this section, simply select update and those settings will be applied every time the image is used.