Tech Tip for Photographers & Creatives – How to Batch Edit Alt Text in Blog Posts

I’m a firm believer in “Work smarter, not harder”, and I do my best to find little adjustments that make a big impact. As a photographer who blogs all of my weddings and sessions, there are a TON of photos in each post. Adding alternative text to each image can be extremely cumbersome, but with this method to batch edit all alt text in just a few clicks, I save a ton of time on each blog post!

So, what is alt text?

To put it simply, alt text is a description of an image that search engines, browsers and screen readers use to identify images. It is the text that appears when an image is unable to load and it’s also how google indexes your images. Taking the time to add alt text to your images will not only help with SEO, but also with being fully accessible to all audience members!

Side note – June was SEO month for Rising Tide Society’s Tuesdays Together. If you want to read more about SEO Tips, check out The Rising Tide Blog!

Okay, are you ready? Here’s how to batch edit alt text in your bog posts!

Step #1: Write your blog post and add your images to the post

I think of this process as the “finishing touches” of the post, so I typically make sure the post is completed first! Most importantly, make sure all of the images you want to use are added to the post.

Step #2: Change your view to the “Text” or “HTML” view

In WordPress, there are two ways to view your blog post: “visual” and “text”. You can find these options in the top right corner of your post editor. If you don’t use WordPress, look for something that says HTML, or <> to trigger the HTML view. To start the batch editing process, you will need to switch over to the “text” view. Once you do that, DON’T PANIC. There are going to be a ton of brackets, slashes and other things you aren’t familiar with, but I promise it’s not so bad!

Step #3: Copy to a word app

Once you have the text/HTML view open, you’re going to highlight the whole post, copy and paste it into a word processing application (Microsoft Word, Pages, etc).

Step #4: Find and Replace

Next, you will use the find and replace tool. On my Mac, I do this by using the keyboard shortcut Command+F to open the tool. In the find section, put alt=””, and in the replace section, put alt=”INSERT WHATEVER ALT TEXT YOU WANT HERE”. Click replace all. TADA! All of your empty alt text has been replaced with your new alt text!

Step #5: Copy & Save!

Lastly, highlight the whole word document, copy, and paste it back in the “text” view of your blog post! Then you can jump back to the “visual” to make sure everything still looks great, and then save!

BONUS: Pinterest Descriptions

While alt text will appear as the description for a Pin, using the alternative text field for that purpose could actually hurt your SEO. Excellent Pinterest descriptions utilize a number of things such as hashtags, longer copy and keywords that you don’t want in your alt text! Fill your alt text with descriptive words for a screen reader, and use the following for Pinterest descriptions:

data-pin-description=”PINTEREST DESCRIPTION HERE”

So in Step #4, instead of replacing alt=”” with alt=”INSERT WHATEVER ALT TEXT YOU WANT HERE”, replace it with alt=”INSERT WHATEVER ALT TEXT YOU WANT HERE” data-pin-description=”PINTEREST DESCRIPTION HERE”. BOOM – alt text AND Pinterest descriptions in just a few clicks!

TL/DR? Here’s a video tutorial instead! 🙂

I hope this is a helpful tip on your blogging journey. Is there something technology related you are struggling with in your business? Leave a comment below and I’ll get your tech tip on the calendar!