Media File Library – Image Caption/Description not showing UP

  • Hi guys,

    I have a problem with the caption and description fields at WP Media Library.
    So, basically when I add the Caption or Description text to the image they are not shown in the source code when I inspect it with dev tools.

    Every image have 4 fields:
    – Alternative Text
    – Title
    – Caption
    – Description
    and only alt text is shown in the source code.
    I was filling those fields out for a long time thinking this will help with my SEO but I have never actually checked this in the source code. WordPress should automatically pull up all the filled out fields, I mean alt text and description.

    So is there any explanation to this situation?
    This is not related to the themes and plugins because it also not showing up on the site where I developed own theme and building the website without use of any page builders.

    This is from official WP documentation about media library:

    Alt Text – (Image files only) The alt text for the image, e.g. “The Mona Lisa” to describe the media. Used for accessibility.
    Title – The name of the media. A title is often shown on attachment pages and galleries if themes or plugins are designed to display it.
    Caption – A brief explanation of the media.
    Description – An explanation of this particular media.

    media-library-screen

    Maybe all of those fields are obsolete? But then why they are still there?
    Thanks for your time and I hope someone will be able to explain this to me as I’m really confused about those fields.

    Kind Regards

    • This topic was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by maryando.
Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

  • Hey,

    I can confirm that these fields are not obsolete ??

    Alt text appears in the markup as you discovered.

    The Title and Description will appear when the image you inserted is configured to link to its attachment page.

    If a caption is added to the image details in the media library, that text will be used to autofill the caption when the image is inserted in a post or page. This is not however linked, so if you add the caption after inserting the image, the caption will not be included. You’d need to update the post/page manually.

    Thread Starter maryando

    (@maryando)

    @jameskoster you are a star!
    I was not able to find any info on that! Thanks a lot, yes this works perfectly, I was always adding captions when the images was already inserted, so this is why the description was not showing up.

    However this seams to be an option not designed for SEO purposes, because when enabled, the caption is displayed on the page and must be displayed in order to appear in the source code and be read by search engines. Of course this can be hidden by CSS but this will be always a bad idea as Google is not that stupid ??

    So I will skip this part for now and for SEO purposes use the alt field only.

    Many thanks for your time James!
    Kind Regards

    • This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by maryando.
    • This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by maryando.

    > Many thanks for your time James!

    You’re welcome ??

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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