Click any image in Media → Library and WordPress shows a panel with four text boxes: Alternative Text, Title, Caption and Description. Most owners fill in whichever looks important, or none at all, and then wonder why the words they typed never appear on the page. Others find that a caption they changed in the library is still showing the old wording on a live page.
The fields do different jobs, and they show up in different places. Taking them one at a time: where a WordPress image caption appears, what the title is really used for, how it differs from alt text, and which fields are worth your time for a small business site.
Where these fields live
There are two places you meet them, and knowing the difference prevents most of the confusion.
- The Media Library. Go to Media → Library and click an image to open its attachment details. The fields here belong to the file itself.
- The Image block on a page or post. When the image is selected, the sidebar has an alternative text box, and the image itself can have a caption typed underneath. These belong to that one use of the image on that page.
When you insert an image from the library into a page, WordPress copies the library’s alt text and caption into the block at that moment. After that, the two are separate. Editing the library later does not change pages that already use the image, and editing the block does not change the library. That single fact explains most “I changed it and nothing happened” moments.
If you are still getting used to the Media Library itself, our overview of how images work in WordPress is a good place to start.
The four fields at a glance
| Field | Who sees it | Worth filling in? |
|---|---|---|
| Alternative text | Screen reader users, search engines, anyone whose image fails to load | Yes, for every meaningful image |
| Caption | Every visitor, as text below the image | Only where it helps the reader |
| Title | Mostly you, in the Media Library | Tidy it if the file name is meaningless |
| Description | Visitors to the image’s attachment page, if your site shows those | Rarely |
Image title vs alt text
These two get mixed up more than any others, partly because older advice treated them as interchangeable. They are not.
Alt text
Alt text is a written replacement for the image. A screen reader reads it aloud in place of the picture, and a browser shows it if the image cannot load. Search engines read it as a clue to the picture’s content. It is the one field with a clear accessibility purpose, and it should describe what is in the picture in a short phrase. Writing it well deserves its own post, and we have one: how to add alt text in WordPress.
Title
The title is the image’s name inside WordPress. When you upload a file, WordPress fills it in from the file name, so IMG_2041.jpg becomes a title of “IMG_2041”. It shows in the Media Library list, in search results inside the library, and as the heading of the image’s attachment page if your site uses those.
On the page itself, the title normally does nothing. The Image block does not add it to the image by default. There is a separate Title attribute box in the Image block’s Advanced settings, which some browsers show as a small tooltip when a mouse hovers over the picture. Tooltips do not appear on phones and are not read reliably by screen readers, so do not put anything important there.
What the title is good for is finding things. Renaming “IMG_2041” to “Shop front, Park Street” means you can search the library for “shop front” next year and find it. Better still, name the file sensibly before uploading, and the title arrives already readable.
What a WordPress image caption does
A caption is visible text that sits under the image on the page. Your theme decides its style, usually a smaller or lighter font. Every visitor can read it, and people often do read captions even when they skim the rest of a page.
To add one in the block editor, click the image in the page and type into the caption area under it. In recent versions an Add caption button in the block toolbar opens that area; pressing it again (it then reads Remove caption) deletes the caption from this block. If the image came from the library with a caption already set, the caption appears automatically and you can change it for this page.
Good uses for captions on a business site:
- Naming what or where something is: “Completed rewiring, ground-floor office”.
- Labelling before and after photos so nobody has to guess.
- Crediting a photographer or the source, which some image licences require. Our post on free images for a business website explains when credit is needed.
- Adding a date or detail that the photo cannot show.
Captions are not a place to repeat the alt text. A screen reader user would hear both, one after the other. Let the alt text describe the picture and the caption add something new, or leave the caption out.
Captions on older content
If your site was built with the classic editor, captions may sit inside a shortcode in the page content. They still display. If you open such a page in the block editor and convert it to blocks, WordPress usually turns these into Image blocks with captions. Check the page afterwards, because unusual formatting can come through oddly.
The description field
The description is longer text attached to the file. It appears on the image’s attachment page, a separate page WordPress can create for each upload, and in a few gallery plugins that choose to show it.
Most business sites have no reason to show attachment pages at all. They are thin pages that add little, and recent versions of WordPress do not enable them on new installations. SEO plugins such as Yoast SEO and Rank Math also offer to send attachment links straight to the image file instead. Our post on duplicate content in WordPress covers why that matters. If your site does not show attachment pages, you can leave the description empty.
How to edit the fields for an image already on your site
- Decide whether you want to change the library record, the image on one page, or both.
- For the library: go to Media → Library, click the image, and edit the fields in the attachment details panel. Changes save automatically as you type and move to the next field.
- For a page: open the page, click the image, and edit the caption under it and the alt text in the block sidebar. Update the page.
- If the same image is used on several pages and you want the same caption everywhere, you need to edit each page. The library change alone will not reach them.
Pages built with a page builder such as Elementor may pull the caption from the library, or use their own caption box, depending on the widget settings. If changing one does nothing, try the other.
Mistakes that are easy to avoid
- Filling the title with keywords. It has no visible effect on the page and does nothing for visitors.
- Using the caption as alt text. They serve different people. Describe in alt, inform in the caption.
- Captioning every image in a grid. On a gallery of twenty photos, captions turn the page into a list of labels.
- Expecting library edits to update old pages. They will not; plan to edit the important pages directly.
If image fields were not the only thing puzzling you in the dashboard, our complete WordPress guide walks through settings, menus, plugins and users in the same plain terms.
Frequently asked questions
Can I put a link inside an image caption?
Yes. A caption in the Image block is ordinary editable text, so you can select a word or two and use the link button in the toolbar, just as you would in a paragraph. This is the usual way to credit a photographer with a link to their page. Keep the link text short and clear.
Can I hide a caption without deleting it?
Not from the Image block. Its caption button removes the caption from that image on the page rather than hiding it, so copy the wording somewhere first if you may want it back. The Library caption is not affected and returns when you insert the image again. Hiding a caption while keeping it would need a little custom CSS.
Why does my caption look different from the rest of the text?
Your theme styles captions on purpose, often smaller, lighter or in italics, so they read as notes rather than body text. In a block theme you can usually adjust the caption style through the Styles panel in the Site Editor. In a classic theme it depends on the theme’s options or a small piece of custom CSS.
Should I rename the title of images I uploaded years ago?
Only if it helps you find them. Titles are mostly for your own searching inside the Media Library. Renaming a few images you use often is worthwhile. Renaming hundreds of old ones has little effect on visitors, so spend that time on alt text for the images on your main pages instead.
Older sites tend to collect all three problems at once: missing alt text, stray captions and attachment pages turning up in search. Working through them page by page is something our WordPress support team can do for you.
Next in this series: Free Images for a Business Website: Licences Explained
