Are you a website owner who wants to add free, pro-quality images to WordPress? Crediting the original creators is one way to go. It lets you tap into an endless pool of striking photos and illustrations. This guide shows you how to add image credits to your WordPress articles.
Why Image Credits Matter
Adding image credits in WordPress matters because it’s the right thing to do, but it’s also a legal requirement. Failure to credit images that demand attribution is a violation of copyright laws. In worst-case scenarios, it cost lots of money in fines and destroys reputations.
Do All Free Images Require Attribution?
Not all free images require attribution. However, it’s the site owner’s duty to acknowledge and accept the terms and conditions of all license rules. There are many free images for both personal and commercial use that don’t require credits. Even in those cases, most original creators appreciate voluntary acknowledgement by site owners.
Please take Copywrite laws seriously if you aim to grow a legitimate online business. Read our article, How to Find High-Quality Royalty-Free Images, to learn more about the license types.
How to Credit and Cite WordPress Images
This procedure does not require a plugin or modification of system files.
There are three ways to add images to WordPress posts and pages. You can upload new files to your computer or search those already uploaded to the Media library. The other way is to insert an image from URL (web address).
For our example, we’ll choose an image from the WordPress Media Library.
Log in to your WP Dashboard.
Go to Posts => All Posts or Add New if you’re creating a fresh piece.
Click the Edit link to open an existing post or page.
- Decide where to place the image in the editor, then click the Add Block icon (+)
- Select the Image block from the Add Block pop-up
Now click the Media Library link from the Image Upload box.
From the Media Library, click your chosen image, then the Select button.
The chosen image appears inside your post editor window. The next step is to add the credits.
Below the image is a space for writing captions.
Content creators typically use captions to add meaningful descriptions to an image. This space is also ideal for adding image credits below the photo for the original author or copyright owner.
Proper attribution matters
Proper attribution must be clear and visible to those who view the image. Some rules also state that credits should include a link to the source file, so please read the terms carefully.
Many stock photography websites offer free photos and illustrations. They usually provide exact text/link credits for downloaders to copy. This is convenient for users and the image authors as it prevents any errors in the attribution. The image credit or attribution is often on the download page. Some sites even show them as a pop-up with a prompt to copy the data.
Let’s copy the credits for our sample image and paste them into the captions area.
The credits above tell us who the image is by, the source of the photo, and links back to both. The active WP theme used by the site controls the default format of the credit text.
See How to Add Captions to Images in WordPress to learn more about caption writing.
