How to Manage Image URLs in WordPress

Want to manage image URLs in WordPress? This WordPress tutorial you will discover it.

Images are one of the media we use the most in our articles. The problem with the media is that they are not always easy to handle, especially when changing servers.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to update the URLs of your images on WordPress.

But, before you start reading, put every chance of success on your side by consulting How to Install a WordPress Blog in 7 Steps et How to search, install and activate a WordPress theme on your blog 

Then back to why we are here.

How to update the URLs of images on WordPress

This is one of the most common mistakes we see among some WordPress users.

What happens if the url of the website changes?

But first, we need to understand when a website URL is likely to change. Here are the three most common scenarios.

Discover in this blog post How to fix the image upload error on WordPress

1 - Move to a new domain name

The website URL is updated when you change the domain name. For example, BlogPasCher was previously known as VoirPlusGrand. With the new name, we have updated all URLs of existing images, PDF files, affiliate links, etc. from voirplusgrand.com to blogpascher.com.

Discover How to move a WordPress blog from local to an online site

2 - Modifying the WordPress installation folder

The website URL also changes when you change the location of your WordPress installation folder. In fact, this is one of the most common cases.

WordPress installs in a default directory called blog. Many of the early WordPress users end up leaving the WordPress installation in example.com/blog. 

Only then realize that they want to move WordPress to the root folder i.e. example.com.

Once WordPress is moved to the root directory, the website URL changes from "example.com/blog" to "example.com". Any image, PDF (or any multimedia file) would look like this:

• ANCIENT: example.com/blog/ebook.pdf
• NEW: example.com/ebook.pdf

3 - Change between development and production servers

This is prevalent on high traffic blogs or e-commerce websites where any mistake leads to lower conversions. Migrating to a production server from a development server can be very easy if you are using managed hosting.

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The problem occurs when someone uploads an image or links to a post using the development server URL. When you upload your website to the production server, the links from the development server are used for images that have been uploaded to the staging server environment.

Therefore, this should ideally be avoided. If you think people have added images to your development server (staging), You can apply what we offer you.

What are we trying to solve?

Now that we know why a WordPress website URL might change, let us see an example where there is a possibility of error. If the links that were automatically generated (such as affiliate links) do not present any problem.

However, links that have been added manually in articles and pages (such as internal links, image links, etc.…) Must be updated manually. 

We all use images in our posts and pages. A typical example of an image link is:

Http: //mysite.com/wp-content/uploads/annee/mois/nom-dimage.png

When the URL of your WordPress website changes, the source links for all images should also change to:

Http: //nouveausite.com/wp-content/annee/mois/nom-dimage.png

In this case, all images, all links (including inter-post links, multimedia files, PDF files, etc.) must be updated.

Alright, it looks like we've discussed the matter in depth. Now let's see how to fix the problem once and for all. As always, we have a WordPress Plugin to help us.

Go Live Update Urls

The easiest way to update old links on your website is to use the WordPress Plugin Go Live Update Urls. It's a free WordPress plugin that allows you to update the URLs of your posts, pages, images, snippets, widgets, etc.

However, make sure you have a full backup of your WordPress site before update all links. This will allow you to easily roll back if something goes wrong during the update process.

Then you need to install and activate the plugin Go Live Update Urls on your website. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a wordpress plugin.

After activation, you can access Tools » Go Live from your WordPress admin panel.

After that, you can update the URLs of your articles, comments, options, user data and other areas of your website by checking the options of the base tables of WordPress plugins.

WordPress database tables are where all of your website data is organized and stored. For example, the wp_comments table will contain all information about comments on your website as well as data about the person who is commenting. Discover How to update URLs during a WordPress migration

In addition to that, Go Live Update Urls also allows you to update old URLs in data used by different plugins on your website. However, this is an optional step and you can skip it.

Then you need to scroll down to the section to update old links to new URLs. Go ahead and enter the old URL and the new URL in the respective fields.

Once done, simply click on the “Update URLs” button. The plugin will now update all your website URLs to the new domain.

Also check out some WordPress plugins premium  

1. YIT Testimonials Showcase for WordPress

YIT Testimonials Showcase is the best-made and most up-to-date WordPress plugin for posting testimonials and user reviews. It comes with 150 unique styles that are fully HTML5 encoded and simply customizable. 

All you have to do is create the shortcode of the element to display, select the desired options, choose a WordPress theme and select one of the predefined color schemes, and the turn will be played.

This WordPress plugin is ideal for displaying and managing your testimonials as a responsive grid or as a dynamic slider.

Download | Demo | Web hosting

2. WooCommerce Amazon Affiliates

It is both a simple and very practical tool. When you connect to programs Amazon's Associates, get your affiliate id and fill it in the plugin. Then, for each product, the plugin will check if it is available at the Amazon location you are logged in to. This is how the WooCommerce Amazon Affiliates plugin works.

For example: You register for the program Amazon's Associates for Mexico, Canada and the United Kingdom. When a customer visits your website, on the product details page, they will be shown the availability of the product on the 3 websites ofThe Amazon. This way, your customers will know for sure whether a product is available or not.

In addition, you have 4 places on the product details page to display the availability box of a product in a country.

Download | Demo | Web hosting

3. SEO Friendly Images for WordPress

SEO Friendly Images is a premium WordPress plugin, which optimizes the SEO of your website, thanks to the images of your website.

 It has a free version that offers basic features, but its pro version boosts the performance of your website with the Lazy Load technique. You'll also be able to optimize it with Alt and Title attributes. 

5 WordPress plugins to integrate Google Analytics into a blog and to consult absolutely.

Its features are: rAutomatic filling of Alt and Title attributeslazy load support, the ooptimization of hypertext links, theupport images, thumbnails and other plugins, support multilingual, mautomatic updates et more ...

Download | Demo | Web hosting

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