How to import external images in WordPress

[shaownhasane]

One of the issues we often face when we are asked to migrate a client's site is managing external images.

When a website is moved from one platform or host to another, it is likely that some images will still be loaded from the old location. This can lead to broken image links, slow loading times, and even search engine optimization (SEO) issues.

That's why we wrote this guide. We'll walk you through northeast phone number the process of importing external images into your WordPress site, ensuring everything loads correctly from the new location.

Why import external images into WordPress?
External images are images embedded within your content that are loaded from other websites or external URLs outside of the main WordPress site.

WordPress.org users often encounter external image issues after migrating their website from other platforms such as Blogger, Weebly, Joomla or WordPress.com. These issues include broken image links, which can be detrimental to search engine optimization (SEO).

By default, if you use one of the WordPress importers, it will try to import images, including featured images or thumbnails. You can view imported images by visiting the Media library page in your WordPress admin area.

If you find that all of your images are already in your media library, but the image URLs in your posts are still pointing to your old site, you don't need this article. Instead, you should follow our guide on how to easily update URLs when moving your WordPress site.

However, if you don’t see your imported images in your WordPress media library, keep reading. We'll show you how to import external images without having to download and re-upload them.

Import external images into WordPress via automatic image upload
The first thing to do is to install and activate the automatic image upload plugin. For more details, check out our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Note: You may notice that this plugin has not been tested on the latest version of WordPress. However, we have tested the plugin and it works perfectly for this purpose.

If you’re not sure, you can read our article on whether to use an untested WordPress plugin. If you come across a better alternative plugin that does the same job, feel free to leave a comment below.

Upon activation, you will need to visit the Settings "Automatic Image Upload" page to configure the image import plugin settings.