How to Get the URL of Images You Upload in WordPress

Why You Need to Know How to Get Image URLs in WordPress

As a WordPress site owner, you probably work with images every day. According to WP Beginner, the average website has 25-50 images per page. But did you know that every image you upload to your site has its own unique URL?

Knowing how to quickly get the URL of any image in your WordPress Media Library is an essential skill for:

Linking to images from other pages or sites
Sharing images on social media
Using images in email marketing or offline materials
Troubleshooting issues with broken image links
Auditing your site‘s image optimization and performance

In this guide, we‘ll walk you through several easy methods to get image URLs in WordPress, whether the image is published or not. By the end, you‘ll be able to find the URL for any image in seconds! Let‘s dive in.

Method 1: Get Image URL from WordPress Media Library

Every image you upload to your WordPress site, even if you don‘t end up using it on a post or page, is stored in your Media Library. So naturally, the Media Library is the first place to look for an image URL. Here‘s how:

In your WordPress admin dashboard, go to Media → Library.
Find the image you need using the search bar or by browsing your media files.
Click on the image to open the Attachment Details screen.
Look for the File URL field in the attachment metadata. The full URL path to the image will be listed here.
Click the Copy to clipboard button to the right of the URL.
Paste the URL anywhere you need it – in a browser, email, social post, etc.

Here‘s a quick video demonstrating these steps:

[Embed video walkthrough]

Tips for Finding Images Faster

If your Media Library has hundreds or thousands of images, finding a specific one can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. Use these tips to locate images in a snap:

Use the search bar to search for keywords from the image file name, title, alt text, or description
Filter images by upload date, file type, or user using the dropdown menus above the search bar
Add descriptive, relevant titles to your images to make them more searchable
Organize images using folders (more on this later)

Once you‘ve located your image, the URL is just a click away in the Attachment Details.

Method 2: Get Image URL from Front End of Site

Already have the image published on a page or post? You can grab its URL right from the front end of your site:

Navigate to the page or post where the image is published.
Right-click on the image and select Copy Image Address (Chrome) or Copy Image Location (Firefox). This copies the image URL to your clipboard.
If that doesn‘t work, right-click and select Open Image in New Tab. The image URL will be in the address bar of the new tab.

This method only works for images that are actively published and publicly accessible. If you need the URL for an image that‘s not published, use the Media Library method.

Method 3: Find Multiple Image URLs in Bulk

Sometimes you need to grab URLs for multiple images on a page at once. Here‘s a handy trick using your browser‘s inspect element tool:

Open the page with the images you need.
Right-click anywhere on the page and select Inspect or Inspect Element. This opens the browser‘s developer console.
In the inspector pane, click the Elements tab to view the page‘s HTML.
Press Ctrl + F (Windows) or Cmd + F (Mac) to open the Find search bar.
Search for the image file extension, like .jpg, .png, or .gif. Each instance of that file type will be highlighted.
Look for the image src attribute to find the full URL path. It will be in quotation marks after src=.
Copy and paste the URLs you need. You may need to search for multiple image file types.

This method takes a bit longer but can be much faster than tracking down individual image URLs.

Image URL Best Practices

Now that you know where to find image URLs, here are some best practices to make your life easier:

1. Use descriptive file names

Instead of keeping the default image file name from your camera, like IMG_123.jpg, rename your images with descriptive, keyword-rich names before uploading. This makes them easier to find in the Media Library and can even boost your SEO.

2. Fill out alt text and descriptions

When you upload an image, take a moment to fill out the alt text, title, and description fields. This makes your images more accessible and can help with search engine visibility.

3. Optimize images for web

Large image files can slow down your site and negatively impact user experience. Before uploading images, optimize them for web by:

Resizing large images to fit your site‘s layout
Compressing images to reduce file size
Converting images to next-gen formats like WebP

According to HTTP Archive, images make up on average 21% of a web page‘s total size. So optimizing your images can significantly improve page load times.

4. Use a CDN

For even faster image loading, consider using a content delivery network (CDN) to serve your images. A CDN stores copies of your images on servers around the world and delivers them to visitors from the closest server. Popular options include Cloudflare, KeyCDN, and Jetpack CDN.

Plugins to Enhance the WordPress Media Library

Managing the WordPress Media Library can be tricky as your site grows. These plugins add extra features to make it easier:

Enable Media Replace: Allows you to replace an image file without changing the file name or URL. Useful for updating images without breaking existing links.
Media Library Folders: Adds the ability to organize media files into folders by drag and drop. Folders can be nested infinitely.
Image Optimization Plugins: Tools like ShortPixel, Imagify, and Smush compress and optimize images automatically on upload and in bulk.

For even more plugin recommendations, check out our roundup of the best WordPress Media Library plugins.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the default WordPress image URL structure?

WordPress image URLs follow this pattern:
https://yoursite.com/wp-content/uploads/YYYY/MM/image-file-name.jpg

yoursite.com is your domain name
wp-content/uploads is the default directory for media uploads
YYYY and MM represent the year and month of the upload
image-file-name.jpg is the original image file name

Can I change an image URL?

Changing an image URL by renaming the file or moving it to a different directory can break existing links to the image. If you need to replace an image but keep the same URL, use a plugin like Enable Media Replace.

How can I serve images from a different domain?

To serve images from a separate domain or subdomain, you can:

Upload images to the new domain via FTP
Use a migration plugin like Media Move to update image URLs
Use a CDN plugin like CDN Enabler to rewrite image URLs

Always test thoroughly after making changes to your site‘s image URLs.

Find WordPress Image URLs in Seconds

As you can see, finding the URL for any image uploaded to your WordPress site is easy once you know where to look. Whether you only need a single image URL or want to optimize your entire Media Library, the methods outlined above will help you get the job done quickly.

For more tips on working with images in WordPress, check out these guides:

Do you have a favorite method or tool for managing WordPress images? Let us know in the comments!