Images are usually the heaviest thing on a page and the part search engines understand least. TamRank handles both sides: it converts your images to WebP so they weigh less, and it puts the alt text field where you will actually fill it in. Both are free, in every tier.
In short
WebP conversion is off by default. Switch it on under TamRank → Settings → General, and from then on new uploads are converted automatically. Everything you uploaded before that is handled by the bulk converter, in one run. Alt text lives in the TamRank SEO box, and the content analysis tells you which images still lack it.
Turning WebP on
Go to TamRank → Settings → General and enable WebP conversion. It is off out of the box on purpose: converting images touches your media library, and that is not something a plugin should start doing the moment you activate it.
Conversion uses whichever image library your server has, Imagick or GD. Both are standard on almost every WordPress host. If neither is available the setting will tell you, and nothing is converted.
What happens to your images
Your original file is kept. TamRank writes a WebP version next to it and serves whichever one the visitor’s browser can read, so an older browser still gets the original. Nothing in your media library is deleted or replaced, which means switching WebP back off is not destructive.
Three ways images get converted:
- On upload. Once the setting is on, every new upload is converted as it arrives.
- In bulk. The bulk converter walks through your existing media library in batches. Run it once after switching the setting on, and let it finish before you judge the result.
- One at a time. Convert a single image on demand from the media library, which is useful when you only care about the one hero image on a page.
Alt text
Alt text is what a screen reader announces and what a search engine reads when it cannot see the image. Write what the image shows, in a normal sentence. Skip “image of” and skip stuffing your keyword into every one of them.
You can edit alt text from the media library and from the TamRank SEO box on the page itself, which is where most of it gets fixed in practice, because that is where you see the image in context.
If you have a large library with a lot of empty alt fields, TamRank PRO can suggest alt text from the image itself using Vision AI. It costs credits per image, and every suggestion is yours to accept or change. The free side of alt text, the field and the checks, needs no credits at all.
What the content analysis checks
The Images part of your content score looks at six things per page:
- the page has at least one image
- every image has alt text
- at least one alt text contains your focus keyword
- no alt text is just the filename
- files are under 300KB
- a WebP version is available, images are no larger than they need to be, and lazy loading is on
These checks are why the two halves of this page belong together: converting to WebP fixes the weight checks, writing alt text fixes the rest.
Troubleshooting
I switched WebP on but nothing changed. The setting only affects new uploads. Run the bulk converter for the images you already had.
The bulk converter seems stuck. It works in batches so it does not exhaust your server. A large library takes several passes. Leave the page open until it reports it is done.
The image checks fail even though I have images. They also look at alt text, file size and WebP, so an image with no alt text or a heavy file still fails those checks.
My images still look heavy after converting. WebP makes a file smaller, it does not make it smaller than it needs to be. A 4000px photo scaled down in CSS is still a 4000px download. Resize before you upload.
Frequently asked questions
Does WebP break older browsers? No. The original file is kept and served to anything that cannot read WebP.
Is this a PRO feature? No. WebP conversion and alt text editing are free, in every tier. Only AI-generated alt text is PRO, and it costs credits.
Can I undo the conversion? Turn the setting off and your originals are served again. They were never removed.
Related
- Where the image checks show up: Content analysis
- What the score does with them: How your SEO score works
- The bigger picture: The complete WordPress SEO guide
