How to Tag Images in WordPress with WordPress Media Tagger

WordPress has a great media uploader and image handling features. However, if you are running a photography blog or your primary content is in image format, then you would notice that WordPress does not have a proper system of sorting images and other media files. It also lacks a nice search feature that could allow users to search for images on a website. In this article we will show you how to tag images in WordPress with WordPress Media Tagger. Using this with one of the best WordPress photography themes of 2012, you can create wonderful photography websites.

Video Tutorial

If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.

First thing you need to do is install and activate WP MediaTagger plugin. After activating the plugin, go to Settings » Media Tagger to sort your images and configure plugin options.

WP Media Tagger is the successor of the WordPress Image Tagger plugin. It works with your existing post tags, so if you have not yet created any tags then the plugin will ask you to first create a list of tags. Go to Posts » Tags to add tags that you want to use for images in your media library. If you already use tags for your posts, then WP Media Tagger settings page will show tags below each image file. Select the tags you want to use and press the Set and Next button.

After taging your images, you need to prepare a search page. Create a new page in WordPress (you can give it whatever title you see fit). All you have to do is simply paste this shortcode in the page and publish it.

[mediatagger]

This is how your search page would look like:

There are a number of options available for you to configure to control the behavior of Media Tagger Search. To configure these options, go to the plugins settings page and look for Search Formats under Media Tagger Options. You can choose whether you want a tag cloud, a search form, or a tag list with checkbox. You can also allow or disallow users to switch between search formats. You can also choose image frame color, tag cloud text color and other style settings here.

On the same settings page, you can also allow WP Media Tagger to use categories instead of tags, or use both.

WP Media Tagger plugin also comes with a media tag cloud widget. If you go to Appearance » Widgets, then you will see the Media Tagger widget. Drag and drop the widget to your sidebar. You will have to provide the link to the page you have created for image search results. This is the page we created earlier using the shortcode [mediatagger].

We hope that this article helps you sort photographs and images on your WordPress website. We would love to know how you are sorting and tagging images on your photoblogs, or primary image content WordPress websites. Let us know in the comments below.