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Bulk Generate Missing Featured Images and Alt text - AIWU – AI Plugin for WordPress
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Bulk Generate Missing Featured Images

Content Automation Easy

Automatically generate professional featured images for all published posts missing them. Uses AI to create relevant visuals based on post titles with optimized alt text for SEO.

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📋 How to Build This Workflow

1

Add Manual Trigger

Click “+ Trigger” and select “Manually”. This allows you to run the workflow on-demand whenever you need to process posts missing featured images.

Type: Manually
2

Add Loop – Search Posts

Click “+ Logic” and select “Loop”. Choose “Search Posts” as the array source. This retrieves all published posts for processing. Set the filter to “Published” to only process live content.

Type: Loop – Search Posts
Post Status: Published
3

Add Branch – Check Featured Image

On the LOOP path, add a “Branch” logic block. Click “Variables” and in the “Post Meta Keys” field, type “_thumbnail_id” then click the variation to add it to Criteria. Set operator to “Is unknown” to detect posts without featured images.

Type: Branch
Branch Name: No Featured Image
Criteria: {{search_posts.post_meta[_thumbnail_id]}}
Operator: Is unknown
4

Generate Image (THEN Path)

On the THEN branch, add “Generate Image” action from OpenAI Actions. Select your preferred DALL-E model and orientation. In the prompt field, click “Variables” and select “Post Title” to generate images based on article titles.

Action: Generate Image (OpenAI)
Model: dall-e-3
Orientation: Landscape
Prompt: Create a professional blog header image for an article titled “{{search_posts.post_title}}”. Style: Modern, clean, minimalist design with vibrant colors. Use abstract shapes or conceptual imagery – NO text, NO faces.
5

Generate Alt Text

Add “Generate Text” action from OpenAI Actions to create SEO-optimized alt text. Configure the model and parameters. In the prompt, use the post title variable and instruct the AI to create a brief, descriptive alt text for the image.

Action: Generate Text (OpenAI)
Model: gpt-4
Max Tokens: 50
Temperature: 0.7
Prompt: Create a short, SEO-optimized alt text (maximum 10 words) for a featured image of an article titled “{{search_posts.post_title}}”. Be descriptive and concise.
6

Update Post Featured Image

Add “Update Post Featured Image” action from WordPress Actions. Set Post ID from the Search Posts node, Image ID from the Generate Image node, and Image Alt from the Generate Text node. This completes the automation by attaching the AI-generated image and alt text to the post.

Action: Update Post Featured Image
Post ID: {{search_posts.post_id}}
Image ID: {{generate_image.image_id}}
Image Alt: {{generate_alt_text.generated_text}}
7

Save and Run

Click “Save” to store your workflow configuration. When ready, click the “Run” button to execute the workflow and process all posts missing featured images. Monitor the Log panel to track progress and verify successful image generation.

💡 Pro Tips

  • ✓ Test the workflow on a few posts first before running on your entire site
  • ✓ Set OpenAI spend limits in Settings to control costs when processing many posts
  • ✓ Customize the image generation prompt to match your brand’s visual style
  • ✓ Review generated images periodically to ensure quality and relevance
  • ✓ Use the workflow logs to identify any failed generations and retry if needed
  • ✓ Consider scheduling this workflow to run automatically for new posts without images
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