How to: Require Featured Images for WordPress Sites

Upgrading a site that does not have any featured images from one theme to another is not always easy. In fact, it could be frustrating if you plan to adopt a magazine theme that relies on featured images to display content professionally. There are many scripts you can use to set featured images automatically (or grab a default thumbnail if no featured image is available). It is generally a good practice to require people who work on your site to add featured images before posting new articles.

You could always use some of the checklist plugins we have covered to remind your bloggers how to work on your website. Require Featured Image is a simple plugin that requires posts to have a featured image before they can be published. That means you won’t have to deal with broken themes or posts just because you or people who work for you forgot to do their job properly.

So what if you have been blogging for years and never actually bothered to attach images to your posts the right way? You can still use a “catch first image” script to make magazine themes work for your website. It is just a bit more time-consuming to do it that way.