Starter Templates vs Smart Auto Upload Images – Import External Images

Website Templates, Page Templates and Block Patterns for WordPress Starter Templates is a growing library of 300+ ready-to-use website templates for WordPress. Import a complete website design, a single page template, or an individual section, in one click. Every template works with any WordPress theme, and with the page builder you already use: Elementor, Beaver Builder, Spectra, or the WordPress block editor (Gutenberg). Starter Templates demo Highlights 300+ website templates and ready-made site designs Free Elementor templates and Gutenberg templates 200+ page sections, block patterns and layouts Pre-built sections designed for specific use-cases Full site templates, page templates and section templates AI website builder with built-in AI assistant Adaptive design library with royalty-free images Works with any WordPress theme Supported page builders: Elementor, Spectra, Beaver Builder, and WordPress Block Editor One-Click Website Templates and Template Kits Building a website design from a blank page takes weeks. With Starter Templates you pick a template, import it, and edit the content. Every design is a complete template kit, not just a demo page, but the pages, layouts and settings that make a finished website. You can import at three levels: Full website templates: Every page, menu, and setting for a complete site Page templates: A single page design dropped into your existing site Sections and block patterns: Individual layouts added to any page Preview any template as a live demo before you import it, so you always know what you are getting. Realistic Templates for Every Business Starter Templates goes beyond stunning design. It delivers readymade website templates specifically crafted with your business in mind. Launching an eCommerce store? We have a diverse selection of store templates to get you selling in no time. Creating a business website? We have dozens of professional-quality designs ready for you to make your mark. No matter your industry or niche, we have a template that perfectly aligns with your vision. Free Elementor Templates A fan of Elementor? Look no further. Starter Templates offers a vast collection of professionally designed Elementor templates, with more than 300 Elementor templates available. Import entire websites built with Elementor, individual page templates, or specific blocks to enhance your site’s layout and design. Then just drag, drop, customize, and launch your website. WordPress Block Editor (Gutenberg) Templates The WordPress block editor is changing the game for website creation, and building from scratch is still slow. Starter Templates offers a large library of readymade Gutenberg templates, block patterns and page layouts, all editable natively in the block editor. Hundreds of Sections and Block Patterns Every section is built for a specific use-case. A hero to open a landing page, a pricing table for a service business, a testimonial layout for social proof, a team grid for an about page. Drop one into any page and the layout, spacing and styling are already handled. Swap the text and images, and the section is done. Want to customize your website design to make it truly unique? Use sections, block patterns and layouts to add your personal style. Available sections include: Hero, Page Header, About, Services, Features, Contact, Why Choose Us, Call To Action, Portfolio, Gallery, Testimonials, Pricing, FAQ, Team, Statistics. Templates That Install the Plugins They Need Depending on the type of template you import, Starter Templates also installs the plugins that template needs to work. Import a booking template and the plugins that provide booking are set up for you. Import an online store template and the eCommerce plugins come with it. You do not need to go hunting for another plugin after importing a template, because the design arrives ready to run. AI-Integrated Adaptive Design Library Personalize blocks and patterns to match your website style with the power of AI. The design library within the Starter Templates plugin is integrated with AI and royalty-free image repositories. All elements come pre-populated with relevant text and images that you can easily customize to match your brand. Lightning Fast Websites Starter Templates prioritizes speed and efficiency without compromising quality. Pages created with Starter Templates have efficient, clean code and are free from unnecessary elements. This means faster load times and a smoother experience for visitors on any browser or device. AI Website Builder Alongside the template library, Starter Templates includes an AI website builder. Describe your business and the AI selects a design, generates professional copy, and curates visuals to match your brand, producing a complete website in under two minutes, which you then edit like any other template. Follow the steps below: Enter the name of your website and select the type of website you’re creating (portfolio, business site, landing page, or something else). Describe your business. Use AI to refine your description prompt if you need to. Add your contact details and social media handles so people can interact. The AI will suggest images based on your input. Select the images you want to use. Choose the website structure from the options. Select any site features you need. The AI will generate a website in under 2 minutes. Customize your site as you see fit! AI Assistant for WordPress Our AI Assistant works in a similar way to ChatGPT but is specifically tailored for WordPress. With just a click of a button, you can use AI to help write copy for landing pages, proofread blog posts, translate content into different languages, generate custom HTML and CSS codes, and much more. Royalty-Free Images The Starter Templates plugin offers seamless integration with leading royalty-free image repositories such as Pexels and Unsplash. You have access to millions of top-tier images within your WordPress dashboard. Simply search for the image you need and select it. Training Videos We offer a range of comprehensive training videos designed to complement our templates. They provide the knowledge and skills necessary to build, launch, and maintain your website. Types of Websites You Can Create Starter Templates is perfect for building websites for: personal branding, restaurants, service providers, nonprofits and charities, events, startups, local businesses, wellness businesses, landing pages, lead generation websites, eCommerce stores, blogs, manufacturing businesses, and any other type of WordPress website. There’s no limit to what you can create. Please note: To access AI-generated templates and websites, you’ll need a ZipWP account. Signing up is quick, easy, and 100% free. Fun Facts About Starter Templates ✓ Over 5,000 websites are built with Starter Templates every day. ✓ The plugin has been installed on more than 2 million websites. ✓ Starter Templates has more than 4,500 five-star reviews. ✓ Our team of dedicated full-time WordPress experts help and support hundreds of users daily. ✓ A devoted team of full-time designers keeps the design library up to date. ✓ Our plugin offers more than 150 free Elementor templates. ✓ You can import a complete website, individual page, or section of a page in seconds.

Smart Auto Upload Images automatically imports external images from your post content into your WordPress media library. When you save or update a post, the plugin detects any external image URLs, downloads them to your server, and replaces the original URLs with your hosted versions. This improves site performance, ensures image availability, and gives you complete control over your content. Why Auto Upload Images to Your Media Library? When you copy content from external sources or use remote images, you risk broken images when the original source removes them. Hosting images on your own server provides several benefits: Better SEO performance – Search engines favor self-hosted images Faster page load times – Eliminates external HTTP requests Full content control – Images remain available even if sources go offline How Auto Upload Images Works The plugin runs automatically whenever you save or update a post. Here’s the process: Scans post content for external image URLs (any image not hosted on your domain) Downloads each external image to a temporary location Validates image file integrity and format Uploads valid images to your WordPress media library Replaces original external URLs with new local URLs Attaches imported images to your post in the media library No manual intervention required. Just write your content and let the plugin handle the rest. Key Features Automatic External Image Detection The plugin automatically identifies external images in your post content when you save. It distinguishes between local images (already hosted on your site) and external images that need importing. Smart URL Replacement After importing images, the plugin intelligently replaces all instances of the external URL with your new local URL. This works with images in: Post content (Classic Editor and Gutenberg blocks) Image galleries Featured images Media Library Integration All imported images are added to your WordPress media library with proper metadata. You can: Edit images using WordPress image editor View which post each image is attached to Set custom alt text during import Apply your site’s image optimization settings Flexible Domain Exclusions Exclude specific domains from auto-import. Useful for: CDN-hosted images you want to keep external Partner websites where you have permission to hotlink Your own secondary domains Social media embeds you want to keep as external Custom Post Type Control Choose which post types trigger auto-upload. Enable for: Posts and pages (default) WooCommerce products Custom portfolio post types Documentation posts Or disable for specific types you want to skip Advanced File Naming Patterns Set custom file naming patterns for imported images using dynamic tags: %filename% – Original filename %post_title% – Current post title %post_id% – Post ID %image_title% – Image title attribute %date% – Current date %time% – Current timestamp Example: %post_title%-%filename% becomes my-blog-post-example-image.jpg Custom Alt Text Patterns Define alt text patterns for better SEO: %post_title% – Use post title in alt text %filename% – Use filename as alt text Custom text – Set consistent alt text across imports Image Size Constraints Set maximum width and height for imported images to: Control storage usage Maintain consistent image sizes Automatically resize oversized images Prevent huge images from slowing your site Featured Image from URL Set a post’s featured image using an external URL. The plugin will: Download the image from the URL Import it to your media library Set it as the post’s featured image Work via REST API or post editor How to Import External Images from Posts Install and activate Auto Upload Images Go to Settings → Auto Upload Images Configure your preferences (or use defaults) Create or edit any post with external images Click Save or Update – images import automatically Check your Media Library to see imported images How to Exclude Specific Domains If you want to prevent images from certain domains from being imported: Go to Settings → Auto Upload Images Find the “Excluded Domains” section Enter domains one per line (e.g., cdn.example.com) Save settings Images from excluded domains will be left as external URLs How to Set Custom File Names for Imported Images Navigate to Settings → Auto Upload Images Find “File Name Pattern” setting Enter your pattern using available tags: Example: %post_title%-%filename% Example: imported-%date%-%filename% Save settings New imports will use your naming pattern This helps organize your media library and improves SEO with descriptive file names. How to Set Featured Image via URL Using the Post Editor: Edit your post Find the Featured Image section in the sidebar Enter the external image URL in the “Set from URL” field The image imports automatically and sets as featured image Integration with Page Builders Auto Upload Images works with popular page builders: Gutenberg Block Editor All images in Gutenberg blocks are automatically detected and imported when you save the post. Classic Editor External images in Classic Editor content are imported on post save. WooCommerce Enable auto-import for Product post type to automatically import external product images. Custom Post Types Configure any custom post type to trigger auto-import functionality. Just ensure Auto Upload Images is active when running imports. Performance and Storage Considerations Server Storage Imported images consume server storage. Monitor your hosting plan’s disk space if importing large quantities of images. Import Speed Import time depends on: * Image file sizes * Your server’s download speed * Number of images per post * Configured maximum dimensions Optimization Tips Set maximum width/height to reduce storage Use an image optimization plugin after import Exclude domains hosting very large images Test with small batches before bulk imports Developer Features Filter: smart_aui_validate_image_url Programmatically control which image URLs get imported. add_filter( 'smart_aui_validate_image_url', function( $is_valid, $url ) { // Skip images from specific paths if ( strpos( $url, '/cdn/avatars/' ) !== false ) { return false; } return $is_valid; }, 10, 2 ); Additional Hooks Check plugin documentation for additional filters and actions to customize behavior. Troubleshooting Images Not Importing Problem: External images remain unchanged after saving post Solutions: * Check if domain is in excluded domains list * Verify your server can make external HTTP requests * Check WordPress debug log for errors * Ensure PHP has necessary image processing libraries * Verify write permissions on uploads directory Import Errors in Debug Log Problem: Seeing errors in wp-content/debug.log Solutions: * Check image URL is publicly accessible * Verify image format is supported (JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP) * Ensure external server allows download/hotlinking * Check SSL certificate validity if using HTTPS images Images Upload but URLs Not Replaced Problem: Images added to media library but old URLs remain Solutions: * Clear any caching plugins * Check post content in Text/HTML mode * Verify images aren’t in excluded domain list * Review file naming pattern doesn’t cause conflicts Duplicate Images in Media Library Problem: Same image imported multiple times Solutions: * Plugin should detect and reuse existing images (v1.2.0+) * Check if images have different URLs but same file * Clear media library of duplicates and re-save post Featured Image Not Setting from URL Problem: Featured image URL not importing Solutions: * Verify URL is publicly accessible * Check image format is supported * Ensure PHP memory limit is sufficient * Review error logs for specific error messages Maximum Width/Height Not Applied Problem: Images exceed configured dimensions Solutions: * Ensure GD or ImageMagick is installed on server * Check PHP memory limit allows image processing * Verify dimensions are set in plugin settings * Test with smaller images first