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In the days of local news startup Eastern Iowa News and my first endeavor into using WordPress, I had to download a ton of plugins. Sometimes they interfered with each other. At times, the site crashed. Today, I use a minimal amount of plugins and rely on the WordPress Jetpack plugin as much as I can.
And you might wonder:
What is WordPress Jetpack
WordPress Jetpack is an add-on to your WordPress install that has built-in what used to be multiple individual plugins. It was created by Automatic, the company behind WordPress.
What does Jetpack do in WordPress?
It offers several areas of support:
Security
Jetpack offers several robust security features to protect WordPress websites. It includes downtime monitoring that alerts site owners if a website goes offline.
A built-in Web Application Firewall helps defend against threats through both automatic and manual security rules. Site owners can block specific IP addresses and protect against untrusted traffic sources. For additional protection, Jetpack includes brute force protection that prevents bots and hackers from attempting to log in using common username and password combinations.
You can designate “always allowed” IP addresses, ensuring that legitimate traffic isn’t accidentally blocked by the security features. This helps maintain site accessibility while keeping unauthorized users out.
Performance
It delivers several key performance optimization features to speed up WordPress websites. The plugin’s site accelerator capabilities focus on two critical areas: image optimization and static file delivery.
The platform also includes VideoPress, an enhanced video hosting solution that allows for direct uploads through the WordPress editor. This high-resolution, ad-free video player offers 1TB of storage space and includes privacy controls to restrict viewing access when needed. I still would recommend hosting on YouTube and just embedding the video from there.
These performance enhancements work together to create faster page loads and a smoother user experience.
Read next: Boosting Your Authority Through a Video Blog
Writing
Some of the writing features are quite technical – too much so for the regular old content creator like me – but these features are nice:
I can copy entire posts and pages while preserving tags and settings. The platform also integrates shortcodes for embedding media from popular sites and includes Jetpack Blocks for creating engaging content without coding knowledge. (I still use the WordPress Classic Editor, however.)
For specialized content needs, Jetpack offers custom content types like testimonials and portfolios. These can be displayed through simple shortcodes even when themes don’t natively support them.
AI-assisted writing is an option to try.
More writing help: Use Yoast Premium for SEO and AI-assisted meta descriptions
Sharing
The core component, Jetpack Social, enables automatic content distribution across connected social media accounts. When publishing new content, posts can be automatically on all linked platforms. It’s a decent system, but I prefer to hack up blog posts into standalone posts using Claude AI and then scheduling them for later. For example, I currently use LinkedIn native scheduling.
The platform includes customizable sharing buttons that can be added to posts and pages, making it simple for visitors to share content across social networks. Here are the ones that I currently have listed:
- Print (not a social network, but a nice option for people)
- Email (the modern consumers’ version of printing)
- Telegram
- Mastodon
- Threads
- Bluesky (Kind of like X without all the annoying notifications)
Jetpack incorporates a Like button feature that allows readers to show appreciation for content directly on the site. This engagement tool helps build community interaction and provides feedback on content performance.
Discussion
The discussion section can be used to turn on comments on articles. I don’t use this feature, and I haven’t in years. In general, I don’t usually recommend that comments be turned on in articles.
Read next: How to comment on a podcast
Traffic
For search engine optimization, the platform provides multiple features to improve site ranking and searchability, including automatic sitemap generation that updates when site content changes.
The platform includes related posts functionality to keep visitors engaged, displaying relevant content at the bottom of each post with customizable headings and thumbnail images. For traffic generation, Jetpack integrates Blaze, a tool designed to attract high-quality visitors to the site.
To simplify sharing and tracking, Jetpack generates WP.me shortlinks for content. The platform also facilitates site verification with major search services including Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Center, Pinterest, Yandex.Webmaster, and Facebook Domain Verification.
Site statistics and performance metrics are available through Jetpack Stats, allowing administrators to monitor visitor patterns and engagement in real time. The platform automatically submits sitemaps to major search engines, helping to maintain consistent indexing and potentially improve search rankings.
Newsletter
Jetpack uses new blog posts to send email-based newsletters and offers multiple subscription entry points, including a Subscribe Block at the end of posts, subscription pop-ups triggered by scrolling, homepage overlays, and a floating subscribe button at the bottom of site pages.
For targeted communication, Jetpack allows the creation of newsletter categories, enabling subscribers to receive updates only for specific topics. The platform includes monetization options through a paid newsletter feature, where site owners can offer exclusive content or implement paywalls.
Email management includes customizable sender names and reply settings, with options to direct subscriber responses to public comments or author email addresses. Welcome messages can be personalized using plain text or HTML formatting to set the right tone for new subscribers.
Comment forms can be enhanced with subscription options, allowing readers to subscribe to both the site and specific comment threads, creating multiple engagement paths for visitors.
Monetize
Jetpack provides several tools for generating revenue from WordPress websites. The platform includes an advertising system that allows site owners to generate income through high-quality ad placements.
For direct transactions, Jetpack offers multiple payment collection methods. The Payment Button block enables visitors to pay for digital goods and services or make pre-set donations. Site owners can also implement a Donations Form block that accepts both one-time and recurring donations from supporters.
PayPal integration expands payment capabilities, allowing site owners to accept credit card payments for:
- Physical products
- Digital goods
- Services
- Donations
- Creative work support
My WordPress Jetpack review
From my perspective, the WordPress Jetpack plugin has been fantastic. Some features – like security and performance – I never think about until there’s an issue. So it’s nice to have Jetpack take care of issues.
I’ve used the newsletter functionality for many years, and it’s great to send emails with this simple setup. Write a post, publish a post and ta-da the newsletter goes out too.
The stats are great and give me an easy view of what articles are driving traffic and which ones aren’t. I often look at the stats for the last year to see what’s going on.
I currently use the personal plans, which includes many of the things mentioned above, backup and also traffic stats to a certain level (100,000 views per month).
Personally, I also like the writing prompt in the mobile app. They are not always super relevant to business blogs, but they can give great ideas. For example, the prompt “what’s the hardest decision you’ve ever had to make?” could easily be taken as a thought starter to write an article on:
- Decision making in business.
- The key decisions to create better content
- Etc.
Overall, the Jetpack plugin is worth it, and I would recommend it if your blog runs on WordPress.
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