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Jetpack for WordPress

Posted on by Clive Walker in WordPress

I wrote this post a while back. The content can still be relevant but the information I've linked to may not be available.

I’ve developed and managed a few WordPress websites for myself (and for clients) and recently I’ve been using the Jetpack plug-in. It’s actually a collection of plug-ins that provides additional functionality for your WordPress blog/website. I like it!

Jetpack supercharges your self‑hosted WordPress site with the awesome cloud power of WordPress.com.

Jetpack is made by Automattic, the company behind WordPress, and was orginally only available if your site was hosted on WordPress.com. Now, it’s available for self-hosted sites as well. So, what does it provide? Here are some of the options in the Jetpack package.

Site Stats

Firstly, there is Site Stats and, after activation, the page for this appears in the WordPress admin area. The Site Stats are not as comprehensive as Google Analytics (for example) but they give you an overview of how many website visitors, referring sites, most popular pages and posts, the search terms used to find your site, and clicks on external links – all over several time periods. For many website owners, I reckon that’s sufficient and because the figures are in the WordPress admin area, they are easier to view (how many website owners never look at Google Analytics?!).

Mobile theme

Another of the Jetpack options is a free Mobile Theme for your site. Don’t want to spend time on developing a mobile theme? Well, this might be a good solution. I’m using it on Clive Goes Cycling and it gives you a simplified mobile layout for your site. It’s not perfect but I think it’s a quick and easy solution.

Sharing

Sharing allows you to add a Sharing settings page to your WordPress admin and to configure share buttons (Twitter, Facebook etc) on your website. The settings page has the usual drag and drop WordPress interface, and several customisation options, which makes it dead easy to use.

Add a contact form

The Contact Form option in Jetpack adds a contact form button to the WordPress editor toolbar – making it easy to add a form to any page.

There’s much more in Jetpack than I’ve described. In fact, there 19 different options/plugins within Jetpack, ranging from extra sidebar widgets to an image carousel and a CSS editor.

Final thoughts

I’ve been quite impressed with Jetpack so far, it’s been useful, and provides a lot of extra functionality. I recommend giving it a try.

If you have used Jetpack – let me know what you think, and which parts you like the best.

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