Jetpack for WordPress: Appearance and Images

As we all know, there are a huge amount of WordPress plugins; so being overwhelmed by all the options is completely normal. Choosing the right plugin for our website is practically a security issue. Many people randomly active a lot of plugins or they search on Google what are the plugins that best fit their needs. In the end, it is the best to rely on a plugin with a good reputation. And it is no coincidence that Jetpack is almost always in the rankings as one of the best plugins for WordPress (In Spanish)

Why should I install Jetpack?

Jetpack is a plugin created and maintained by the people of Automattic, the company behind WordPress. Despite being a single plugin, it has several modules, each of which fulfils a specific task. These options may be familiar if we come from WordPress.com, since they are the same as those found there.

By having so many features, you may think that this plugin can slow down your website. And it may be, but the reality is that these problems also arise when we have several plugins installed. So as Jetpack is only one, a very powerful one, we can avoid this kind of problems.

But should I activate all the modules?

Absolutely not. Ideally, it is better to look at all the features it offers and choose those modules that best fit what you are looking for. Maybe if you come from WordPress.com you are interested in having your toolbar, to feel in a more familiar environment. Or you may be interested in your security features to protect your site.

Is it a plugin that I will always use?

It may be an essential plugin in any installation, but it can serve as a first step to the future if we use a premium plugin.

If you have Jetpack, it is very common that you get to use its module to create contact forms. But there may come a time in the future when you will look for something with more options. And as we have already seen, you have many options among WordPress plugins to create contact forms.

In this article we want to show you some of the Jetpack modules that we use in Silo Creativo, as in many of our WordPress templates.

Appearance Modules

With these modules you can customize the look of your site under WordPress beyond the default options. Let’s see some of the highlights.

Site Icons: Adding a favicon to your website

It allows us to add a favicon to our website, both desktop and mobile version that will be maintained even if we change the template.

site-icons-favicon

Once activated, to add this favicon we have only to go to Appearance> Customize> Identity of the site, and to raise the icon. Note that this icon must have a square format, at least 512 px wide.

Custom Content Types: Create Portfolios and Testimonials

With this module we can create content that may not fit specifically into an entry, but that is not a static page either.

The Portfolio input types provides us a simple space to manage and teach our projects. And also for the Testimonials; it allows us to include them in our website through a separate section in the administration panel of WordPress.

custom-content-jetpack

If the template you are using does not support Portfolios and / or Testimonials, you only have to activate them in the Jetpack settings, in the Writing section. You will see both options under Custom Content Types.

Related Posts

With Related Posts, Jetpack analyses all your entries and offers your readers articles related at the end of which they are reading at that time. It is a good way to decrease the bounce rate of your website.

To activate it, we will go to the Jetpack settings and in the Engagement section we will activate the Related Posts option. You can see how we use this module in the demo of our Rosalie template

related-post-jetpack

Infinite Scroll: Make Your Website Never End

If we want that the users of our web do not have to click on the typical Next button of our web when arriving at the end of our site to go to the next page, but that the content automatically appears to them, the infinite scroll is our solution.

Keep in mind that for this module to work, the template that we are using must support it.

To activate the Infinite Scroll within the Jetpack settings, you must go to the Writing section. Once there, go to the theme Improvements section, where you can choose the type of scroll that you want for your web.

Image Modules

Thanks to the Jetpack image modules, we can add a lot of options on how to display our photos on our website.

Carousel: full-screen galleries

With Carousel activated, the galleries in WordPress will be displayed in full screen, being able to choose between a dark background and a clear background. In addition, if it is available, it is possible to teach the metadata of the photos.

jetpack-carousel

For the Carousel option to appear when adding our gallery, we must first activate it in Jetpack. Within Settings> Writing, in the Media section, we activate the option Show images and galleries with a great browsing experience in full screen. There we can also activate the metadata options, and choose the colour scheme.

Photon: optimise your images

Photon allows us to automatically optimise the images that we upload to our site under WordPress. This allows us to reduce the loading times and to load the images faster, since they will be loaded from the CDN of WordPress.com, with all the benefits that this entails.

Putting Photon into operation is very simple. Go to the Jetpack Settings, under Writing> Media, and activate the Accelerate images and photos option. With this, all the images that you upload from now on to your web will be optimised without having to make any extra effort.

Tiled Gallery: mosaics for your image galleries

With the Tiled Galleries, we add three new options to the image galleries: mosaic, square mosaics and circles.

tilled-galery

If we have it activated, we will automatically have these options when we insert a gallery in a post or page.

Comments (1)

  1. I stopped using Jetpack a while ago, after reading this I am definitely going to start using it again. Thanks for the helpful blog post! 🙂

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