Jetpack Boost

Jetpack Boost is a WordPress plugin that provides one-click optimizations that supercharge your WordPress site’s performance and improve web vitals scores for better SEO.

It allows you to optimize your site with the same techniques used on the world’s most successful websites. Each technique is packaged up as a module that you can activate and try out.

Getting Started

What do I need in order to run Jetpack Boost on my site?

• The latest version of WordPress. If your version of WordPress is out of date, you’ll see a prompt to automatically upgrade with a single click, or you can upgrade manually.
• A WordPress.com account. Don’t have one yet? Sign up for one here, or create one during the Jetpack Boost connection flow. You only need one WordPress.com account to access all of our services (including Akismet, Crowdsignal, Gravatar, and WordPress.com itself) so if you use any of these services you already have a WordPress.com account you can connect to Jetpack Boost.
• A publicly accessible WordPress site: no password protection or Coming Soon / Maintenance Mode plugin in use.
• A publicly accessible XML-RPC file.

How to Install Jetpack Boost

Installing Jetpack Boost from WP Admin

The first option is to install Jetpack Boost from within your WP Admin.

To begin, click on the Plugins link, then click Add New.

Search for Jetpack Boost. The latest version will be in the search results. Click the Install Now button:

Next, click the Activate button. 

After activating, go to the Jetpack Boost menu item:

and click on the Get Started button:

Next, approve the connection to WordPress.com:

After successfully connecting to your WordPress.com account, you’ll be presented with the settings screen where you can activate the features that you want.

Command Line Interface Installation

If you have installed WP-CLI, you can install Jetpack Boost by running this command:

wp plugin install jetpack-boost

Configuring Jetpack Boost

Currently the plugin has 3 performance modules, which can be enabled or disabled via the Jetpack Boost menu in wp-admin:

• Optimize CSS Loading generates Critical CSS for your homepage, posts and pages. This can allow your content to show up on the screen much faster, particularly for viewers using mobile devices. Read more about critical CSS generation at web.dev.

• Defer Non-Essential Javascript moves some tasks to after the page loads, so that important visual information can be seen sooner. Read more about deferring javascript at web.dev.

• Lazy Image Loading only loads the images the user can see. As the user scrolls, images are loaded just before they show up on the page. This simple optimization makes sites faster and saves bandwidth for your host and your customers. Read more about lazy image loading at web.dev.

When you first visit the Jetpack Boost dashboard, your current score for Mobile and Desktop will be calculated. (This may take a minute or two).

When you enable or disable any of the Boost options, you can click the ‘Refresh’ link to calculate your new scores.

Enabling the JavaScript and Lazy Image options is instantaneous, but when you enable Critical CSS, your Critical CSS will be generated. This can take some time, depending on the size of your site.

FAQ

Do I need Jetpack for Jetpack Boost plugin to work?

Jetpack Boost is a part of the Jetpack brand, but it doesn’t require Jetpack plugin to run. This is a separate plugin from Jetpack and it will always remain that way.

The only thing that we will require is a WordPress.com account so that we can identify your site and allow it to communicate with our APIs to, for example, display your site performance score.

Does it work on a multisite installation?

Yes. If you are using WordPress Multisite, Jetpack Boost must be connected separately to WordPress.com, on each site in the network (on sites where Jetpack Boost connections are desired). Any Administrator for that site can create the Jetpack Boost connection. It does not have to be a different Administrator user or a different WordPress.com user for each site.

I have a local WordPress install or a private site. Can I use Jetpack Boost?

Even though the performance options provided by Jetpack Boost could be working on a private site, for the time being Jetpack Boost requires your site to be publically accessible to interact with our APIs, for example, in order to fetch your site score speedily and accurately. However, we are looking into providing an offline mode in the near future.

Can I use Jetpack Boost in combination with other performance plugins?

Jetpack Boost and other optimization plugins may have similar optimizations options available. Jetpack Boost options can be easily turned on and off, and other plugins usually will offer the same facility too. We don’t recommend having the same optimization enabled in Jetpack Boost and other optimization plugins, as it is unlikely to benefit your site and may cause unexpected issues.

How do I install Jetpack Boost in my language?

Once you have installed WordPress in your own language, Jetpack Boost will automatically switch to your language, as long as a translation file is available. You can check for exising translations or help translate the plugin here.

Troubleshooting

I’m having trouble getting Jetpack Boost connected to WordPress.com. How can I troubleshoot?

Please see the documentation on Jetpack connection issues as the connection flow between Jetpack and Jetpack Boost is similar.

The score calculation is timing out

If you use a Web Application Firewall service such as Cloudflare, or a WordPress plugin to restrict access to your site, try adding a rule to allow access to your site from 35.188.32.9. Boost’s speed scores are always returned from that address.

If you are not using a service or plugin to protect your site from unwanted traffic, ask your webhost to check if the traffic from 35.188.32.9 is being blocked.

I need more help! What should I do?

You can post a support request on the Jetpack Boost Plugin Support page.

Privacy Information

We are fully committed to the privacy and security of our customers and their personal data. For a better understanding of how Jetpack Boost uses your data, please refer to the Automattic Privacy Notice (Automattic owns and operates the Jetpack Boost plugin), the Automattic Privacy Policy and the following section.

More information about the data usage on your site

Jetpack Boost uses Jetpack libraries to connect to WordPress.com and calculate the page speed score (making use of the tk_ai cookie). There is more information about cookies within Jetpack here.

Data Used
Site Owners / Users In order to calculate Page speed scores, generate Critical CSS blocks, etc, the following information is used: WordPress.com-connected site ID, local site ID, and site URL. Additionally, for activity tracking (detailed below): IP address, WordPress.com user ID, WordPress.com username, WordPress.com-connected site ID and URL, Jetpack version, user agent, visiting URL, referring URL, timestamp of event, browser language, country code, Critical CSS generation URL, block counts, block sizes, error details, generation time, provider keys and Boost version.	Site Visitors None.
Activity Tracked
Site Owners / Users We track when, by which user, and which website is connected to WordPress.com. We also track activities such as the Critical CSS generation process, when, and which, configuration settings are modified.	Site Visitors None.
Data Synced (Read More)
Site Owners / Users None.	Site Visitors None.