Shopify Speed Optimization – A Detailed Guide

You might be wondering how to optimize your Shopify store. In today’s article, I will provide a detailed guide to optimizing your Shopify website and enhancing page loading time.

The loading time of your website is critical since it directly influences the number of visitors it receives. In the case of an e-commerce website, page speed affects sales in your store. If a website takes more than 3 seconds to open, you will lose almost 45% of sales, or even your clients will shift to your competitor’s site.  

How to speed up shopify website speed is a necessity nowadays if you want to win the game of online sales. Well, we are here to help you when it comes to optimizing your Shopify website.

What is Shopify Speed Optimization?

Shopify Speed Optimization which means a website is a crucial aspect where a developer uses advanced tools and strategies to enhance the overall user experience for the visitors. This further drives traffic, boosting conversion and eventually sales. Now, the question might enter your mind, why should you increase the page speed of your Shopify stores?     

So now I would like to provide you with some stats to help you have a better understanding.   

• With every extra second of load time, the websites’ engagement rate has fallen by an average of 4.42%.

• Somewhere down the line, it also impacts the customer’s buying decision. As per skilled, almost 80% of visitors who face any sort of issue or performance issue are less likely to become repeat customers.

Still not convinced by the facts? Here are a few more pointers provided by Hubspot.

• The impact on conversion rates occurs during the first five seconds of page loading.   

• The fastest e-commerce conversion rates occur on sites that display content in under two seconds. 

• Page views have an impact on your website’s accessibility and overall effectiveness.

Elements that affect the speed of the Shopify Website   

I will tell you that there could be countless things that could affect your Shopify store.

• Size of DOM

• How often are HTTP requests put together?

• The frequency of links and redirects on the site.   

• The design of the homepage

• Also, check the apps you have installed.

• The images and the video content are present.

• Even the tracking code is in disarray.

• Due to unoptimized CSS and JavaScript files.   

• Tracking codes might be chaotic at times.

These are some of the reasons that would affect the speed of your webpage. Now, let’s dive deep into the next section. 

Shopify Page Speed optimization

As the quote said, “your first impression is your last impression”. The same goes with your website speed, to make a first impression with your business website you have to work on the speed.  When it comes to the user experience you won’t get a second chance.  And it’s that’s why sometimes it becomes a very frustrating part as well. 

In order to get high conversion rates, lower bounce rates, good engagement, and higher search rankings on google via an organic search for a better user experience. Let me tell you one more secret, by lowering the page load time your marketing and sales process will also get a good return.

So, it’s essential to optimize the speed of your Shopify store in order to win the game of e-Commerce. 

How to check Shopify store speed?

When it comes to optimizing and checking the Shopify Google store speed test, it becomes very important. It helps you make the store much more discoverable and boosts your conversions. 

Although, several factors are there which impact its speed, which includes the following:

• Services and libraries of Third-Party.
• Analytics libraries.
• The size and number of the images and videos you use.
• Theme code.
• Unnecessary High-end applications.

You only have to tweak some functionalities on your online store and you could easily improve the ranking of the store. If you want your store to be fully optimized, you can contact our, Team of Experts.

Although Google has formed some important tools where you can measure its performance on a webpage, many businesses currently assess their online shop speed using their technology. 

How to increase Shopify website speed?

There are several ways to improve the speed of Shopify websites so that you can get answers on how to improve Shopify store speed or How to speed up Shopify website?

01. Update Theme, which is Fast and Responsive

Updating your theme to one that is fast and responsive is an important step in ensuring that your website loads quickly and looks great on all devices. A fast and responsive theme can help improve user experience, increase conversions, and ultimately boost your online sales.

When searching for a fast and responsive theme, look for one that is optimized for speed and has been tested for performance. Some key features to look for include:

• Minimalistic design: A theme with a minimalistic design will typically load faster and be more responsive than a theme with a lot of unnecessary elements.
• Optimized images: A theme that uses optimized images will load faster than one that uses large, unoptimized images.
• Compressed code: A theme with compressed code will also load faster than one with unoptimized code.
• Responsive design: A responsive design means that your website will look great on all devices, including desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
• Cross-browser compatibility: A theme that is compatible with all major browsers will ensure that your website looks great and functions properly on all devices.

It is also important to look for a theme that is well-documented and has a dedicated support team that can help you troubleshoot any issues you may encounter. Additionally, look for a theme that is regularly updated to ensure that it stays up-to-date with the latest web standards and technologies.

02. Eliminate Unnecessarily Shopify apps

You know, the list never ends when it comes to optimizing your Shopify store, implementing push notifications, setting up marketing campaigns such as e-mail or social media, managing the inventory, viewing the reports, and much more.

Don’t make the mistake of getting customized software for every part of your store that needs improvements. Select Shopify applications that are multipurpose, which means they have a variety of features that will address problems or increase store performance.

Just remember, the application you install will add some scripts to your site. These scripts are required to run the application’s functionalities, but they have a performance penalty. Look for fewer programs and less code to execute.

Another useful method for increasing page performance is to uninstall any apps that you feel are slowing down the loading time. Run your website without it and observe how rapidly your page loads. Find a replacement for the deleted program, install it, and then reload your website to see the change in loading speed. 

And, if you are looking for someone who can perform this for you, then, believe me, you are in the right place. Simply click on the link and our team will support you to remove roadblocks.

03. Image Optimization

Shopify automatically applies security measures to stop website owners from adding too much visual content, such as images and videos. You must remember one thing, you can display as many products as you want until you don’t surpass Shopify’s product restriction of 50 products per page. Many themes load pictures of a particular size dependent on the size of the screen they are displaying, or they delay loading images that are not currently visible on the screen. 

Below, I am providing four basic solutions that you can consider for your image optimization:

• Implement Lazy Loading Images:- Most e-commerce websites are already loaded with multiple pages. But, sometimes loading the whole content takes a while. The situation will work with Lazy-loading, and the situation will be expertly addressed. It operates on the demand and supply concept. The browser will only load the content that viewers view initially, i.e, the stuff above the fold. 

• Swap out GIFs for static images:-  Well, the reason behind swapping with GIFs is that it enhances the speed of your Shopify store in terms of UX and improves your branding. You’ll be glad you did.

Nonetheless, you’ve got to understand that these files are usually large since they contain multiple frames. It is true that it enhances your landing page conversions and gives a dynamic look to your page.  

• Image compression:- This is one of the best ways to optimize your Shopify website. To properly represent your items, you must have attractive product photos. However, if the website’s performance is restricted by the graphics, conversion rates won’t be stellar.

• Every eCommerce shop depends on images to function. Although many plugins would help you to compress the images, to load your site efficiently. If you are not aware of the plugin, our Developer Team is always there to assist you. 

• Place Deferred Video Streaming to use:-  Video is another alternative that retailers could use to boost their Shopify site performance. In this way, videos are similar to photographs. Deferred Video Loading is a performance approach. This allows your site to load more quickly by postponing the loading of video resources until they are required. 

Even the SpeedBoostr mentions how this technique works and helped them boost the performance of their website. It saved 02 MB of page weight and supported them in loading pages 0.75 seconds faster. 

04. Opting for Perfect Fonts for your Shopify Store

Choosing the perfect fonts for your Shopify store is an important step in creating a visually appealing and professional website. The right fonts can help to establish your brand identity, improve readability, and ultimately increase conversions.

When choosing fonts for your Shopify store, there are several factors to consider, including:

• Brand identity: The fonts you choose should be consistent with your brand’s identity and style. For example, a more formal brand may want to use a serif font, while a more casual brand may want to use a sans-serif font.
• Readability: The fonts you choose should be easy to read, especially on smaller screens. Avoid using overly decorative or script fonts as they can be difficult to read.
• Web-safe fonts: To ensure that your fonts will display correctly across all devices and browsers, it’s best to use web-safe fonts that are pre-installed on most computers. Common web-safe fonts include Arial, Times New Roman, and Verdana.
• Pairing fonts: Use two or three different fonts on your website to create visual interest and hierarchy. Choose one font for headings, one for body text, and another for accents.

Shopify also offers a wide range of customization options for fonts. You can use a Shopify theme that includes a variety of pre-installed fonts, or you can also add a custom font to your store through a paid or free app.

05.  Fix Broken Links

Every seller aims to offer their customers an outstanding experience. We feel you do as well. As a result, it reduces the number of redirects and broken links. If your website has too many redirects and broken links, it might degrade speed and user experience. Furthermore, it has an impact on your SEO, which reduces your website’s rating and visibility on search engine result pages.

Let me tell you one thing, if you didn’t fix your broken links it will affect your SEO adversely. When it saw the message “Error 404, the page is unavailable.”

06. Execute AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)

They can also be referred to as mobile accelerated pages, which are known for their standard framework and allow the seller to design web pages that load quickly on mobile devices. 

Everyone has a smartphone, and in today’s fast-paced world, they are evolving at quite a good speed. Mobile commerce is estimated to generate up to 72.9% of all retail e-commerce in the year 2021. 

That’s why it’s high time for Shopify store owners to consider AMP, as it lets your site load super quickly and function pretty well on every mobile device. 

07. Using Google Tag Manager, to organize tracking codes

It’s very important to collect data from the site to get insights into your visitors. But this might also cause the website to slow down. 

While keeping track of your conversions, retargeting, and objectives. All of those tracking tags raise the number of requests on your website, which may slow it down in the end. Not only that, the main content of the page will be prevented from rendering. 

Using a management system such as Google Tag Manager, you can combine all of your tracking tags into a single JavaScript request. With its help, you can update the measurement codes and related code fragments in a plain-sailing manner. It also allows handling multiple store tags within one snippet of code only. 

For more information, you could refer to this guide to get the gist of how to use Google Tag Manager for your Shopify store. And, if you are performing it for the first time for your store, what would be better than this, if our expert team worked on this to make the task easier?

08. Examine the Performance of the website Using Google Pagespeed Insights

Just because your Shopify store is loading smoothly doesn’t mean that everything is fine. You still have to constantly test the website to get the reports and analyze the performance. 

Let me ask you a question before providing you with a solution, Do you know what is a good Shopify speed score? The speed of your Shopify store is determined by how well it performs in a Google Lighthouse test environment. Shopify low-speed score under 50 is considered a low Shopify speed score, while over 70 is rated great on a desktop.

How to check the Shopify store speed. We recommend using Google PageSpeed Insights to evaluate your web pages and identify the portions of your website that raise page load time. 

Set up a Google Analytics account to monitor and analyze overall performance outcomes.

Certain factors are revealed with the help of Google PageSpeed Insights for your desktop and mobile websites:-

• Remove any render-blocking CSS and JS from the web page content just above the fold.
• Image optimization 
• Try to lower the server’s response time.
• Compress the images so the pictures will load faster.
• With the help of browser caching, it helps you enhance the speed of your website. 

With the help of Google PageSpeed Insights, optimizing the Shopify store will become an easier task for you. However, if you are unable to perform, our experts will provide in-depth information. SetuBridge offers a Shopify speed optimization service.

Apart from Google PageSpeed Insight, there are other tools as well that you could use. 

• GT Metrix
• WebPage Test
• Pingdom Speed Test
• Uptrends

09. Inspect the Performance of the Web Page

This tip would help you examine the performance of a webpage on Google PageSpeed Insights to find the parts of your website that take longer to load and implement the advice given to shorten loading times and improve the website’s ranking. 

We are highlighting a few key components which will be accessible for desktop and mobile websites and shown by Google PageSpeed Analytics.

• Lower server response time.

• Improve the quality of images and videos.

• Make use of browser caches.

• Remove redirects to landing pages.

• Delete unnecessary CSS and JavaScript.

Evaluating the website’s performance on Google PageSpeed would help you find the aspects that cause your site to load poorly.

10. Reducing the redirects

Let me clarify one thing. Due to unnecessary redirects, the performance of your website slows down gradually. Data transmissions would delay by redirects, which leads to more HTTP requests. Reducing the number of redirects on the website and its negative effect on its performance. Apply 301 redirects to your website using Shopify’s integrated redirect feature, “URL redirect.”

Why Is Shopify Google page speed Important?

The success of your eCommerce business depends on the speed and efficiency of your website. Your online presence has become increasingly important as a competitive advantage.  Finally, we can discuss certain factors that help you understand why speed is important.

• Customer Loyalty for the Brand

“Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.” – Walt Disney 

So, when we talk about e-Commerce, your website plays a crucial role, and you have got to understand one thing. According to Skilled, if the speed of your website is not optimum, 79% of customers are less likely to repurchase from an online business if they are “disappointed” with the site’s speed.

You could get the gist of it that, if the speed of a website is top-notch, then you are more likely to acquire customers efficiently and easily drive repeat business as well as have a strong defense against competition.

• Improve your Ranking Factors on Google Search:-  

“Whether it’s Google or Apple or free software, we’ve got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes.” – Bill Gates

SEO for websites is important and appears on your website on the first page of Google and, that too, in the top 05 organic positions, where it receives almost 65% of clicks from users.

If you rank higher on search engines like Google, more prospective customers will find your company. Google, the most popular search engine, considers site speed when prioritizing search queries. Faster sites will rank higher on Google, making it simpler for prospective customers to locate them.

• Boost your Conversion Rate

Conversion speed websites have been linked to lower bounce rates and greater conversions. According to Google, increasing site speed by one second may improve mobile conversions by up to 27%. With 70% of customers making purchases on mobile devices, site performance has a big influence on your potential.

• Customers who are “dissatisfied” with the performance of a website are 79% less likely to buy from them again.

• Sixty-four percent of smartphone owners expect a page to load in four seconds or less.

• 47% of online customers anticipate websites to load in less than two seconds.

Conclusion

We hope this article has helped you to understand and made you understand how you can optimize the Shopify speed test of the Shopify store. Although we have mentioned 10 pointers to which you could apply and follow them to attain high-performance

Shopify businesses are focused on making the shopping experience easier and more enjoyable for customers. When the functionalities are not used correctly, the website may become slower.

We believe that the recommendations on this list will assist you in reducing the load on your web pages and increasing the performance of your Shopify website.

If you are facing an issue in your store, we offer a website speed optimization service. You are just a message away from us.

Thanks for reading the blog!