If you run a Shopify store…
You need to be focussing on Shopify speed optimization.
Why?
The speed at which your store loads can impact your:
And more importantly – Sales.
So I’m going to show you the only 6 tips you need to make your Shopify store load faster.
What Will I Learn?
How do you speed up your Shopify store?
Just follow and implement these Shopify speed optimization tips.
Shopify themes have a huge impact on the speed of your store.
Some theme developers don’t understand the importance of creating lightweight themes that load quickly. This leads them to create themes that look great…
…But come with a lot of “bloat”.
Bloat means that the theme has tons of unnecessary code that slow the load speed down. That’s not what you want.
How do you choose a theme that loads fast?
On the Shopify theme store, developers allow you to see the theme’s demos before you buy. Take the URL of the demo store and run it through Google PageSpeed Insights.
While this won’t be as accurate as if you purchased the theme and installed it in your own store, it will give you an idea of the theme’s performance.
Specifically look at the scores for:
These two Core Web Vitals will give you a good idea of how fast the load speed is.
Lastly, once you have installed your new theme simply disable the theme features you don’t use. Make sense, right?
Premium themes often come with many widgets and gadgets that you won’t use or need. Disable them to improve your theme load speed times.
Apps are a significant part of the Shopify platform.
They allow you to:
…without the need to code them natively
But Shopify SEO apps can also affect your store’s performance.
Here’s why:
Every time you add a new app to your store, you add a bunch of new code. This code takes extra time to load in, slowing down your overall load speed.
That’s not to say that apps are bad. You just don’t want unnecessary apps that you aren’t using to remain installed on your store.
When deciding to keep or remove an app, ask these 3 questions:
Only keep Shopify SEO tools that provide value to your store and help increase sales.
On top of that, some apps also come with features that you won’t use. Fortunately, many apps allow you to disable and enable certain features within the app itself.
So, disable any features in these apps if you aren’t using them.
Shopify apps are a huge part of the platform. Ensure every app is essential and doesn’t damage your store’s performance!
It’s no secret that images are one of the biggest culprits for Shopify speed optimization.
Thankfully there are 3x easy steps you can take to stop your store’s images from affecting the load speed.
Resizing large images will make the most significant impact on speed.
Lots of Shopify store owners use large images to showcase their products. Being in ecommerce, it’s important that your site visitors can clearly see what they are buying.
But the truth is you don’t need to have high-resolution images that are 4000px wide.
You can still have great-looking images that are significantly smaller. But, I get it – Resizing your images manually would take forever…
…So you need to take advantage of a resizing app.
My favourite Shopify app for this is Bulk Image Edit by Hextom.
It has an easy-to-use bulk resizing tool and you get 50 free image edits per month.
Within minutes you can resize every image on your store so that they all load faster. It doesn’t get better than that.
After your images have been resized, you need to compress them.
You can reduce the size of your images by up to 70% without affecting the quality. The fastest way to compress all of your images is to use a bulk compressor app.
Bulk Image Edit allows you to quickly minimise (compress) images without compromising the quality.
It’s efficient and it will get you excellent results.
Lazy loading images is highly recommended by Google.
What is lazy loading?
Instead of loading every image on the page, lazy loading only loads the images into the page as you scroll down.
Think of it like a system that strategically loads each image as needed. This speeds up the overall loading process and improves the user experience.
How do you lazy load images in your store?
Follow the following steps:
Lastly, paste the following code before the </head> tag in the online code editor.
{{ ‘//cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery.lazyload/1.9.1/jquery.lazyload.min.js’ | script_tag }}
Now, click “Save” and every image on your store should be lazy-loaded. Done!
Love to use customised fonts?
Fonts are great for making your store look better while adding a unique touch.
Here’s the problem:
If you use a unique font on your Shopify store, the font has to be downloaded before your text can be displayed which… impacts the time that it takes for the store to load.
System fonts are already installed on your website visitors’ computers.
There’s no need to download these fonts from a server because they already exist on the computer of every store visitor, so it loads in quickly.
When it comes to your store fonts – Keep it simple.
Only use common fonts that are already installed on most computers.
Although this might seem like a minor thing, fonts can have a significant impact on your Shopify speed optimization.
Just by implementing those first 4x tips, your site’s speed scores should have increased significantly. But the only way to know for sure is by measuring it using a store speed optimization tool.
These are the top 2x speed testing tools my team uses for all of our Shopify ecommerce SEO clients.
Google PageSpeed Insights is Google’s own site load speed measuring tool.
And it’s really good.
The tool tells you:
Think of Google Page Speed Insights as looking at your website through the eyes of Google. It doesn’t get much better than that.
What if you want to look at your website through a Shopify specific tool?
Shopify Theme Inspector is a free Chrome extension that helps identify liquid changes slowing your site down.
It provides a simple graph that identifies Shopify page performance issues.
While it might take a little while to get used to, it’s a powerful free tool that can help you improve your page load times.
Still not happy with your website speed?
Shopify SEO experts know the platform like the back of their hands. What might take you hours to fix will often take a Shopify expert only a few minutes.
On top of that, they understand all the ins and outs of Shopify, which means they can solve issues efficiently.
So, take advantage of their knowledge and get your store loading quickly.
Don’t know where to find reliable experts?
I suggest you contact my team at Search Logistics to get some help with your Shopify speed optimization (or Shopify SEO in general).
We know how to get the most out of the Shopify platform to maximise your sales.
Want to talk about your Shopify store with me directly?
You can book a consultation through my SEO consultant page.
I’ll answer any questions you have about your Shopify store and can create a complete SEO strategy for you.
Don’t underestimate the power of Shopify speed optimization.
It can have a massive impact on your store’s overall performance and sales.
So, spend the time implementing the steps above to increase your site speed. And if you get stuck, hire a Shopify SEO service or Shopify SEO expert you can trust.
Fixing your store’s page speed issues can give your website the boost it needs.
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