Shopify Speed Optimization – Guide

“Speed” kills when you are on the road, but it really thrills when you are on Shopify sites! Slow loading time often holds you back from achieving your business goals. So how can you overcome such a situation where most of your online store visitors and prospects leave your store without any action? Worry not! This Shopify speed optimization guide will help you turn the situation and make your store’s loading time faster adding to enhanced user experience. Keep reading!

Let’s first give you some insight into the negative impacts of slow loading time so you better understand why you should consider Shopify optimization.

Slow Speed – A Silent Killer of Your Business Goals

Whether a pro or a beginner, staying aware of your Shopify store speed is essential. Without knowing about it, you cannot ensure the required user experience (UX), which guarantees business success.

Here are some critical impacts of a slow Shopify store, which you must know!

1 – Lower User Interest – Higher Bounce Rate

If a Shopify site takes relatively longer to load, users get annoyed and swiftly leave the page. Of course, every user typically wants the required information to be displayed quickly and interactively.

Higher bounce rate – the frequency of Shopify store visitors leaving – directly impacts your business goals. Slow loading time will continue to increase the bounce rate pushing more users to leave your Shopify site without taking the actions you want on your online store. The only workable solution for you to handle such situations is to ensure Shopify page optimization and track it in real-time to see how it works.

2 – Lower Conversion Rate

Customer journey plays a key role in deciding the conversion rate for your Shopify store. If a potential or existing customer has to wait longer to make a purchase, they’ll lose interest in your online store. Eventually, such customers don’t take long to switch to other stores where they can buy required items swiftly. As a result of the slow Shopify site speed, which is working with no or limited optimization, you face a decreasing conversion rate.

3 – Impacted SEO and UX

Users get annoyed and swiftly leave if a page takes relatively longer to load. Of course, every user typically wants the required information to be displayed quickly and interactively. Slower loading time, which indicates poor or below-standard User Experience, causes most prospects or customers to leave your page without making any purchases.

Increased bounce rates due to users frequently leaving your page decrease your web page’s SEO scores. Ultimately, your store doesn’t appear in users’ searches, which proves a major failure factor in your business goals.

If you don’t perform Shopify site speed optimization, the slow site speed will badly impact your store’s UX and SEO goals. So, are you ready to improve your Shopify site speed?

Workable Tips for Shopify Speed Optimization

Let’s now quickly learn what tips can help in your Shopify speed optimization so your store performs well.

1 – Choose Reasonable Image and Video Sizes

Using large-size images or videos causes your Shopify site items to load slowly. Oversized content doesn’t add to but lowers the quality and impacts your store’s UX. Image and video optimization by choosing a reasonable size without losing the required quality will be the best possible solution to enhance your store’s speed.

Whether choosing gifs with static images, or videos, you must consider the best practices for improving Shopify site speed. By adhering to the size and dimension guidelines, you can significantly improve your website speed that aligns with your audience’s interests and demands.

2 – Remove Unnecessary Apps You No Longer Use

You often install various Shopify apps or features to your store for different purposes. These Shopify apps have specific codes that continue running in the background even if you are not using the app. Removing unnecessary or unused apps is the first thing in app management that enhances your site performance significantly.

3 – Shopify Theme Optimization

Your store’s theme is the most essential and critical element, which directly impacts page speed, site performance, and UX simultaneously. Shopify theme optimization doesn’t require you to leave your desired store personalization. However, making too many modifications and continuous customizations adds more and more elements to your site, such as animations, transition effects, etc. As a result, your site speed starts to slow down and instead of improving appearance, you face poor UX on your store.

So, what’s the key to increasing page speed? The answer is simple – pick a lightweight yet elegant theme for your Shopify store and avoid making too many changes to it. Besides, keeping your theme up-to-date also optimizes it automatically, without demanding you to do it manually.

4 – Compressing or Minifying Resource Codes

Originally developed codes often keep unnecessary or unused codes, which slow down your Shopify website loading time. Removing or compressing these codes using some effective tools can help a lot. For instance, for your custom code and minification, you may choose to use a CSSNano, csso, or some other CSSminifier to compress a CSS code; HTMLMinifier for your HTML code; and UglifyJS or the Closure Compiler if you want to minify JavaScript code.

Compressing or minifying resource codes is one of the key steps in Shopify speed optimization. If you don’t know how to do it, you can find an industry expert for your Shopify website, such as Uptek. These expert services offer tailor-made solutions to improve website speed and increase the performance of Shopify stores.

5 – A/B Testing

Whether you are a beginner or a pro at Shopify, A/B testing works equally for both to achieve a good Shopify speed score. It allows you to compare and decide between two different versions of your store letting you pick the best-performing option.

You no longer need to worry as tools like Optimizely can do the job for you. Such tools can be easily integrated with your store and you can perform A/B testing automatically. This way, Shopify speed optimization is done smartly without requiring any hassles or extra effort.

6 – Optimize Your Store for Smartphone Users

The ratio of mobile phone or smartphone users is relatively higher than those making purchases online using a desktop or laptop PC. Since, smartphones offer convenience, speed, and limitless possibilities, undoubtedly most eCommerce or Shopify website customers are mobile phone users.

Optimizing your store for smartphone users is critical to ensure increased conversion and rapid growth of your store. You may use a framework like Google AMP to optimize your site for mobile users when performing Shopify speed optimization.

7 – Performance and Speed Tracking

You cannot improve your store’s growth if you don’t monitor its speed and performance. If you continuously track your Shopify store speed, you can indicate errors and factors causing slow site speed. Tools like GTMetrix, Pingdom, etc. help you monitor your store speed and performance and see when and where to enhance quality.

Google PageSpeed Insights or PSI is yet another valuable and effective tool that can help you learn where your store needs improvements. PSI works for both desktop or laptop PCs as well as smartphones to analyze your site’s user experience and suggest how you can further improve faster loading time on your Shopify store.

Shopify Speed Optimization – Your Way to Success

Don’t let slow loading time or sluggish site performance hinder you from achieving your business goals. The strategies and tips explained above can help you conveniently perform Shopify speed optimization to enhance the desired user experience and site performance.

With these techniques ensuring a faster, smoother, and user-friendly site, you can achieve increased conversion and more prospects visiting your store with a high purchasing ratio.

Was this guide helpful to you? Share your feedback and stay connected with Uptek to learn more about how you can improve Shopify store speed.