Shopify Speed Optimization Guide for eCommerce Store Owners

Introduction

Initially launched in 2006, Shopify is one of the best, most popular eCommerce development platforms. But as with any other platform, people often complain that their eCommerce store is not functioning as intended, that it is slow or not responding. If that happens, people will click off your eCommerce store, and move on to your next competitors. That’s why page speed and performance are among the most important aspects of any eCommerce website, no matter which platform it is built on. 

So in this blog, we’ll see why you should optimize your Shopify page for the best page speed, minimum loading times, and optimum performance. We will also discuss the best tips and tricks to do it. Using Shopify State, you can also check the current status of your Shopify store.

Why Optimize Shopify Store for Higher Page Speed?

Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing use search algorithms that consider multiple factors to decide which websites and pages rank higher on the SERPs. As mentioned earlier, one of the most important factors in these search algorithms is page speed and performance.

A better page speed improves the user experience, which leads to a higher conversion rate.If your page loads and renders quickly, people would stay on your page rather than clicking off and moving on to a different website. That would improve user engagement, leading to more sales and revenue. Website speed and performance are among the most significant upvotes you can gain from the search algorithms for positive SEO for the Shopify store.A better page speed gets you a higher ranking on the SERPs, which increases organic traffic and potential customers.Better performance improves the user experience on the web pages, which leads to better customer satisfaction and retention.It reduces the chance of people abandoning their desired products in the carts.

Tips & Tricks to Boost the Speed of Your Shopify Store

In this day and age, people are used to websites and applications loading in the blink of an eye. But if your website takes even more than 5-10 seconds to load, there is a good chance your potential customers will move on to other websites. That would mean a higher bounce-off rate, reduced organic traffic, negative user engagement, etc.

1. Apply deferred video loading

Video content is very important to have on any website, be it a regular one or an eCommerce one. You can easily convey what you are trying to say in a 2-3 minute video, which you won’t be able to explain through a 2-3 page write-up. 

Here is an example of a deferred video with iframe tags

<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

2. Integrate static images instead of GIFs

GIFs process multiple frames, which may take longer to render on the website. On the other hand, images have single frames, which load faster. So if you want to improve the speed and performance of your Shopify store, choose images over GIFs as they are smaller in file size.

3. Remove any unused Shopify apps from your store

Shopify has thousands of applications in its store that can help improve its appearance and functionalities. So it’s only natural to use them on your website. But using too many of them on your eCommerce website can result in JS and CSS files running in the background, which may slow down the performance.

4. Integrate Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) on the Shopify store

Millions of internet users like to access websites on their mobile devices. So it’s important to ensure your Shopify website opens and renders on mobile devices quite quickly. With that in mind, the experts at Google & Twitter came up with an open-source project called AMP or Accelerated Mobile Pages. 

5. Compress the media files

Images and videos enhance the appearance and user experience of a website. But if they are too big, the website will take longer to load and render. So one of the most prominent techniques Shopify developers use to improve the speed and performance of the eCommerce store is compressing the image and video files.

Here is an example of lazy loading:

<img class="lazyload" data-src="https://yourwebsite.com/image.jpg" />

7. Choose suitable fonts for your store

Another significant tip to boost the speed and performance of the Shopify website is by using proper fonts like licensed monotype fonts, System fonts, and Google fonts, which are free to use on the Shopify font library. These fonts are already installed on almost all computers and mobile devices, so they’ll load on the browsers of PCs and mobile devices more quickly. 

8. Minimize broken links & redirects

Every time a user clicks on a link that redirects to another page, the browser needs to make an additional request to the server, which can slow down the page's load time. Moreover, when a user clicks on a broken link, they will be redirected to a 404 error page, which can be frustrating for the user and can also slow down the page's load time. So minimize the redirects and broken links to ensure faster performance and better user experience. There are several applications available on the Shopify store to fix broken links and minimize redirects.

9. Update the Shopify themes and applications

The Shopify team introduces constant updates in the core platform and the different applications in the Shopify store to improve their appearance and functionalities. So it’s important you update them to their latest versions to improve the speed and performance of the eCommerce website.

Conclusion

If you are a product-based business, a Shopify-based eCommerce website would be helpful. But it’s possible that even after designing and creating a great eCommerce store, your organic traffic might be low due to a negative user experience. One of the reasons behind that might be slow website speed and performance.