Improve the Speed of Your Shopify Website with These 15 Tried-and-True Methods to Increase Traffic and SEO Rankings

Enhance Pictures

Any website’s visual appeal can be greatly enhanced by the inclusion of images. Product photos placed strategically are essential in the world of online retailers. By giving clients a thorough grasp of the products they are buying, they encourage confidence and trust in their purchasing choices. Images can be compressed to save file size without sacrificing quality too much. Shopify tools such as Crush.pics, Image Optimizer, and TinyIMG can assist in automating the process of optimizing photos for your business and maintaining that optimization over time.

Select a quick or lightweight theme for Shopify

Choosing a quick Shopify theme can help you quickly set up your website for the best results. Some themes could come with extraneous bloat by default, which could slow down and negatively impact the effectiveness of your website.

Give speed and performance first priority when choosing a theme for your Shopify store. In the Shopify Theme Store, look for themes that are tagged as “lightweight” or “fast-loading”.

Examine reviews and ratings to see how other users have rated the theme. Themes with a lot of animations, intricate design components, or extra features should be avoided, as they can cause your website to load slowly.

Reduce the number of apps.

Use no more than a few Shopify apps at a time, as each one has the potential to add scripts and slow down your website. Determine which apps are absolutely important, then remove any that aren’t. Shopify advises utilizing no more than 20 apps at a time.

Turn on compression

Before sending HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files to visitors’ browsers, enable Gzip compression on your server. As a result, file sizes are decreased, and data communication between the browser and the server is accelerated. Either your Shopify admin panel or a Shopify app like SEO Manager can be used for this.

Caching in Browsers

Set up browser caching so that visitors’ devices locally cache static resources like CSS, JavaScript scripts, and photos. This lessens the requirement for users to download these materials each time they visit your website.

You can add particular code snippets to your theme files or use Shopify’s admin panel to enable browser caching.

Utilize a CDN (Content Delivery Network)

Use a content delivery network (CDN) to send material from servers closer to the visitors’ location. This enhances load times and lowers latency. The content delivery network (CDN) lowers latency and speeds up load times by delivering material from the closest server to a visitor to your website. You can either integrate third-party CDNs like Cloudflare or Akamai, or Shopify has built-in support for CDNs.

Code Optimization

Reduce and streamline the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files on your website. To speed up the loading process, remove any superfluous code, comments, and whitespace. To cut down on the number of HTTP requests needed to launch your website, think about consolidating several CSS and JavaScript files into a single file.

Sluggish Loading

Using lazy loading can make your Shopify store load faster. Use slow loading for your website’s photos and other media content. Non-essential resources are not loaded until they are needed, such as when they enter the viewport as the user is scrolling down the page, thanks to lazy loading. This can greatly reduce the time it takes for a page to load initially, especially for pages that contain a lot of photos or multimedia. See shopify.com/partners/blog/lazy-loading for an overview of the topic and instructions on how to use lazy loading.

Enhance Font Performance

To minimize the number of font files loaded, utilize fewer font styles and weights on your website. To prevent extra HTTP requests for bespoke fonts, think about using web-safe or system fonts. To eliminate layout shifts and improve perceived performance, use the font-display: swap CSS attribute to make sure text is displayed using fallback fonts while bespoke fonts are loading.

Cut Down on Server Reaction Time

Reduce server response time by streamlining your backend code and server setup. Utilize the infrastructure that Shopify has built-in, or pick a hosting company that has dependable and quick servers. Regularly check server performance and take quick action to resolve any problems influencing response time.

Enhance Performance on Mobile

As more people access websites on mobile devices, it is imperative to optimize for mobile performance.

Make sure your website appears good and functions properly on a range of screen sizes by using responsive design concepts.

Use resources like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to assess how well your website functions on mobile devices, then make the required adjustments to increase speed and usability.

Cut down on redirects

Redirect loops should not be made in your Shopify store. A series of Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) redirects is referred to as a redirect chain.

Reduce the number of redirects on your website as they slow down load times by adding an extra HTTP request.

If at all possible, employ direct links; if not, make sure that any redirects are required to preserve the user experience or SEO.

Enhance the Checkout Procedure

Simplify the checkout procedure to lower resistance and raise conversion rates. Reduce the number of steps needed to complete an order and make form fields more mobile-friendly. To further enhance usability and performance, use Shopify’s streamlined checkout or think about utilizing a third-party checkout optimization program.

Put Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) into practice.

For the product pages and blog posts on your Shopify store, think about adopting AMP.

AMP pages can increase user engagement and search engine visibility because they are made to load more quickly on mobile devices.

You can use third-party connectors or Shopify apps to assist with AMP implementation for your store.

Enhance Your Hosting Package

Giving up control over web hosting is a requirement of owning a Shopify store. Web hosting is included in all Shopify plans; using your own is not an option. The functionality of your online store is totally dependent on Shopify’s web hosting.

Select a hosting package that is dependable, quick, and able to manage the traffic on your website. In the event that your website receives a lot of traffic, think about upgrading to a dedicated server or a managed hosting package. Shopify provides expandable hosting options, but for more sophisticated choices, you may also look at third-party hosting companies.

Continually assess performance

Utilize web resources such as GTmetrix, Pingdom, or Google PageSpeed Insights to periodically evaluate the functionality and speed of your website. Based on performance measurements, pinpoint areas that need work and make the required adjustments to keep or increase your site’s speed over time.

By putting these tactics into practice, you can dramatically improve your Shopify website’s speed and functionality, which will enhance the user experience and boost conversion rates.

Resources to Assess the Speed of Your Website

Of course! You can use the following tools to gauge your Shopify website’s performance and speed:

Google PageSpeed Insights

Google’s site speed test tool is called Google PageSpeed Insights. Google’s PageSpeed Insights evaluates a website’s content and provides recommendations for speeding up the page. It offers performance ratings for desktop and mobile devices as well as detailed suggestions for enhancement.

GTmetrix

GTmetrix is an effective tool that offers a thorough evaluation of the functionality and speed of your website. It provides information on several factors, such as the quantity of requests, overall page size, and page load time.

Pingdom Website Speed Test

Pingdom, a user-friendly and efficient application for testing the speed of a website, Pingdom offers performance insights and recommendations for enhancements. It calculates page size, load time, and other important data.

WebPageTest

Using the help of real browsers and numerous global locations, you can do website speed tests using WebPageTest, an innovative tool. To give a thorough examination, it provides waterfall charts, filmstrip views, and in-depth performance measurements.

Shopify Analyzer

A unique tool called Shopify Analyzer was created especially for examining the performance of Shopify websites. It offers information on a number of topics, such as server response time, program impact, and theme performance.

Shopify Compass

Performance analysis tools are among the services and tools that Shopify merchants can access through Shopify Compass. It offers analysis and suggestions to help you maximize the speed and functionality of your store.

Chrome DevTools

A set of web developer tools built right into the Google Chrome browser is called Chrome DevTools. It has tools for performance analysis like the Performance panel, which lets you monitor and assess page load times.

With the assistance of these tools, you can pinpoint problem areas and enhance the functionality and speed of your Shopify website, improving the user experience and business outcomes in the process.