Shopify Site Speed Optimization: 6 Tips to Improve Your Site

Your Shopify tract velocity straight impacts however visitors interact with your online store. And tin power however apt they are to go customers. 

In this article, you’ll larn six straightforward tips to amended your tract velocity and which tools you tin usage to measurement it.

But first, let’s look astatine however dilatory website velocity affects your business.

How Does Slow Website Speed Affect Your Shopify Site? 

A dilatory Shopify website is atrocious for 2 main reasons.

Let’s spell implicit both:

Slow Site Speed Impedes the User Experience (UX)

Slow tract velocity impedes the buying journey. 

If a webpage astatine immoderate constituent successful the buying process takes excessively agelong to load, imaginable buyers tin get impatient and permission your tract earlier making a purchase. 

This leads to little conversion rates, meaning less radical implicit the actions you privation them to connected your website. Like making purchases oregon subscribing to your newsletter. 

And slower websites thin to person higher bounce rates.

This means shoppers are leaving your tract without engaging. So, they’re besides not buying.

Some bounces are inevitable. But a ample fig of visitors leaving without engagement hurts your profitability successful the agelong run.

Slow Site Speed Has a Negative Impact connected SEO

Page speed is 1 of Google’s confirmed ranking factors. So, having a dilatory website whitethorn pb to little rankings connected search motor results pages (SERPs).

While determination are galore different factors—like relevance and contented quality—that spell into determining a site’s rankings, tract velocity plays an undeniable role. 

And erstwhile your visibility is reduced similar this, imaginable customers volition conflict to observe your shop. Leading to less tract visitors and customers.

Beginner-Friendly Tips for Shopify Site Speed Optimization

These six elemental steps tin assistance you summation your Shopify site’s speed:

1. Disable Unused Apps and Features

When you download apps and features to your shop, they incorporated immoderate codification and publication to your tract truthful they tin run.

But if you’re not utilizing these, the codification is conscionable moving successful the inheritance for nary reason. Making your site’s show slower.

Shopify recommends utilizing a maximum of astir 20 apps. If you person much than that, spell done your store to cheque for immoderate unused apps you tin remove.

There mightiness beryllium immoderate you conscionable tried retired and forgot to delete.

You tin region unnecessary apps successful your Shopify Admin. Click “Apps” followed by “Apps and income transmission settings.”

Here, you’ll spot each the apps you’ve installed. Just hover supra the ones you’re not utilizing and click “Uninstall.”

Your tract mightiness besides person immoderate features you don’t truly need. 

For example, a countdown timer tin adhd a consciousness of urgency to your shop. But if you're not moving time-sensitive promotions oregon events, it's conscionable other codification that slows down your site.

To determine which apps oregon features to keep, inquire yourself which volition assistance your customers the astir arsenic they spell from landing connected your tract to making a purchase. 

2. Minimize Redirects 

Redirects instruct browsers to spell to a antithetic URL than the 1 primitively requested.

Let’s accidental you person a merchandise leafage for a peculiar merchantability astatine “www.yourshopifystore.com/sale” during the vacation season.

But aft the sale, you region that leafage and privation visitors to spell to your wide merchandise leafage astatine “www.yourshopifystore.com/products” instead. 

You tin acceptable up a redirect truthful that erstwhile customers benignant “www.yourshopifystore.com/sale,” they’re automatically sent to “www.yourshopifystore.com/products.”

When utilized effectively, redirects amended the wide idiosyncratic acquisition by making definite they don’t onshore connected breached pages. 

But erstwhile done incorrectly, it tin harm the idiosyncratic experience, dilatory down your site, and confuse hunt motor crawlers.

Here are a fewer communal issues:

• Redirect chain: This happens if a redirect leads to different redirect. Redirect chains that tin hold crawling, which slows down your load clip and frustrates users.
• Redirect loops: This happens erstwhile 2 oregon much URLs each redirect to each other. So, URL A would redirect to URL B, and URL B would spell to URL A. This redirection won’t really instrumentality your visitors anywhere.

You tin usage Semrush’s Site Audit instrumentality to cheque for—and minimize—redirect chains and loops.

To get started, unfastened the tool, participate your URL successful the hunt bar, and click “Start Audit.”

Then, you’ll beryllium asked to configure your Site Audit. Here, you tin acceptable a bounds for the fig of pages the instrumentality tin cheque and adjacent acceptable automatic play oregon regular audit schedules.

Once you’re done, click “Start Site Audit.” 

After your audit is ready, you’ll spot a dashboard akin to this one:

Head implicit to the “Issues” tab and participate “redirect chains” successful the hunt bar.

Then, click connected “# redirect chains and loops” for a afloat study of the affected pages.

Once you’ve identified immoderate chains oregon loops, you tin marque adjustments.

3. Optimize Your Images

High-quality images often travel with ample record sizes. This tin beryllium a occupation erstwhile you see that these files request to beryllium downloaded from the server to the user's instrumentality erstwhile the webpage loads. 

Why?

Because larger files instrumentality longer to download, particularly connected slower net connections. And that slows the wide tract speed.

And each representation typically requires a abstracted hypertext transportation protocol (HTTP) petition to the server. So much images mean much requests that adhd to the server's load and the wide information transportation time. (More connected this soon.)

Here are immoderate image optimization tips that tin help:

• Compress images: You tin usage tools similar Optimizilla oregon TinyPNG to trim the record size of your images without losing overmuch quality.
• Make GIFs static: If you person immoderate GIFs, see replacing them with static images. Animated GIFs are usually larger files and tin dilatory down your pages.
• User less images: Only usage images that assistance your customers recognize your products and marque purchases. Avoid excessively galore decorative images that don’t supply value.
• Lazy-load images: This means that images are loaded lone erstwhile users request them. You tin instrumentality this by adding a loading="lazy" property to your representation HTML tags. 

4. Optimize Your Theme’s Performance

While a Shopify taxable tin commencement retired arsenic lightweight and fast, making excessive changes to its halfway plan tin effect successful a bloated, dilatory site.

Here are immoderate tips to support and optimize your theme’s performance:

• Minimize taxable customizations: Too galore unnecessary customizations—especially those that necessitate further scripts oregon dense resources similar analyzable animations—can dilatory down your theme. Try to usage the theme's built-in features and support customized changes to a minimum.
• Streamline your homepage: A cluttered homepage takes longer to load and tin beryllium harder to navigate. Consider showcasing lone the indispensable elements (like products) that are important to your business.
• Regularly update your theme: Keep your taxable updated to the latest version. Updates often see optimizations.

5. Check Your Fonts

Fonts tin mostly beryllium classified into 2 categories: strategy fonts and web fonts. 

System fonts are already installed connected your machine oregon device. They’re designed to beryllium compatible with antithetic operating systems and applications. 

Web fonts are hosted connected a server and downloaded by the user's browser erstwhile they sojourn a webpage. They tin beryllium much unsocial and are often utilized erstwhile a marque is going for a circumstantial look.

But web fonts tin besides dilatory down your tract by:

• Adding other requests: When you usage a customized font connected your site, you request to load it from a source—either from your ain server oregon a third-party work similar Google Fonts. This adds other requests, which tin dilatory down the loading time. (More connected this soon.)
• Blocking rendering: Browsers request to hold for the web font to beryllium downloaded earlier they tin show the text. This tin origin a hold successful rendering, which negatively impacts the idiosyncratic experience.

To debar slowing down your shoppers’ experience, you tin usage strategy fonts. Some examples include:

• Georgia
• Monaco
• Menlo
• Times New Roman

6. Reduce the Number of HTTP Requests

HTTP requests are messages a web browser sends a web server whenever idiosyncratic wants to presumption your site. 

These requests tin beryllium for images, JavaScript files, etc.

The much files connected the website, the much HTTP requests the browser needs to marque to load them all. And the slower the website becomes.

To trim the fig of HTTP requests, commencement by removing unnecessary buttons.

For example, if you person excessively galore calls to enactment (like “Buy Now,” “Learn More,” oregon “Subscribe”) connected 1 page, delete the ones that aren’t a priority.

And instrumentality to elemental designs for your Shopify site. Because analyzable animations oregon plan elements request further codification and resources.

Once you’ve implemented changes to velocity up your site, show your tract velocity regularly to marque definite everything is moving smoothly.

Here are 3 tools to assistance you bash conscionable that.

Semrush Site Audit

If you privation to instrumentality your tract wellness investigation to the adjacent level, behaviour a afloat method audit with Semrush’s Site Audit tool.

To get started, unfastened the tool. Once you configure your settings, click “Start Site Audit.” 

To presumption accusation astir your Shopify site’s speed, click “View details” nether the “Site Performance” section.

Next to each issue, you’ll spot “Learn more” oregon “Why and however to hole it.” 

Once you click connected that button, you’ll spot a pop-up giving you much accusation connected the nonstop contented and what steps you request to instrumentality to remedy it.

When fixing these issues, prioritize “Errors.” You tin determination connected to “Warnings” and “Notices” afterward.

Another utile acceptable of metrics is the “Core Web Vitals” section. 

The Core Web Vitals are metrics that measure your site’s loading performance, interactivity, and ocular stability. And determination are three:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): How agelong it takes for your main contented to load
• First Input Delay (FID): The clip betwixt the idiosyncratic interacting with the leafage and the leafage responding to their interaction. Google is acceptable to replace this metric with Interaction to Next Paint (INP) successful March 2024.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): How overmuch the layout shifts unexpectedly erstwhile users are viewing your page

You’ll past get a breakdown of however your pages execute for these metrics. And immoderate optimization tips.

Shopify Online Store Speed Report

Shopify's Online Store Speed Report uses Google Lighthouse (open-source bundle from Google that’s designed to assistance you amended your website) to cipher and comparison your tract show against manufacture standards and akin stores connected the platform. 

The study shows you a people retired of 100, benchmarks it against different shops successful the aforesaid industry, and gives you recommendations connected however to amended your Shopify site’s speed.

You tin besides spot a summary of however your people has changed implicit time. And which events mightiness person impacted your tract velocity score.

To spot your Shopify tract velocity overview, caput implicit to your Shopify Admin. Then, click connected “Analytics” and past “Reports.”

Once there, hunt for “online store speed” and click “Online store speed.”

Google PageSpeed Insights 

Google PageSpeed Insights (PSI) is simply a escaped instrumentality that measures a azygous URL’s show connected some mobile and desktop. 

You tin usage PSI for an appraisal of your Core Web Vitals. And different important metrics

Here’s what the resulting study looks like:

You’ll besides person show scores successful antithetic areas and high-level recommendations for each:

To usage this tool, spell to the PSI page, participate a URL from your Shopify tract that you privation to evaluate, and click “Analyze.”

Take Your Shopify Site Performance to the Next Level

The velocity of your Shopify tract tin marque oregon interruption your visitors’ buying experiences. And interaction your quality to rank.

Luckily, determination are galore beginner-friendly steps you tin instrumentality to optimize your Shopify tract velocity earlier it becomes an issue. 

Use Semrush’s Site Audit instrumentality to regularly support an oculus connected your Shopify site’s health. So you tin guarantee an enjoyable buying acquisition that keeps customers coming back.