A Guide to Shopify Speed Optimization

One of the important considerations for every Shopify store owner is its performance. Its performance directly affects the store’s ability to convert visitors into customers. The quicker your site loads, the more visitors will convert into shoppers. Additionally, it will affect your store’s ranking in the Google algorithm. In addition to this, the performance of the online store affects all other digital marketing strategies as well. Whether it’s paid, SEO, email, affiliate, or social marketing, Shopify’s page speed affects the user’s engagement. Even if your store is getting a fair amount of traffic from these channels, then just a small change in the performance can help in improving the revenue. This is why it is vital that your Shopify store performs well for the success of your store in the online market. Speeding up your Shopify page may not only help in enhancing your customer’s experience but will also affect your bottom line positively.

What Is Shopify Speed Optimization?

Shopify speed optimization is a process where you can optimize the Shopify store to increase the page speed of the online store. It helps in increasing conversions, generating good traffic to the stores, returning better ROI, and ranking higher on the search engine result pages.

Why Speed Up A Shopify Store Page?

The site’s speed gives the e-store visitors the first impression. You may not even have a second chance if your site is downloading slowly. Slow page loading leads to frustration of users and they can leave your site, which will directly affect the volume of sales. There are many different factors that may affect the timing of your website loading and in this Shopify speed optimization tutorial, we will reveal the most common issues. Let’s move on!

7 Ways to Optimize Shopify Store’s Page Speed

Optimizing the Shopify store’s page speed is a major priority. Without doing so, you’ll probably miss out on traffic and revenue. Additionally, you’ll end up ranking lower on the search result pages. Because of these factors, it is important that you emphasize optimizing the Shopify store’s page speed. Want to know how you can do it? Here are some of the tried and tested ways, try them out!

1. Compress Images:

</One of the best ways of optimizing the Shopify page speed is through compression. There are many apps available in the app store, or you can even take tools like TinyPNG to help you achieve the goal. Using them will ensure that the image quality doesn’t get damaged. Higher resolution images are larger files that slow down the page speed loading time. Thus, it is always advisable that you use compressed images when uploading them to your Shopify store. Here are some of the pro tips!

• To reduce the image size without getting it affected adversely, go for a lossless compress.
• If the images are already uploaded to your Shopify store, use one of the Shopify apps to compress the images.
• Upload images of the exact dimensions required for that page. For example, if the product page’s banner stands out at 1200 X 400, go for uploading the image with those dimensions.
• Similarly, upload images of products with the same dimensions. It will help in keeping the image quality intact when a visitor zooms in.

2. Implement AMP:

AMP, or Accelerated Mobile Pages, was built by Google to speed up the mobile web. It converts Shopify sections into AMP and indexes it to Google to improve page load speed time, faster mobile loading page, and higher rankings on search results. By the next year, e-commerce sales through mobile devices are expected to reach around 54%. Thus, Shopify stores ought to be mobile-friendly with lightning-speed page loading time. With AMP, it enables the users to get hands-on faster loading sites on mobile devices. AMP isn’t implemented natively on the Shopify store. To implement it, one may have to use apps like Sheriff, FireAMP, and RocketAmp app. The process of implementing AMP requires a lot of hard work, but it is worth the outcome. It gives you great loading website page speed.

3. Apply Lazy Loading:

Lazy loading is used for delaying the loading of objects or images until they’re needed. In this, the images will not load at once unless the visitor scrolls down. It greatly helps in reducing the burden of the page since the browser doesn’t load the content simultaneously. No doubt, all e-commerce sites are loaded with many images of the products they offer. When a visitor clicks on the store’s link, the browser starts to load all the available content on the site which takes a great deal of time. This becomes frustrating for visitors, and they leave the site if loading takes more than 2-3 seconds. Thus, with lazy loading, the website doesn’t preload. Instead, the browser starts to load the content that the visitor likes to see first. The content starts to load when the visitor scrolls down the store.

4. Optimize JavaScript & CSS:

One of the most effective options for speeding up the Shopify store is through optimizing the JS and CSS. So, how can you optimize the JS and CSS? Let’s have a look at it!

• Eliminate the render-blocking JS and CSS. This way, you can change the load priority and ensure that CSS and JS resources don’t load until the front visible part of the store gets loaded.
• Minify the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. When a Shopify store loads, every website counts CSS, HTML, and JS files. It leads to extra loading times. Thus, minifying or compacting the code may help save data and improve page speed load time.

The above-mentioned steps need help from a professional Shopify developer. In case, you wish to optimize the page speed load time of your Shopify store, reach out to us!

5. Limit the Shopify Apps & Third-Party Resources:

To improve the user experience on your Shopify store, people use Shopify apps. These apps enable customization options without the need for developers even. On one side, you get an app that gives you ready-made functionalities and you don’t need the additional functionalities and features required on your store from scratch. On the other side, it affects many HTTP requests altogether. Other than the Shopify apps, you can use third-party apps to have the same features and functionalities. But, it affects your store’s performance adversely. The HTTP requests take a longer time to load and thus, you must check tracking codes and third-party resources regularly.

6. Apply a Lightweight Shopify Theme:

Picking up a light Shopify theme can put your website at a point where performance plays a big role. Some Shopify themes might come along with a box full of unnecessary codes which affect your store’s speed adversely. Fortunately, a lightweight theme will make your site move forward with great speed. Here are some of the top-performing themes that you can use:

• Create Theme (1.1 FCP, 7.8 TTI)
• Toy Theme (1.1 FCP, 7.7 TTI)
• Warm Theme (1.9 FCP, 7.8 TTI)
• Light Theme (1.1 FCP, 7.8 TTI)
• Outdoors Theme (1.1 FCP, 8.1 TTI)

Well, we aren’t denying that high-performing themes can’t work slower or these are the only best options for your site. But, if you want to optimize the Shopify page speed, these themes might prove to be of great help to you and you must consider picking one of them.

7. Migrate the Tracking Codes to the Google Tag Manager:

Google Tag Manager is one of the best ways of adding or removing tags from your Shopify store without having to touch the code. One best thing about this is that it loads all the code asynchronously. Moreover, the code that’s loaded on the Google Tag Manager doesn’t block the rendering of your store’s content. To move the tracking code to Google Tag Manager, follow the below-mentioned steps:

• Add Google Tag Manager to your Shopify store
• Scroll down until you find Tags > New. Then you need to look for the built-in tags in the “Tag Types”
•  Next, implement the tags on Google Tag Manager.
• In case you aren’t able to find any built-in tags choose the “Custom HTML” and add your tags
• Set the triggering properly to “All Pages”
• Save all the changes in your Google Tag Manager.
•  Navigate and remove all the apps that you have added through the Google Tag Manager.
• Visit your Shopify stores and test that all the tags are working properly.

Shopify Mobile Optimization Tips

Now, you are ready to learn how to optimize your Shopify store for mobile. Have a look at the below-mentioned practical tips to help you along the way.

1. Make the Navigation Bar Accessible

You must ensure that your store’s navigation bar is easily accessible on mobile and it is easy to find, use, and navigate, regardless of which screen size or type it is. Below mentioned are some tips that can help you make the navigation bar accessible on your Shopify store:

• Ensure that you use a simple, clear, and concise navigation menu. Also, the icon should be easy to find and recognize.
• Limit the number of items in your navigation. Avoid overcrowding your navigation menu with too many items.
• Only include the most important pages in your navigation and use drop-down menus to organize subpages.
• Optimize for easy scrolling. Ensure that your navigation menu is easy to scroll through and navigate on a mobile device.
• Consider using sticky navigation, which stays visible as the user scrolls down the page.

2. Optimize your Images for Mobile Screens

Optimizing your images for mobile screens is an important step in mobile optimization for your Shopify store. Below mentioned are some tips that can help you optimize your images for mobile screens:

• Use an image compression tool like TinyPNG to reduce the image file size without compromising on the quality.
• Ensure that you choose the right image format for all images in your store. For instance, you can go for JPEG for product images and PNG for graphics and other images.
• Use smaller image sizes for mobile devices. In that regard, you can use responsive images, which means that it can automatically adjust to different screen sizes.
• Use descriptive alt text for your images to improve accessibility and ensure those visually impaired users can understand the content of your images.
• Use lazy loading, which loads images as the user scrolls down the page.

3. Avoid Pop-Ups

Avoiding pop-ups is an important tip for mobile optimization on your Shopify store. By avoiding pop-ups or using them judiciously, you can improve the mobile experience for your customers and increase the chances of conversion on your Shopify store. Here are some reasons why you must avoid pop-ups on your mobile devices:

• From a customer’s point of view, it could be irritating for one and difficult to close on a mobile device. This can lead to poor user experience and discourage customers from making a purchase from your store.
• Pop-ups can result in slow load times of the store which can again prove to be problematic on mobile devices.
• Search engines like Google consider pop-ups to be a disturbing element. It can even penalize your store from getting ranked on SERPs.

4. Hone CTA Buttons

Honing CTA buttons refers to the process of refining and optimizing the call-to-action (CTA) buttons on your Shopify mobile website in order to improve user engagement and conversion rates. Below mentioned are a few helpful tips that can help you optimize your CTA buttons on mobile devices:

• Ensure that your CTA buttons are easy to locate and click on such that it stands out from the remaining page elements.
• Keep in mind that you use clear and concise language on the CTA buttons such that users know what action will be performed immediately after clicking on the button.
• Keep your CTA buttons short, with no more than two or three words. This makes them easier to read and understand on smaller mobile screens.
• Use contrasting colors for your CTA buttons such that it draws the user’s eye to the button and encourage them to take action.

5. Optimize the Checkout Page for Mobile

Optimizing your Shopify store’s checkout page for mobile plays a key role in improving the checkout experience on your online store. This way, your users can easily and conveniently navigate the website and complete the purchases on mobile. Here are a few tips that can help you optimize your checkout page for mobile devices:

• Reduce the number of steps that are required in your store for completing the purchases. The lesser the steps, the faster customers will complete the purchases.
• Specifically, design your checkout page for mobile devices with a clean, simple, and intuitive mobile 6layout.
• Consider using auto-fill options to make it easier for users to complete the required information on mobile devices.
• Ensure that your checkout page loads quickly on mobile devices. Slow loading times can lead to users abandoning their carts.

6. Use Mobile Forms Correctly

Forms are essential to collect customer information, and using them correctly can make a difference in converting visitors into customers. Optimizing all the forms on your Shopify mobile website to make them easy and convenient for users to fill out on their mobile devices. Below mentioned are a few helpful tips that you can take into account while optimizing forms for mobile devices correctly:

• Keep the forms short and only ask for the essential information you need.
• Use auto-fill features to make it easier and faster for users to fill out forms on mobile devices.
• Design your forms specifically for mobile devices, using large buttons and clear fields that are easy to select and navigate.

7. Optimize Mobile Page Speed

Website speed plays a crucial role in providing an optimal user experience and can also impose a significant impact on conversion rates. Thus, ensure that you improve the loading speed of your Shopify mobile website to ensure that it loads quickly on mobile devices. Here are a few tips that can help you optimize mobile page speed for your Shopify store:

• Compress and optimize your images to reduce their file size without sacrificing quality.
• Avoid using large files like videos or music on your mobile website, as they can significantly slow down the loading speed.
• Optimize your website’s code and scripts to reduce their size and improve loading speeds.
• Use browser caching since it allows you to store frequently used files, reducing the number of requests made to your server and improving loading speeds for returning users.

The product-page changes we make on client stores

After years of building and optimizing Shopify stores, here is a hard reality from our own experience: developers, designers and clients all work on computers, so everyone over-designs for desktop — but your buyers are on phones. Mobile-friendly UI/UX isn’t one factor among many; it’s the main event. These are the mobile product-page changes we make again and again on client stores:

• Put the key information on the photo itself. For clothing and any store where the look sells the product, use high-quality pictures — and print the facts buyers care about directly on the image (“100% cotton fabric”, “machine washable”). On a phone, people swipe through photos; far fewer scroll to read text. If it matters, it belongs on the photo.
• Use the product description only for offers. Nobody reads long descriptions. Keep that space for the current offer, and move the detailed information into an accordion — placed below the add-to-cart button, never above it. Nothing should push add-to-cart further down the screen.
• Add a floating add-to-cart bar. The moment a shopper scrolls past the add-to-cart button, a sticky bar at the bottom of the screen should keep it visible. On mobile, if the buy button is off-screen, the purchase is one distraction away from never happening.
• Design on a phone, review on a phone. Whatever gets built on a desktop, judge it on the device your customers actually use. If a change looks great on a monitor and mediocre on a phone, it’s mediocre.

These four changes are part of what our Shopify CRO service implements on client stores — small individually, compounding together.

How to Check if Your Shopify Store is Mobile Optimized?

Although all the above-mentioned tips for Shopify mobile optimization are great, it’s equally important that you perform a check on every strategy implemented. Here are some specific checks that you need to perform:

• Pagespeed Insights: Firstly, you need to compare both mobile and desktop speeds. Also, compare the pre-and post-changes since it will help you understand where you are lacking and what you need to do further.
• Google Search Console: If any mobile-related issue is detected in your store, you can have a detailed view of that issue under Mobile Usability in the Experience Report. Resolve the issue and mark them fixed and Google will re-crawl the page.
• Google Analytics: Google Analytics 4 shows you how mobile visitors behave on your store, and pairing it with Search Console’s Core Web Vitals report shows you exactly which pages are slow on mobile.
• Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test: Here, you’ll be able to have a look at the issues in detail that you may not otherwise find in the script.
• Your Browser: One of the best tools that can help you identify and debug mobile-related issues is the console in your browser. Use it and improve the mobile experience for your users.

Bottom Line

In this competitive era, any Shopify store owner needs to get a massive amount of traffic to the website. To achieve that goal, speed and page loading time plays a crucial role in the growth of the store. If the store loads quickly and displays all the site’s content to its visitors at once, it enhances the customer experience and builds awareness about the brand. The visitors can easily get converted to shoppers only if the store provides them with a smooth experience. We hope that the above tips are enough to help you optimize the Shopify page speed time and enhance the customer experience. If you have additional queries in mind about Shopify speed optimization, do share them in the comments section.  

Related: Looking for professional help? Explore our professional Shopify speed optimisation.