When you visit a website and its pages are slow to load, what do you do? You probably get frustrated, close the tab and move on to another (hopefully quicker) site, right? We all do it.
In e-commerce, quick page speed is crucial. More people – your potential customers – are using their smartphones to visit websites and are making purchases within a few clicks. If your Shopify site is slower than your competitors, your sales will likely suffer.
With this in mind, you need to know how to speed up a Shopify site to ensure all your pages are fully optimised and loading quickly. Follow these tips if you’re looking to deliver a great user experience for your site visitors.
Optimise use of Shopify apps installed
To help speed up a Shopify site, look at reducing the number of apps installed. While you might not be able to live without your favourite syncing app, browse through your app store and delete any apps that you aren't using. If you’re new to e-commerce and looking to make your first Shopify sale, you might have installed a few apps to test them out. If you haven't used them since then, delete them – they could slow down your Shopify site.
Compress images on your Shopify website
This is a key tip if you’re looking to improve the site speed on Shopify. Currently, Shopify supports the following image formats: JPEG, JPEG progressive, PNG and GIF.
When compressing your images for maximum optimisation, make sure they are of a reasonable size and that there aren't too many on a single page. Making the image too small will make it more difficult for site visitors to see what you are selling, and they are more likely to bounce straight off your site.
We always advise customers to keep videos to a minimum too on their Shopify sites, unless is it likely to add real value for users.
Use a responsive theme for your Shopify site
While Shopify’s design is very flexible, not all themes are created equal. Make sure you pick a theme that is quick to load and is responsive. You should update your theme from time to time, to ensure you are using the best one for your business – outdated themes tend to be slower than newer options, so make sure you are getting the most from your theme choice.
Fix broken links
Broken links harm visitor experience and the overall SEO performance of your Shopify site. By keeping broken links to a minimum – and fixing those that might occur quickly – you can improve Shopify site speed.
Use a single hero image
Another tip for speeding up a Shopify site is to use a single hero image on your e-commerce site. It’s very tempting to use a slider, as these give visitors a good indication of your products. However, multiple high-quality images take time to load, so sliders generally slow down website speed. You want your site visitors to be able to view your images as soon as they arrive on the site – otherwise, they will click away and you won’t make a sale.
Interestingly (well, we think so anyway!), online users don’t really interact with sliders anyway (research shows only around one per cent of visitors bother), so it is much better for you to use a single hero image that gives visitors a clear indication of what you sell.
Want to know how to speed up a Shopify store?
You can speed up a Shopify site using any, or all, of the advice above. The tips that work best for you will depend on how your site is currently set up. For example, if you have an older theme installed that is making the site run more slowly, a quick change to a more responsive one will likely make a huge difference.
Try these options and we’re sure that your Shopify site will speed up in no time at all! 📈