Speed Optimisation

Speed optimisation for a Shopify store is the work of making pages load and respond faster, particularly on mobile, so shoppers can browse and buy without waiting. Shopify's hosting is fast, so a slow store usually has a different cause. In most cases it is the combination of a heavy theme, large images, and many installed apps, each adding its own scripts, styles, and tracking code to every page.

Speed matters for two reasons. The first is conversion. Shoppers on mobile data, including those browsing from social media apps, will leave if a product page takes too long to become usable. The second is search. Google uses Core Web Vitals, measuring loading speed, responsiveness, and visual stability, as part of its page experience signals, and a slow store makes every other SEO effort work harder.

This service suits stores that have grown over time and feel slower than they used to, stores that installed apps during a promotion and never removed them, and stores where the Shopify admin's own web performance report shows scores falling behind. It also suits brands preparing for a peak season, when every lost second costs more.

We start with measurement. We look at field data from real visitors, available through Shopify's web performance report and Google's Chrome User Experience data where your store has enough traffic, alongside lab tests on key templates: home, collection, product, and cart. Field data tells us what customers actually experience, and lab tests help us find the cause.

Then we audit every installed app. For each one, we identify what scripts and styles it loads, on which pages, and how much time it adds. We ask whether the app is still used, whether another installed app already does the same job, and whether the feature could be built into the theme with far less code. Apps that have been uninstalled sometimes leave code behind in the theme, and we remove that too.

Next we look at the theme itself. We check how images are served and sized, whether large hero images and videos are delaying the main content, whether fonts are loading efficiently, how much JavaScript runs before the page is usable, and whether sliders, pop-ups, and animations are worth their cost. We also review third-party tags such as analytics, advertising pixels, heatmaps, and chat widgets, which often add up to more than any single app.

Changes are made on an unpublished copy of the theme, tested, and then published. Where removing an app affects a feature the business relies on, we agree an alternative before anything is switched off. After changes go live, we re-measure with the same tests, and then keep an eye on field data over the following weeks, since that takes time to reflect the improvement.

What you receive is an audit of apps, theme code, and third-party scripts with the cost of each, a record of every change made, before and after measurements, and a short list of recommendations to keep the store fast, such as how to evaluate a new app before installing it.

The pitfalls are worth knowing. Chasing a perfect lab score while ignoring what real visitors experience. Removing apps without checking what depends on them. Compressing images so heavily that products look poor. Adding a speed optimisation app that injects its own scripts. And assuming speed work is a one-off job, when every new app, campaign banner, or tracking tag can undo it.

Most speed projects run over one to three weeks, depending on how many apps and templates are involved. Improvements in field data, which is what Google uses, typically appear gradually over the following weeks as enough visits are recorded.

Speed work can be booked as a standalone project, and it is also part of our app audit on the Custom Shopify Store plan.

If you want a quick sense of where your store stands before booking anything, check Shopify's web performance report in your admin and note which apps were installed around the time any decline began. Share both with us and your strategist can tell you whether the likely cause is apps, theme code, images, or tracking scripts, and roughly how much work a fix would take.