Experts say that eCommerce loading speed makes all the difference for customers. A second-faster loading speed on a Shopify mobile webpage leads to a 27% increase in customer conversion rates. And it is a very competitive market. Customers expect the very best experience, so that factor encourages the site owner to avoid any platform fluff and focus
Experts say that eCommerce loading speed makes all the difference for customers. A second-faster loading speed on a Shopify mobile webpage leads to a 27% increase in customer conversion rates. And it is a very competitive market. Customers expect the very best experience, so that factor encourages the site owner to avoid any platform fluff and focus on creating speedy transactions. Indeed, almost half of customers expect a page to load in two seconds. There is any number of best practices; read on for tips that work.
To optimise your website to have the highest server response time, there are a few admin aspects to keep track of.
Then try looking at your site from a customer’s viewpoint to see if there are any features that are distracting or could slow the page down. There are apps and programs to analyse the metrics and do the work for you in optimising your Shopify store.
Not to put a negative spin on it, but not putting time and energy into site optimisation will ultimately cost you customers. Studies have shown click-through rates decrease an average of 4.42% with each extra second of load time. To rise above the noise, you need to focus on the features and programs that provide a high ROI.
In particular, look at the features that handle the site load speed.
Having a rapid way to browse your catalogue is essential in reducing consumer bounce. It is also vital to have a fast load, as page speed is a key factor in the metrics used by Google page rankings. A higher score will result in more customers, leading to higher profits.
There are a number of tips and tricks to hitting the required page metrics. Here are some of the best you can apply now in order to streamline your website operations and speed up page loads to deliver the best experience for your customers.
In order to know how to speed up, first take a glance at the culprits which may cause the issue. These include having too many apps and plugins, complex Liquid coding, and overuse of images. Any one of these can put a load on the website and slow downloading. Liquid is Shopify’s templating language developed as a type of theme engine. The code builds the website for you and applies filters to sort the data.
CDN stands for content delivery network. Using a basic CDN means you are sharing server load with other websites. The Shopify platform offers a world-class CDN run by Fastly. This ensures your online store loads quickly, no matter who is accessing it. You can check the CDN status on the Fastly status page.
This is the more intentional approach that allows you to let the CDN run. Be sure to test it as much as possible before switching the entire site over.
Oversized images are one of the main offenders when it comes to speed delays. In addition to compressing the images, there are other steps you can take, like using Shopify’s tools and guides to restrict images.
Pro tips:
The third-party apps found in the Shopify marketplace are made for installing site functionalities and making everything look top-tier. On the other hand, they make heavy use of custom JavaScript/CCS coding, which runs in the background and slows the loading process. Make sure you are only using first-party Shopify apps or those that are optimised for use in Shopify.
You can go as far as implementing Accelerated Mobile Pages [AMP] apps on your site. Google made the AMP apps to allow instantaneous loading on mobile devices.
Why it matters:
Take the guesswork out of speed and search engine optimisation. Find and run analytical tools like PageSpeed Insights or SpeedLab to find your metrics. You can do this for your mobile and desktop speeds. At a glance, it shows the site’s performance and provides you insight into what is working and what is not. These are tools for site management and strategy by tracking key performance issues. These plugins also have the added advantage of having the reports in one place.
A best practice is to place a single, high-quality “hero” image to capture the essence and character of the site at once.
Having a custom store theme is fine, but for a quicker experience, it may be better to use a generic Shopify theme to minimise the load bearing on the server. The site’s speed is heavily based on the chosen store theme, so be sure to pick one that is fast. Also, ensure you frequently apply the updates.
When a user visits a website, it creates an additional file request for the browser to process. That is known as HTTP requests. Most of the popular browsers allow about six parallel connections per domain. The connections add up rapidly and slow down the loading time. You can run tools like GiftOfSpeed to check how many total HTTPS requests your page makes. Try to reduce apps and other coding to cut down on it and limit sharing tools on your site.
Also known as the dreaded 404 request. Hitting a 404 page can be a roadblock to the transaction, so avoid this as much as possible. In Shopify, you can apply 301-page redirects by the built-in function called “URL redirect.” Another way to find website errors is using the set of Google Webmaster Tools. The tools remove broken links from results and ensure that customers click directly. An SEO-friendly move is to make a 301 redirect. The 301 lets a search engine know that a page has moved, and migrates the SEO properties to the new redirect page. To put a 301 redirect in place, you need access to the .HTACCESS file on your website server.
This is a tip for good website management in general. Rarely do pop-ups add value to a customer’s visit, and it brings the experience to a screeching halt. The extra coding also adds time to the page loading, something you must avoid for better SEO rankings.
Lazy loading is when web pages load images only when the shopper needs to see them and delays other parts of the page until then.
How it works:
Simply put, technology experts define the online store speed as the time it takes all the different web pages in your store to load when a user visits it, either on a computer or a mobile device. The faster it goes, the better experience it gives consumers. There are many factors as to why, but a slow speed will affect customer conversions.
Yes, it matters for all sides of the eCommerce site. Having a good experience makes or breaks a customer’s transaction. There are some factors that fall out of your control, such as the customer’s network or device setup. Focus on the factors you can control and make changes as necessary.
To answer this question, you need to do a little digging. It could be that the custom theme you are using is inefficient. Or you have too many Shopify apps that are not adding value. Another possibility is that it is being held back by JQuery, a type of JavaScript library. It is in use by hundreds of thousands of websites but is outmoded and slows server response.
There have been many tips listed here about how to optimise your store. Another specific option is to prevent hacking and malware. Use good internet hygiene, such as 2FA. Avoid or prevent malware bots and fraudulent website visits by using protective apps and plugins.
One step is to organise your Tracking Code. These are things like tracking codes for Google Analytics, AdWords conversions, goals, and remarketing tags. Google Tag Manager is a tool to merge all those tracking coding into one location.
Server response time is based largely on the amount of detail that is present on a store website. To increase page speed on Shopify storefronts, drastically reduce amounts of details/fluff. This can be done by accessing your Shopify Admin and changing or eliminating themes and the number of images. Overusing images to spruce up your website or show a product from every angle is unnecessary.
Shopify stores use a type of code known as Liquid. Having a more complex set of Liquid code can slow it down. To effectively speed up your Shopify store, start using the Theme Inspector plugin to cut down on inefficiencies. After installation, you can run it and find out exactly what to cut out to speed things up.
Fonts are another natural feature of the Shopify platform. They come in different types such as system fonts or custom ones. If the shopper’s system does not have a custom font, then the server will send it over when it loads. Having a system font avoids that issue as they are pre-installed on the operating system.
Merely by operating a Shopify site, your website speed has a leg up over other eCommerce sites due to its robust cloud servers matched to any device. There is always room for improvement, though, so it is necessary to take steps to fix website speed.
How to:
Yes, apps and plugins can slow down the site. Eliminate unnecessary ones to avoid chunky code. Some apps that you need can also slow down page speeds, so keep an eye on the speed and consider replacing the apps with a better one. Apps that modify your theme are especially prone to this as you add custom features. You can adjust it by disabling unused features or finding one that the developer has optimised.
Your Shopify store may be running slow due to uncompressed images. This means when you upload them, the site includes the whole file structure and displays them at the maximum size. Compressing images and other files can change this and make server requests faster. Or, it could be a result of the aforementioned malware. Protect your website!
Shopify stores are actually very speedy. With half a million storefronts out in the internet space, the engineers at Shopify keep the servers running hot to handle all the transactions and avoid any hint of slowness. The robust CDN network has a global reach, so it is certainly powerful. Expect a server response time of under three seconds.
By now you have seen what it takes to increase the speed of your website: avoid too many images, prevent custom coding, and use a basic theme. Other steps you can take involve a little bit of planning. When you get a new app, run it through a test server before putting it in the live system. This will show you how it reacts with the server request times. And use your dashboard tools or plugins to run speed audits.
Adjusting your themes and custom coding may be enough to speed up Shopify sites. But for harder Shopify obstacles, you can hire experts to eliminate any render-blocking JavaScript and CSS coding. The experts can also help minify HTML coding that delays server response times.
If you need help with tips and tricks on making your website the speediest eCommerce platform, contact us now.
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