Do you fail to make sales even if you have a wide array of product selections? Before you add more to your listing, you ought to consider your site speed. 

That’s because slow load times direly affect user experience. Web pages with a load time of more than five seconds often register a 38% bounce rate. 

If you don’t want your online store to suffer this fate, follow this guide on how to speed up your Shopify site. 

Do Speed Testing

Making use of Google Pagespeed Insights is one of the best ways to pursue Shopify speed optimization. 

Not only will this provide the necessary metrics for page speed, but it can make store recommendations as well. 

To run a test, enter your website URL. Results will show your first contentful paint or how long it takes your site to render the first bit of content. 

Another metric you’ll find here is the Time to Interactive, which is the time it takes for the page to become interactive. 

Get a Responsive Shopify Theme

Whether you’re a desktop or mobile user, using the right theme is essential for good site performance. 

A ‘heavy’ one can lead to a slower page load time, while a ‘lightweight’ theme allows your Shopify store to load faster. 

Of the 200 themes available, these five are the best when it comes to fast site loading: 

• Create 
• Toy
• Warm
• Light
• Outdoors

Resize Large Images

Every online store needs high-quality images to sell a product. 

However, uploading large image files — not to mention having too many of them — can affect load speed. That’s because the browser needs to load images that are even bigger than CSS and Javascript. 

To see which store photos need image optimization, go to your Chrome DevTools and click on Inspect. Go to the Network tab and refresh the page. This will show the resources your images are using when they load. From here, you can click on size to find the biggest images. 

Once you find the image that needs compressing, you can run it through Shopify apps such as Crush.pics. Another good option is the free tool Optimizilla. 

With these, you can convert a bulky image into a smaller file size, loading content faster. 

Use Static Images Instead of GIFs

While GIFs provide an interactive experience for users, they are so large that they delay the page load times. 

To avoid this problem that leads to many Shopify stores’ high bounce rate, make sure to use lighter static images. 

Do Lazy Loading

Most Shopify sites often get the ‘defer offscreen images’ recommendation from Google Pagespeed Insights. That’s because these stores tend to load photos all at once, which then leads to poor page performance.

To improve the page speed of your Shopify store, use the lazy loading function. With this, the photos only appear once the user scrolls down the page. 

Reduce Shopify Apps and Third-Party JavaScript and CSS Files

An app can help a Shopify store owner improve website functionality even without code knowledge. The same goes for third-party scripts, which are pivotal for enhancing site performance. 

While these apps and programs are undoubtedly beneficial for your pages, they can affect page speed. That’s because they add to the volume of requests that your Shopify site is making. 

As such, it’s essential to monitor all the code and apps you have and remove those you aren’t using. 

Here are some questions you need to answer before you uninstall these programs from your store:

• How often do I use this app?
• Is it necessary for the website, or is it just nice to have? 
• Is there a lightweight option that I can use?
• Do its benefits outweigh the fact that it slows site performance?
• Are there figures that show if customers use these apps?

If you can’t seem to decide, here are some apps that are known to slow website performance: 

• Zendesk
• Paypal
• Drift 
• Privy
• Klaviyo
• Yotpo
• Lucky Orange
• Sentry
• Sumo

Move Each Code to the Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager is the one place where you can add and remove tags without manipulating code. 

Not only will this help you manage code seamlessly, but it also loads them asynchronously that they don’t lead to render-blocking. 

To take advantage of this feature, you need to:

• Install Google Tag Manager on your website. 
• Go to Tags > New.
• Search Tag Types for built-in tags / Place tags to Custom HTML.
• Implement the tags on the program.
• Set the triggers properly.
• Publish the changes you made.
• Go back to your Shopify home page and uninstall the apps you have added through Tag Manager.
• Go to Preview mode to test your tags and see if they’re working correctly.

For best results, move your Facebook, Google Analytics, Hotjar, and third-party codes to Tag Manager. 

Optimizing your Shopify store can be done quickly with these seven tips. As long as you work on them now, you’re sure to soon enjoy search engine ranking improvements.