How do you fix slow page loading issues with Shopify Stores?

The Shopify pages load slowly is a common problem Shopify store owners struggle with. Such lags often frustrate customers, lower conversions, and worsen SEO performance. If people can’t load your Shopify store quickly, then there is a chance that you will be missing out on traffic and sales. So in this blog, we are going to discuss the reasons of the slow page loads and provide remedies in the form of codes that will help you improve your store's load speed.

What’s the Importance of Page Speed?

Page speed is important because it impacts the usability of the site alongside its search engine rankings. Here’s how:

1. Helps users: Users tend to stick on sites that load in 2-3 seconds or less.
2. SEO Advantages: Google opt to rank pages based on the speed at which they load.
3. Increased sales: Pages with low delay are responsible for a higher amount of sales and a lower number of abandoned shopping carts.

If your Shopify site is slow as I have described above I have the main reasons and solutions to this issue quickly.

Reasons Why Shopify Stores Take Time to Load

• Big, Not Optimised Images
• Numerous Plugins and Both Apps Installed
• Superfluous JavaScript and CSS Files
• Lack of Implementation for Lazy Loading
• Poor Server Response Times

Now let's look into the solutions for all these Shri, the problems.

1. Utilize Image Optimization

The size of large image files is one of the contributing factors to a slow page load speed. If image files are properly optimized , they can increase the speed of your site.

The processes that can help optimize images include:

• Use tools such as TinyPNG or the image optimization feature of Shopify.
• Change image files to modern image formats such as WebP, as this will reduce the file size.

Optimized image tag example:

<img src="{{ product.featured_image | img_url: '1024x1024', format: 'webp' }}" alt="{{ product.title }}">        

This guarantees using the appropriate and most efficient format for the image to be displayed.

2. Decrease Legacied JavaScript and CSS

Having too many JavaScript and CSS files can affect the speed of your store. Try to do away with or defer unused code to help improve the site's speed.

Solution:

• Assess the site for any scripts which should not be there.
• Use UglifyJS or use the built in theme editor in Shopify to optimize your JavaScript and CSS files.
• Load non-critical scripts last.

Defer JavaScript Example Code:

<script defer src="example.js"></script>        

This allows the script to run only when the HTML document has been completely parsed.

3. Apply Lazy Loading

As plain images and any other content which are in offscreen are not downloaded when the page is initially loaded, this also enhances the time it takes a page to load initially.

How to Add Lazy Loading:

To add lazy loading to images, use this code:

<img src="placeholder.jpg" data-src="{{ product.featured_image | img_url: '1024x1024' }}" class="lazyload">

<script>
  document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() {
    const lazyImages = document.querySelectorAll("img.lazyload");
    lazyImages.forEach(img => {
      img.src = img.dataset.src;
    });
  });
</script>        

This script speeds up the page’s overall speed as images are loaded only when they are close to the viewport, instead of being loaded when the page is opened.

4. Leverage Shopify’s CDN

Your assets are to be loaded faster since Shopify has an integrated CDN, so Make sure you are going to the CDN by referencing assets directly to the Shopify's liquid tags.?

Example:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="{{ 'theme.css' | asset_url }}">
<script src="{{ 'theme.js' | asset_url }}"></script>        

5. Avoid Overuse of Apps?

The purpose of installing Shopify App is mainly to increase the features of the store, however vast majority makes a market to be filled with extra code.?

Solution:?

• Audit your apps and regularly uninstall those which you no longer make use of.
• Include services of custom coding that replaces numerous apps where its viable.

6. Make Use of Browser Caching?

As browser caching enables the resources that are used regularly to be cached on the local device of a user Hence whenever that same user visits the site again he does not have to reload all the assets permanently.?

How to enable this option:?

Please make sure that while setting the server headers, use those which allow caching for the assets. Locate assets like images and javascript files and utilize the CDM that is present in the Shopify.

Final Thoughts

A well-optimised Shopify store needs to load quickly to render different pages to customers, improve SEO performance, and increase sales. If you want to improve or tweak the speed of your store, consider using the mentioned techniques—image compression, JavaScript and CSS reduction, lazy loading, and Shopify CDN.

Don’t allow your slow page speeds to damage your business. Begin using these recommendations immediately and see how your store performs in ShopiShopify store needs to load quickly to render different pages to customers, improve SEO performance, and increase sales. If you want to improve or tweak the speed of your store, consider using the mentioned techniques—image compression, JavaScript and CSS reduction, lazy loading, and Shopify CDN.

Don’t allow your slow page speeds to damage your business. Begin using these recommendations immediately and see how your store performs in Shopify!

Did your Shopify store’s pages take forever to load? Please tell us your problems and any improvement methods that you have used successfully.