Improve your store’s speed

Here are the main recommendations we can give for improving your Shopify store performance.

1. Understand how Shopify speed works

Shopify runs on cloud software, which means that many core files and scripts (including a lot of Shopify’s default JavaScript) cannot be changed or optimized by themes or developers. Because of this, we can only optimize the parts that are available within the theme settings and custom code.

---

2. Why Google PageSpeed Insights can be misleading

We recommend reading the article “The Problem with Google PageSpeed Insights”. It explains why Shopify sites sometimes receive lower scores even if the store loads quickly for real customers.

For example, Google suggests using modern image formats like WEBP. These formats aren’t supported on some older browsers or operating systems. If you force WEBP everywhere, some customers may see broken images — so this recommendation is not always good for your store.

---

3. Reduce the amount of content on each page

Your page performance depends heavily on how much content is displayed:

• Every section, image, slider, video, or product block adds loading time.

• The more elements you have on the page, the slower it will load.

Try to keep the page layout clean and minimal — this improves speed noticeably.

---

4. Limit the number of apps

Every installed app adds its own JavaScript and CSS files. These files are often loaded from external servers, which means:

• additional DNS lookups

• extra server connections

• more files to download

All of this slows the page down.

Choose apps carefully — only keep the ones you truly need. You decide what is more important for your store: extra app features or higher speed scores.