Why is my online store speed so low?

[Jherr9788]

Every few days my store speed gets down very low it’s at a 33 right now, I don’t have many apps linked so I’m not sure why this is happening. One of my apps is an image optimizer because I felt maybe the file size of my product images was affecting it but now I’m not sure what else to do. Anyone have any ideas? I’m frustrated because I hope this isn’t affecting my customers

[Dirk]

Hey, @Jherr9788 

I had a couple of questions: 

1. Could you provide me with your store? I'd be happy to take a look on my end

2. This speed score of 33 that you are seeing, which tool are you using to give you this number?

If there is anything else I can help you with, please let me know.

[JoesIdeas · Accepted solution]

Hi @Jherr9788 I have a few notes and ideas for you:

1) A 33 is a pretty good score already with the Shopify speed tool if you are using more than a couple store facing apps. We usually see optimized sites scoring in the range of 20 - 35 if they're using apps. Apps aren't bad, it's just that the engine being used (Google Lighthouse) is a general tool and knocks down the score for those.

The score can also fluctuate without any changes made.

2) The score isn't correlative to actual speed (according to a case study we ran with Google PSI, which uses the same engine: https://speedboostr.com/case-study-google-psi), so what I'd do first is optimize what's possible before you start removing any apps.

3) You can use the Shopify Analyzer to see what can be optimized on your site, plus a scoring system based on over 1,000 Shopify sites we've optimized. We built the tool as a free resource for the community.

4) When you delete an app, the app loses access to your store so it cannot clean up after itself if it added code to your theme. We optimize Shopify sites every day and find leftover app code in a high percentage of stores.

To remove this, read your theme code files and look for code related to apps you no longer use. The most common areas are theme.liquid, cart.liquid, and product.liquid (and its descendants). Do this on a backup theme in case you make any mistakes, so you don't affect the live site.

5) My recommendation is to optimize what's possible first (using the Shopify Analyzer), then do an analysis of your apps to see if there's any way you can improve your speed without losing the functionality.

If you need help with any of that feel free to contact my team at speedboostr.com/contact, we optimize Shopify sites every day and offer a free analysis.