Slow website - Rolling back theme, starting new account, or...

[Lags]

Hello -

My website has been super slow. I believe I am losing a lot of sales from it. Even when logging into my admin page. I am not sure if my admin account and website are tied together somehow.

If anyone can give me their thoughts on my questions below, it would be appreciated.

I was thinking of rolling back to a previous date, or possibly creating a new account and trying to building the site again. Starting over sounds good to me as the product pages, collections, etc... are a mess. There are pages that are not on my current published site, that are showing up on Google. I don't have the know how to delete them with confidence that it won't effect my website.

QUESTIONS:

1. I have copied and saved my themes over the last year and a half. If I start recreating the website from an earlier saved theme, will it still have the code from my current published website that could be causing the slowness?

2. When clicking on my admin site, like the orders tab, it would initially show this url, and It would take a couple clicks to get it to go to the orders page. I couldn't attached a picture, but here is the start of the url: s.pureleads.com/s/?spid=5880&q=shopify.com...... Is this some kind of tracking software or bug?

Any help or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[Moeed]

Hey @Lags 

It sounds like your site might be slowed down by bloated theme code or third-party scripts. If you rebuild using an old theme, it might still carry over those issues, so starting fresh with a clean theme could help. Just be careful re-adding apps or custom code. Happy to help if you need cleanup tips!

Best Regards,

Moeed

[oscprofessional]

Hi @Lags ,

• Yes, old themes may carry bloated or broken code → switching to a saved theme won’t guarantee speed improvements unless you clean up unused apps, scripts, and sections.

• Best option: Duplicate your store, then start fresh with a lightweight theme, and copy over only what’s needed.

Recommendations:

• Create a clean new theme from Shopify’s theme store.

• Use Google Search Console to remove outdated URLs.

• Use tools like PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse to pinpoint slowness.

• Hire a Shopify expert (optional) to safely clean up your product/collection mess without harming SEO.

[Lags]

• Best option: Duplicate your store, then start fresh with a lightweight theme, and copy over only what’s needed.

If I duplicate my store, won't I be copying all the broken code? How do I duplicate my store and what exactly does that mean? Does that mean I will have a new shopify url ad admin login? What will happen to all my previous customer's data?

Thank you.

[oscprofessional]

Duplicating your store usually means duplicating your theme, not the entire store. Your Shopify admin, URL, and customer data stay the same.

However, duplicating a theme also copies broken code, so the best option is to start with a fresh theme (like Dawn) and manually copy only the clean, necessary parts.

Your previous customer data and orders are untouched — they remain safe in your Shopify admin.

[CafeDelMar]

Hi @Lags.

Reverting or starting from scratch might be a good idea.

1. It depends on how old your previously saved theme. But yes, it can still have the non-needed code that drags the performance.

2. Looks like some kind of a tracking software. Do you get the same when you're doing this in incognito mode? (as this can be added by the browser extensions on your local computer too). You might want to roll-back/start fresh. If you don't know what this is, it, most likely, shouldn't be there.

[Lags]

Thank you for all the replies. I appreciate it. 

[Lags]

Question. My developers left the original 3rd party theme in my account. If I select to update the theme to an updated version by the theme developer, will it affect my currently published theme? Thank you.