If I could get any advice please. My Shopify store has been running 6 months. Not getting many views. If I do instagram and Facebook I get a few visits. I have sorted SEO optimisation. Page speed insights show quite a few issues but I do not know how to sort out duplicated JavaScript etc. could the problems on page speed insights be causing problems with my website and views. I would really appreciate some advice as I’m getting to the stage where I’m ready to give up and close down my store. I do not have a big budget to advertise. I do instagram and fb posts. Pawsomepetsathome.co.uk
Hello @Pawsomepets ,
I hope you are doing well!
I hear your frustration — and you’re not alone. Many Shopify store owners hit this “6-month wall” where traffic and sales don’t meet expectations despite putting in effort. Let’s break your situation down into clear steps so you know where to focus next.
Fix Speed Issues:
- Remove unused apps (causes duplicate JS).
- Compress images (use Webp images or Shopify built-in).
- Enable lazy loading for images.
- Some scripts and styles are loading slowly and blocking your page from showing quickly which needs to be reomved.
- Some files aren’t cached well, so browsers reload them instead of reusing it.
- Some scripts are loaded more than once, or older versions are being used. Usually comes from installed apps or your theme which needs to be removed.
- Your fonts and images may be causing “jumping” on the screen while loading. Which can be fixed by using “font-display: swap” for fonts.
I have checked that you are using jpg image instead of PNG or WEBp.
Traffic & Sales Focus:
- Post daily Instagram/TikTok reels.
- Run small retargeting ads.
- Add email/SMS popup (“10% off first order”).
- Write 2–4 niche blog posts/month for SEO.
In short:
Speed issues = worth fixing, but they’re not the reason you’re not getting visitors.
Traffic is your bigger problem right now → focus on marketing, while cleaning up speed in the background.
Don’t give up — most stores only start seeing traction after consistent marketing for 9–12 months.
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I’m good thank you for asking. Hope you are too!
Thank you so much for your reply and information to help, it is much appreciated. How do i know which shopify apps are causing duplicate javascript. I did delete them and reinstate them as I couldn’t tell which was causing the duplicate JavaScript. Also how do I Enable lazy loading for images. And the following you mentioned. Sorry I know it’s a lot to ask how I do all this.
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Some scripts and styles are loading slowly and blocking your page from showing quickly which needs to be reomved.
-
Some files aren’t cached well, so browsers reload them instead of reusing it.
-
Some scripts are loaded more than once, or older versions are being used. Usually comes from installed apps or your theme which needs to be removed.
-
Your fonts and images may be causing “jumping” on the screen while loading. Which can be fixed by using “font-display: swap” for fonts.
Here are the below points:
1.) Basically, you already know the installed app name. So, need to search the uninstalled app code by name or by class.
2.) For adding lazy loading, you need to add loading=“lazy” to every img tag
3.) If PageSpeed says “Use efficient cache lifetimes,” that means some files reload too often.
- Shopify’s own files are well-cached — the problem is usually apps or 3rd-party scripts.
- You can’t fully fix this on Shopify (since app scripts come from their own servers), but minimizing app usage helps.
4.) When fonts load slowly, text “jumps.” Fix by adding this in theme.liquid
inside <head>
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Thank you so much for your help. I will give this a try. I won’t be able to add anything to theme liquid though because I am no good with this and worried about messing it up.
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Hi @Pawsomepets
First, a good job on setting up the store and keeping it running for 6 months. You have solid products, OK images, a good collection, and product descriptions. Solid base.
But as you see, it is not enough for some sales. First advice is to take some time and search community posts for “No sales” or just general feedback. You will find a lot of similar topics, and a lot of good advice, app suggestions ,a
- nd tips that you can apply to your store.
To me, the main issues are a lack of branding, customer reassurance, and no credibility. For branding, you do not have a logo/favicon, colors are so-so, and there is no other section other than products and descriptions. You need more text for SEO but also to present your store to customers, give some positive signals, and offer some information so they can trust your store.
And specific things:
- You have a bit too many items in the menu: Home and shop all products you can remove but rename Collections to shop all and give it same link to all products. That collection sub menu is too high and all items on the left are not that readable, you could split in a few columns and add some images, maybe.
- Your homepage hero banner is nice, but too big, and the button should be in the middle. The image is cute, but the main purpose should be to lead customers to your products.
- Think you can remove review start, to me that looks like trustpilot, and that can be checked and I am sure you do not have 4.8 score.
- Button collor is, in my opinion, is a bad choice. That gray and white text on its own is not that noticeable. And on some blue background is even worse. It should really pop out the page and make sure you notice it straight away. So try some other accent color.
- Again, except products, not much there. 2 marquee sections, ok but not enough. Check other pet stores, and other themes maybe and see what they are doing. Probably some image/text, grid icon/text, testimonials, video user reviews.
- Product page, good description, some images look a bit lower quality for that size they take. But again more sections, some customer reassurance, for shipping, quality,support.
- Reviews are there but do place them in a container so it is not going from side to side.
- You have enough products to offer some bundles. For example, on any dog food page, offer a leash/collar in a bundle with a small discount.
Contact information: I could find just a email, and some return address. It is a good practice to show more info, like business name, registration/vat number, address, phone (if possible) . That all gives more on credibility.
Good luck with the store, and hope you do get some sales soon. It is a saturated market and there are a lot of stores out there, so try to add something unique. For example, if you do have a dog, make simple videos with some products from your store and make a link. Post often to social networks, all that you can and visitors will come.
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Hi @Pawsomepets
The page speed indeed matters in some ways, but it is not all. Page contents and backend structure also play important roles in getting sales and conversions. After checking your website on my end, I have collected some ideas you can make as reference.
The two announcement bars are duplicated to each other. You can remove one of them (better the second one), so that your homepage contents can be united properly.
There are three H1 tags on the homepage and two H1 tags on the Product pages. This is very unusual situation, as multiple H1 tags will affect the judgment from search engines like Google and it affects the final result of appearance in search results. If you use customized theme on the store currently, better check out the duplicated H1 tags and remove the unnecessary ones. Here SEOAnt can do some help, as we have a feature called SEO Check and it can detect out duplicated elements to give you suggestions whether keep or remove.
The menus on navigation bar seem like squeezed each other, better redesign or set them into one line. From my first insight, I feel very hard to distinguish them and tell them very clearly. This will result in a chaos if visitors or your potential customers would like to further explore your website. You can consider removing less important functions or using new navigation bar, which will leave a better impression on customers.
Thank you for your reply. I have looked into the H1 tags and I’m not comfortable with code so I cannot do anything about this. Is there another way?
Regards
Sharon
Thank you so much for your advice. I will look into these, much appreciated
Thank you so much for your advice. I will look into these, much appreciated for your kind help
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It has been six months, but you still have demo sections left on your store
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You don’t have a logo or a favicon.
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There is no contact email provided in your Returns and Refunds Policy page, which makes it hard for customers to reach you
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Overall, your site is missing some key legal and branding elements.
Best regards,
Dan from Ryviu: Product Reviews App
Not sure why there is blank demo sections as I have not changed anything for these to be blank and seem to have been added but not by me which is strange. Thank you for pointing that out I will remove them they shouldn’t be there
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Thank you for your advice, I have now done all the above. Do you know anything about H1 tags? this is another issue someone pointed out. I need help with this.
Hi there
First of all, please don’t feel discouraged - it’s completely normal to face these challenges in the first 6 - 12 months of running a store. You’ve already taken good steps like working on SEO and posting on Instagram and Facebook, so you’re on the right track and I had a look at your website performance score and shared your screenshot. Here are some ideas on how you can fix them. These issues don’t directly stop people from visiting your store, but improving them will make your site faster, which helps both customer experience and SEO.
Render blocking requests
Some JS files load before your page shows up.
Fix: You can mark JavaScript files as non-blocking by adding defer or async:
If editing theme files, place less important scripts at the bottom of your theme.liquid file.
Layout shift culprits
Page elements are moving around while loading.
Fix: Always set fixed sizes for images and banners:
This stops content from jumping.
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) request discovery
Your biggest content block (like hero image/banner) loads late.
Fix: Preload it:
Improve image delivery
Your images are heavy.
Fix: Always use Shopify’s built-in formats:
{{ product.featured_image | img_url: ‘600x600’, format: ‘pjpg’ }}
This serves optimized images.
Avoid serving legacy JavaScript to modern browsers
This is about code written for older browsers being delivered to all.
Fix: Usually fixed by updating your theme/apps. Custom scripts can be wrapped like this:
Passive event listeners
Helps scrolling feel smoother.
Fix: Update event listeners in JS:
window.addEventListener(‘scroll’, handler, { passive: true });
Recommended If you don’t want to dive into the code side, there are apps that handle most of this automatically. One you could check is Website Speedy - that optimizes CSS, JavaScript, images, and improves render blocking for Shopify without needing technical work. That way you can focus on growing your store while the site speed takes care of itself.
You’ve done well to get this far - don’t give up! A few improvements here can make a noticeable difference in both speed and sales.
(Disclaimer: We’re affiliated with Website Speedy, a performance optimization tool. If you’d like, it can automate these improvements for you, but the free fixes above will also help)
This can also be done by accessing related template page and change the setting of page title directly from H1 to H2. You can double-check if it is better than code.
Hi, Pawsome.
I see you’re struggling with low traffic and page speed issues, which can impact your SEO and conversions. optimizing your site’s performance, fixing technical issues like duplicated JavaScript, and refining your social media strategy to reach the right audience.
This is how you can fix it up:
- Social Media Strategy: Finetune your social content to attract the right audience.
- Technical SEO: Fix Pagespeed issues like duplicated JavScript, improving both load time and SEO.
- SEO Optimization: I will have to conduct a full audit and optimize your store for better search ranking.
Listen don’t give up on your dream of achieving your goals, great things don’t come easily.
Thank you for your message. I don’t know how to fix duplicated JavScript, I’m having to leave this as I don’t want to mess up anything on my website with coding etc as I am not confident with this.
My SEO optimisation I believe is good but I could probably improve on this so I can look into this.
I am on a few pet groups on instagram so I do get a lot of likes and comments but not really getting people clicking on my website. I have reached out to influencers and sent out freebies but nothing has happened regarding this. They did posts etc but still not getting visits/sales. Only going to give it a few more weeks then will probably shut my website down. 7 months with nothing happening feels like no point in carrying on.
Hi there @Pawsomepets how’s the store performing now? From this post it looked to me like you needed a high quality e-commerce marketer tbh to help you analyze and strategize better. Someone who can help with getting the right paid ads, assembling a useful email list for e-mail marketing, and also help review your current SEO strategy to optimize it even more. I usually advice getting on platforms like Upwork where you can guard your payment to avoid getting scammed unnecessarily and go for people with verified accounts and proven track records.
Hello, it’s usually not PageSpeed that causes low traffic but low visibility. Concentrate on organic growth, optimize product titles, add keyword-rich descriptions, connect Google Sales Channel to get free listings, and share engaging short videos on social media. A steady pace of content and SEO updates will go a long way building sustainable traffic.