Store Speed drop drastically in a matter of days

Store Design

Topic summary

A Shopify store owner experienced a dramatic performance decline, with their site speed score plummeting from 62 to 23 points within days on the Expression theme.

Timeline & Actions Taken:

  • July 21: Score dropped from 61
  • July 24: Further decline to 27
  • Current score: 23

The owner has attempted several troubleshooting steps:

  • Updated theme to latest version
  • Installed a Tabs app (July 20-21), which has since been uninstalled
  • Removed other apps installed during the decline period

Technical Details:
The post includes their theme.liquid code, showing they’re using Expression theme version 8.0.0. However, portions of the code appear corrupted or reversed in the original post, making technical analysis difficult.

Current Status:
The issue remains unresolved. The owner is seeking community help to identify what caused the sudden speed degradation, as their own troubleshooting efforts haven’t restored performance.

Summarized with AI on November 18. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

Hi my website dropped over 40 points from 62 to 23 in a matter of days on Shopify’s expression theme. I’ve done everything, checked everything but I have no idea what is going wrong and its frustrating. I’ve uninstalled apps installed during that time as well. Can I get some help?

this is my theme.liquid code.

{% render ‘head-tag’ %}

{%- capture seo_title -%}
{{ page_title }}
{% if current_tags %}
{% assign meta_tags = current_tags | join: ', ’ %}
– {{ ‘general.meta.tags’ | t: tags: meta_tags }}
{% endif %}
{% if current_page != 1 %}
– {{ ‘general.meta.page’ | t: page: current_page }}
{% endif %}
{% unless page_title contains shop.name %}
– {{ shop.name }}
{% endunless %}
{%- endcapture -%}

{% render ‘social-meta-tags’ %}

{%- liquid
assign logo_font = settings.type_logo_font
assign base_font = settings.type_base_font
assign base_font_fivehundo = base_font | font_modify: ‘weight’, ‘500’
assign base_font_bold = base_font | font_modify: ‘weight’, ‘bolder’
assign base_font_italic = base_font | font_modify: ‘style’, ‘italic’
assign base_font_bold_italic = base_font_bold | font_modify: ‘style’, ‘italic’
assign heading_font = settings.type_heading_font
assign nav_font = settings.type_nav_font
-%}

{{ logo_font | font_face: font_display: 'fallback' }} {{ base_font | font_face: font_display: 'fallback' }} {{ base_font_fivehundo | font_face: font_display: 'fallback' }} {{ base_font_bold | font_face: font_display: 'fallback' }} {{ base_font_italic | font_face: font_display: 'fallback' }} {{ base_font_bold_italic | font_face: font_display: 'fallback' }} {{ heading_font | font_face: font_display: 'fallback' }} {{ nav_font | font_face: font_display: 'fallback' }}

{{ ‘styles.css’ | asset_url | stylesheet_tag: preload: true }}

{%- if template.directory == ‘customers’ -%}

{%- endif -%}

{%- if tinyscript -%}{{ content_for_header }}{%- else -%}{% render ‘tiny-script-control’ %}{%- endif -%}

{{ 'general.accessibility.skip_to_content' | t }}
{% sections 'header-group' %}

{% render ‘breadcrumbs’ %}

{%- if template contains 'index' -%} {% section 'banner' %}
{% section 'sidebar' %}
{%- else -%}
{%- endif -%}

{{ content_for_layout }}

{%- if template contains ‘index’ -%}

{%- endif -%}

{%- sections ‘overlay-group’ -%}

{% sections 'footer-group' %}

{%- if template contains ‘product’ or template contains ‘index’ -%}
{% render ‘photoswipe’ %}
{%- endif -%}

2

Sure it’s www.theartofstitch.com. It started 21 Jul points from 61 and then 24 July dropped to 27 and went down further to 23 where it now is. I did update my theme to the latest, installed Tabs app on 20-21 july which I’ve now uninstalled.

3

Thank you so much! i totally appreciate it :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: