PayPal slowing my site down? Or is it Shopify?

Sharon_B
Pathfinder
104 1 36

My site speed has always been close to about 65 to 70 for years. In the last month, it has gradually slowed down, and yesterday was 47! The only change I've made is reactivating PayPal about a month ago. Has anyone else had this happen? Could that be slowing down my site? (Maybe they add trackers or something like that to the pages.)

I know that Shopify has had some problems lately, site down and whatnot. Could that still be going on now and then and affecting my site speed?

Would love to hear if anyone else has noticed their site slowing down lately, even though no changes have been made to it.

 

 

 

Replies 3 (3)

Sharon_B
Pathfinder
104 1 36

Another thought--although Shopify says they are not going to degrade older sites as they implement Shopify 2.0, I wonder if possibly they actually are doing it anyway.  Mine is an older version of Minimal. If this is the case , it is a real bummer!

JohnCodes
Shopify Partner
134 10 74

Hi @Sharon_B 

Google pushed out an update recently that seemed to have caused a lot of Shopify store's scores to drop. It could also partly have to do with the reactivation of PayPal just because that's adding some additional resources your site needs to load. I highly doubt it's the sole cause though.

Unless you've actually noticed a drop in your site's speed when navigating around I wouldn't worry too much about the drop in your Page Speed Insights score. It takes in many other factors beyond just page speed, so a drop in the score or an overall low score doesn't necessarily mean your site is performing poorly.

We typically see Shopify scores range between 10-30 on Page Speed Insights, so you're actually scoring way above average.

We have some blog posts that go into more detail about the relationship between Shopify sites, Google Page Speed Insights, and Shopify's Speed Score:

Installed apps tend to have a large impact on this score, so I'd recommend keeping apps to a minimum. You'll also want to make sure any uninstalled app code has been fully removed from your theme. It's pretty common for app code to be left behind after an uninstall.

I hope this helps! Please feel free to reach out to our optimization team at speedboostr.com/contact if you need any additional help.

Developer at SpeedBoostr (Shopify optimization and dev agency).
Try out our Shopify Analyzer (free performance analysis tool).
Check out Order Automator (app that auto tags + fulfills orders, and more automation)
More Apps: Theme Scientist (A/B testing tool), Tip Jar (add a tip button to your store), File Optimizer (optimize CSS, JS, Liquid)
Sharon_B
Pathfinder
104 1 36

John, thank you so much for such a comprehensive response.

I've avoided apps, just for the reasons you state. They do seem to greatly reduce speed on many sites. I only have two--Pirate Ship and Pinterest (and Shipping Manifests, which I never use since I am using Pirate Ship.)

It has been such a dramatic decrease in one month that I was concerned. I'm assured by your response that I may not need to worry too much. Navigation around the site seems plenty fast. (I do still worry that Shopify is going to start degrading the older sites. Not sure what I'll do when that happens.)

And thanks for your links to the blog posts. I will read them as soon as I get a chance.