Excellent 4 Tips From a Shopify Developer to Optimise Website Speed

As an online retailer, your website speed is critical to your success. Unfortunately, with the increasing competition in the e-commerce world, customers have minimal patience for slow-loading websites. 

According to a report by Google, 53% of mobile users abandon a webstore that takes longer than three seconds to load. That’s why it’s crucial to optimise your Shopify website for speed. This article will discuss four tips to help you optimise your website speed. 

Also, regardless of your business type, hiring an experienced Shopify development company for your eCommerce store is pivotal. 

4 Practical Tips To Improve E-commerce Website Speed

Optimise Images

Images are an essential part of any e-commerce website. They help showcase your products and make your website visually appealing. 

However, large images can significantly slow down your website. Therefore, optimising your images is essential to ensure they don’t slow down your website. 

Here are some tips that can be used by your hired eCommerce development company for optimising your images:

• Compress images: Compressing your images reduces the file size, making them load faster without compromising quality. 

• Resize images: Resize your images for optimal display on your website through any digital device. You can use tools like Canva or Photoshop to resize your images.

• Use lazy loading: Lazy loading is a web development feature that loads images only when required. This technique can significantly minimise your website’s loading time.

Minimise HTTP Requests

Every time a user visits your website, their browser sends a request to your server to load various resources, such as images, stylesheets, and scripts. 

Each of these requests takes time, which can significantly slow down your website. Here are some tips that your hired Shopify development company for minimising HTTP requests:

• Merge CSS and JavaScript files: Combining multiple CSS and JavaScript files into one file can significantly reduce the number of requests.

• Use a Content Delivery Network (commonly known as CDN): A CDN can distribute your website’s static files across multiple servers worldwide, reducing the distance between your server and your users.

• Minimise the use of third-party scripts: Third-party scripts, such as social media buttons and tracking scripts, can significantly slow down your website. Only use the scripts that are necessary for your website.

Use a Fast Theme

Your website’s theme plays a crucial role in your website speed. A poorly designed or bloated theme can significantly slow down your website. Typically, an expert ecommerce development company leverages these tips for choosing a fast theme:

• Look for a lightweight theme: A lightweight theme will have fewer features and code, making it faster to load.

• Choose a responsive theme: A responsive theme will adjust to different screen sizes, making it more user-friendly.

• Avoid themes with too many features: Themes with too many features can be bloated and slow down your website.

Optimise Your Website’s Code

Your website’s code can significantly affect your website speed. Bloated or poorly optimised code can slow down your website. Here are some tips for optimising your website’s code:

• Minimise your code: Minifying your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files can significantly reduce their file size, making them load faster.

• Use caching: Caching can significantly reduce your website’s loading time by storing frequently accessed files in a user’s browser.

• Optimise your database: A poorly optimised database can significantly slow down your website. Make sure to optimise your database regularly.

Conclusion

Website speed is critical to the success of your e-commerce website. By following these four tips you can optimise your website for speed and improve your user experience. 

Remember to regularly test your website’s speed and make changes where necessary to ensure it’s always running at peak performance.