01
Baseline
Field data from Search Console plus lab tests on your key templates — home, collection, product, cart. We record the starting numbers before touching anything.
Shopify speed optimization
Your store is slow. Let’s find out why first.
Most speed services install an app, run a test, and send you a screenshot. We profile the store, find what’s actually blocking the render, and fix that — then show you the before and after.
Start here
A PageSpeed score is not the problem.
The score is a summary of several measurements, and only some of them affect what a customer feels. A store can sit at 40 and feel fine, or sit at 70 and feel sluggish, depending on which metric is dragging.
What matters is Largest Contentful Paint (how long before the main content appears), Cumulative Layout Shift (whether things jump around while loading) and Interaction to Next Paint (how long before taps respond). Google measures these from real visitors, not from a lab test — so chasing a lab score can improve the number and change nothing your customers experience.
The uncomfortable part: on most Shopify stores we look at, the biggest single cost is apps. Every app injects scripts into every page, including pages it isn’t used on. Removing three apps you stopped using will usually beat any amount of code optimization — and it’s free.
We’ll tell you that before quoting, and if that’s the whole fix, you don’t need us.
Where the time actually goes
The five things that slow Shopify stores.
In roughly the order we find them.
| Cause | What it does | Typical fix |
|---|---|---|
| App script bloat | Each app loads JavaScript on every page, whether or not it’s used there | Audit, remove unused apps, conditionally load the rest |
| Unoptimised images | Oversized hero and product images pushing LCP past 4 seconds | Correct dimensions, modern formats, responsive sizes, lazy loading below the fold |
| Render-blocking JS and CSS | The browser stops painting while it waits for files it doesn’t need yet | Defer non-critical scripts, inline critical CSS, remove dead code |
| Theme-level inefficiency | Heavy sliders, animation libraries, and Liquid loops that run on every request | Rewrite the expensive sections; replace libraries with native CSS where possible |
| Fonts | Multiple weights and families blocking first paint | Subset, preload, and cut the weights nobody uses |
We work through these in order of impact, measuring after each change so you can see which one moved the number.
Process
How the engagement runs.
02
Profile
Waterfall analysis to find what’s actually blocking the render, rather than guessing from a score.
03
App audit
Every installed app, what it loads, on which pages, and whether you still use it. Often the cheapest win on the list.
04
Fix in order of impact
Images, then blocking resources, then theme code. Measured after each change so the effect of each fix is visible.
05
Verify on real devices
Mid-range Android on a throttled connection, not a desktop on fibre. That’s what most of your traffic actually is.
06
Report
Before and after, metric by metric, with a plain-English note on what caused each gain and what would break it again.
Related work
Speed work we’ve done.
Fancii was a dedicated speed engagement. Ask us for the numbers on your own store’s baseline before you commit to anything.
Speed optimization · 2023
Fancii
A dedicated speed optimization engagement on an existing Shopify storefront.
- Service
- Speed optimization
- Year
- 2023
Built fast from the start
Rosa Mae
German-market fashion storefront built from Figma with performance treated as a build requirement rather than a later fix.
- Live
- rosamae.de
Who does the work
You deal with the person who builds it.
Questions
Answers, including the awkward ones.
Do you guarantee a specific PageSpeed score?
No, and be careful with anyone who does. Score guarantees are usually met by deferring everything until after the test finishes, which improves the number and not the experience. We commit to improving the metrics that affect real visitors, and we show you the before and after for each one.
How much faster will my store get?
That depends entirely on what’s slowing it down, which is why we baseline before quoting. A store carrying twelve apps and unoptimised hero images has far more headroom than one that’s already been worked on.
Will you break my apps or my theme?
We work on a duplicate theme, not the live one, and nothing is published until you’ve reviewed it. If removing an app is part of the recommendation, that’s your decision, not ours.
How long does it take?
A diagnostic pass takes a few days. Implementation depends on the findings — image and script work is fast; rewriting heavy theme sections is not.
Is it worth it if my traffic is small?
Often not yet. If you’re doing a few hundred sessions a month, spending on speed before spending on traffic and conversion is the wrong order. We’ll say so.
What causes speed to regress after you’re done?
Installing new apps, uploading full-resolution images through the admin, and adding third-party scripts for analytics or chat. The handover note covers all three.
Send us the URL.
We’ll run a diagnostic pass and tell you what’s actually slowing the store down — including the free fixes you can do without hiring anyone.
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