The Complete Guide To Increase Page Speed,Maximize Conversions & SEO
‘Slow and steady wins the race.’ You must have come across this famous saying at least once in your life. However, this saying is entirely false when we talk about the online world. A better saying for the online world would be ‘Time is money.’
Online buyers are impatient. They will not wait for a website to load for more than 3 seconds. When we talk about the make or break of an eCommerce store, each second is important for an entrepreneur. He can either make a user purchase from his store or send him to his competitor. With a myriad of options available on the internet. Users are not going to spend their precious time waiting for your website to load.
To step up your game and maximize ecommerce conversions, it is vital to work on your page speed and SEO.
Does Page Speed Affect Your SEO?
The simple answer to this question is yes, the speed of your page has a direct effect on your SEO.
Did you know that 47% of users expect a website to load maximum in 2 seconds?
This means that if the web pages are not optimized, the users will quit waiting and move on to some other website. This results in an increased bounce rate and decreased conversions.
Google endeavors to provide the best experience to its users, therefore, if the bounce rate of a website is higher, Google will not rank the website higher on its result pages.
We have created a Shopify SEO guide that includes 8 effective tips to help you maximize conversions, improve page speed and SEO.
Tips To Increase Your Page Speed And To Maximize Conversions
1. Clean Your Code
Long strings and blocks of code put a load on a webpage and consequently it slows down their speed. To increase the speed of your webpage, your first step has to be cleaning your code. Start by removing all the extra commas, spaces, comments, and all the other unnecessary extra characters to optimize your code.
Remember, the simple mantra ‘Clean your Code, Decrease the Load.’
To remove redundant data from your code, use the following minification tools:
a) HTML Minifier
To compress and minify the HTML code.
b) CSSNano
Use this application to compress your stylesheet code.
c) UglifyJS
This application is used for optimizing the code of JavaScript.
2. Generate AMP Pages For Your Website
AMP or Accelerated Mobile Pages is an open framework designed to create fast-loading web pages on cell phones.
In the last six months, 79% of cell phone users have used their mobile devices to make a purchase. With the increased use of digital devices, it is very important to make your web pages mobile-responsive and quick to load.
By using AMP technology, you allow your users to access your website quickly on mobile devices.
In Shopify, there is no problem generating AMP pages for your site. All you have to do is trust the AMP App by Shop Sheriff, just as 15,000 other Shopify stores have placed their trust in it.
AMP pages optimize the site speed on mobile devices, draw more traffic, and ultimately give a boost to the ranking of your Shopify store on result pages.
Not enough?
Want more traffic and customers? Yes? Then turn your website into a mobile app!
Don’t worry, you won’t be required to develop a mobile application from scratch. Thanks to the PWA (Pro with Caching) by Shop Sheriff, you can now turn your website into a mobile application.
It will cache the important elements of the website such as pictures, JavaScript, and CSS. This will prevent mobile users from downloading the files every time they view the page.
3. Play Smart With Your Videos
Some businesses put up videos to guide customers, or simply to make their web pages more engaging. While these videos may help your customers and make your webpage attractive, they considerably slow down their speed.
The best practice to add videos to your website without compromising on its speed is to embed them from YouTube or Vimeo.
If you do not have a YouTube channel or aren’t in the favor of embedding the video from an external source, then avoid using the autoplay option on the videos you upload.
Videos that start automatically irritate the customers and also take longer to load.
4. Select A Fast And Responsive Theme For Your Shopify Store
Your selection of a theme also influences the speed of the webpage. Before you get swoon away by the beautiful and attractive themes available on Shopify, don’t forget to check the following:
– Fast And Responsive
Your priority should be to select a theme that is fast and responsive to various digital devices. If the theme is not fast, then all its other features are futile.
– Check The Preview
Before finalizing a theme, it is highly recommended to check the demo and live preview of the theme.
Activate the live preview of your theme and run it through Google PageSpeed Insight. Review the generated suggestions and apply them to your page to make it faster.
Also, once the theme has been selected, don’t forget to keep it updated to avail its latest features.
5. Deactivate Unnecessary Apps
The apps have surely saved the developers from writing long strings of code for specific purposes. However, these apps contain lots of JavaScript and CSS files. If the app is not being used, or if it is deactivated, the files will still run in the background and as a result, your website will slow down.
To optimize the speed of your webpage, review all the apps and tools that you have downloaded on your Shopify store.
Next, check which ones are activated and which ones are deactivated. If you have deactivated an app for a long time it probably means that you don’t need it anymore. Uninstall it right away!
After uninstalling the deactivated plugins, review the activated plugins and check if you can achieve your purpose without them.
6. Cut Down The Number Of Homepage Slides
Banner images on the homepage sure look attractive and uplift the overall appearance of the website, but using too many of them can slow down your website.
The size, quality, and number of images on a slider can put a burden on the website’s overall speed.
To eliminate this problem, try using a maximum of 2 or 3 images. Or instead of using a slider, you can also use a single image that catches the attention of your customers and has a clear call to action (CTA’s) button.
Winding Up!
Optimizing your page speed is a challenging and time-consuming task. A little effort to increase the speed of your page can help you to grow and increase your conversion rates.
The above-mentioned Shopify SEO guide will surely help you to optimize your web pages. Don’t rush to implement all the tips on your webpage. Select the ones that are feasible for you and your website.
However, keep in mind that your website will not be optimized right after implementing the above tips, no. It requires consistency, effort, and patience to see the desired results.
