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FAQs on Dropshipping Site Speed Optimization
Dropshipping Page Speed Optimization — Tips & Tools [2024]
Updated:
12
minutes read
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Dropshipping is an amazing business model for sure.
But here’s the thing — you need to be great at closing sales within a short buying journey. And that’s one of the key reasons you must optimize your dropshipping store for speed. It’s become non-negotiable.
So, in this blog post, we’ll help you with insights on dropshipping page speed optimization along with the tools and Shopify apps to get the best at it.
Let’s get started with some basics first!
Importance of Page Speed Optimization
Why is page speed optimization important in the dropshipping business? Well, it’s crucial for any business that has a website. Especially, fast-speed mobile pages have become essential with the rise of mobile commerce.
Dropshipping businesses know the value of traffic and conversion in association with customer acquisition cost (CAC). Here are some important statistics found through a study by SASOTA as reported by Think with Google.
Every single second matters. Typically, when buying low-ticket dropshipping products, customers go for a quick purchase. You lost them for a while, and the customer is gone.
Here are the key benefits of page speed optimization in dropshipping:
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Increase Your Conversion Rate:
The slower the website, the more potential customers are likely to exit your website. Fast page load speed gives your customers a seamless experience and allows them to go through a buying process quickly. Thus, it helps increase the conversion rate.
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Enhance Your User Experience (UX):
Customers have gotten used to blazing-fast websites. They expect a smooth and swift experience while browsing your website for different collections and products. If they have to wait for a page to load even for a few seconds, it can ruin their experience.
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Build Brand’s Credibility
Your website is one of the biggest representatives of your brand’s credibility. How your website functions can build your brand’s perception. After all, you don’t want to look like a 90s website in terms of its performance. Also, this could affect the customers toward your brand.
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Speed matters for SEO too. Google has announced that the search signals for page experience will also include Core Web Vitals. One of the Core Web Vitals’ metrics is “Loading Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)” which basically measures the loading performance of a web page.
This metric suggests that a site should aim to have the "Largest Contentful Paint of 2.5 seconds or less" to deliver a good user experience. Anything above 4 seconds is considered poor.
Not ready to commit but still want to kick the tires?
No problem! Get started with GemPages' free plan. Explore wonderful features that can do wonders for your store.
Factors Impacting the Speed of Your Shopify Dropshipping Store
If you’re running your dropshipping store with Shopify, you already have the advantage of a powerful eCommerce platform. However, you still need to be aware of some factors to work on to make the most out of Shopify’s advanced technology.
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Your Published Shopify Theme
Your Shopify theme is one of the factors that could impact your site speed. Most Shopify themes perform great but you may still evaluate the best option for your store.
Learn more: 10+ Fastest Shopify Themes - Tested | Free and Paid
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Unnecessary Shopify Apps
Shopify apps are incredibly helpful tools to grow and scale your business. But you need to be mindful about what and how many apps you’re using on your store. Don’t install unnecessary apps that add no significant value to your business.
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Weak Custom Code
If you’re using custom-coded sections on your store for any reason, you need to make sure your code is clean and optimized. Ineffective or dead code can negatively impact your site speed.
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Media Elements
Media elements on your site include images, videos, GIFs, animations, etc. Using high-quality media elements definitely helps enhance the visual appeal, but they come at a cost and that is your site’s speed.
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Font Style
Using stylish font also comes at the cost of your site speed. If you’re using fonts other than the system font, it’s likely to increase your page load speed.
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Non-Controllable Factors
The above factors we discussed are controllable to some extent. However, there are also some non-controllable factors such as the customer's device, browser, Shopify's native infrastructure, etc.
How to Improve Your Dropshipping Site’s Speed
Here are the recommendations and best practices to improve the site speed for your Shopify dropshipping store:
1. Build a Robust Tech Stack
Your tech stack is the set of technology — platforms, software, apps, etc. — used to build your dropshipping store. Ensure you’re using reliable and high-quality tools in your tech stack.
When you’re building your tech stack with Shopify, you’re sure to get easy access and integrations with other reliable tools. But within the Shopify ecosystem as well, you may need to make some choices.
For example, when choosing your Shopify theme, you have plenty of free as well as paid themes to choose from. Make sure your Shopify theme is optimized for faster speed.
Also, you can include special tools that can help you boost your site speed. For example, you can add a “Page Speed Optimizer” app from the Shopify App Store. Simply search “Speed optimization” in the Shopify App Store and you’ll find many apps.
Similarly, you can integrate external software with your Shopify store using API (Application Programming Interface).
Check reviews of the software or app on platforms like Shopify App Store, G2, Trustpilot, etc. before you install any app or integrate a third-party tool.
2. Use an Advanced Page Builder App
When talking of fast-loading page speed, one of the most important things to consider is what tool you’re using to build your store pages. It has to be powerful not only in performance but also in terms of visual appeal.
GemPages — a highly trusted Shopify page builder app — can help you create store pages that won’t hinder your store speed. Instead, it’ll help you boost the page speed and performance.
GemPages helps you create store and landing pages that are responsive and optimized for all device types: desktop, mobile, and tablet.
Check out thousands of reviews of GemPages on platforms including Shopify App Store and Trustpilot. It’ll give you an overall idea about the experience of GemPages users.
3. Optimize Your Media Elements
As an eCommerce business owner, you know the importance of media elements such as images, videos, GIFs, animations, etc. They help you enhance the storytelling and highlight the product’s unique selling proposition (USP) and value proposition (VP).
However, you must optimize these media elements whenever used in your website’s content. Use web-friendly formats and compress them while maintaining a decent quality.
For example, use WebP format for images — it's a modern image format and helps you with "lossless and lossy" image compression that gives you quality with a fast loading speed.
If you have images in other formats such as PNG or JPEG, you can use a tool like CloudConvert to convert images from any format to WebP format.
Learn more: Shopify Image Optimization: 11 Easy Ways
For videos, embed YouTube videos instead of uploading video files in MP4 or other file formats. It will help your page to load faster.
4. Design Your Store with Speed in Mind
This might sound obvious but we’re talking about the specific aspects you should consider when designing your store.
If you’re planning to use a parallax scrolling design, be mindful of the design complexity. It can reduce your page load speed.
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System fonts:
We mentioned earlier that fonts could be one of the factors that can impact your site speed negatively. By using system fonts, you can avoid this as system fonts are available on most systems.
If you choose to go for stylish custom fonts or Google Fonts, the web browser may take time to download the fonts while displaying the content.
The hero or above-the-fold section of your website is one of the important sections to get visitors’ attention. Sometimes, brands try to overdo or complicate the hero section design. Using a single hero banner image instead of a slideshow can help you optimize your page load speed.
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Lazy Loading:
Consider using lazy loading (also known as on-demand loading) — it’s one of the many features available on GemPages. Here’s a short demo of the feature:
Basically, it commands the web browser to load only the necessary website content based on how the user is scrolling the web page. Thus, it helps enhance the page load speed as well as the user experience.
5. Use Google Tag Manager (GTM)
Google Tag Manager is a free tool that helps you trigger specific tracking codes in your website based on the defined rules.
That said, you must ensure that you’re following the best practices to leverage GTM in a way that helps enhance your site speed and not the other way around.
6. Use Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)
AMP was designed by Google to enhance page load speed and user experience. It lets you create pages that load faster without losing your creative and branding elements.
To implement AMP on your dropshipping store, you can either install a Shopify app or add custom code to your Shopify theme. Of course, installing the app is the easiest option.
Simply search “AMP” in the Shopify App Store and you’ll find many great options. You can compare and finalize one that best suits your budget and requirements.
Here are some of the recommended Shopify AMP apps:
- AMP ‑ Shop Sheriff AMP Pages: 5.0/5 Stars (527 Reviews)
- The AMP app: 4.7/5 Stars (414 Reviews)
- Fire AMP: 4.6/5 Stars (177 Reviews)
7. Monitor and Fix Redirects and Broken Links
Redirects are necessary in certain circumstances; however, if you don’t manage your redirects properly, it could negatively impact your store speed.
Similarly, broken links must also be fixed not just to improve the site speed but also for search engine optimization. You can use tools to identify areas of improvement and fix them.
Final Thoughts on Page Speed Optimization
Making a dropshipping business profitable sounds easier than it is.
You must implement various strategies for success in dropshipping business — from website design and branding to marketing.
But again, remember, site speed is not the only deciding factor of success. You need to keep a balance between visual aesthetics and load speed.
For dropshipping marketing strategies and best practices, check out more resources on our Blog — and join the GemPages Facebook community to network and learn from like-minded entrepreneurs and experts.
Not ready to commit but still want to kick the tires?
No problem! Get started with GemPages' free plan. Explore wonderful features that can do wonders for your store.
How to optimize page speed in Shopify?
Many aspects go into Shopify speed optimization. Here’s a quick summary of the key aspects: 1. Build a robust tech stack 2. Use a responsive & fast-loading page builder app 3. Optimize media elements 4. Use lazy loading and system fonts 5. Use Google Tag Manager (GTM) 6. Implement Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) 7. Monitor and fix redirects and broken links.
Why is my Shopify page slow?
Your Shopify page load speed could be slow due to multiple factors, including: 1. a slower Shopify theme 2. unnecessary apps installed on your store 3. complex or ineffective custom coding in the theme files, and 4. unoptimized images and videos in page content.
How can I make my landing page faster?
Here are some quick tips to make your landing page faster: 1. Use a reliable landing page builder like GemPages 2. Optimize images and videos used in the content 3. Use an AMP app like AMP ‑ Shop Sheriff AMP Pages.
How to test Shopify store speed?
There are two ways you can test your Shopify store’s speed: 1. Check your store speed through the Shopify Analytics: Go to Shopify admin > Analytics > Reports, and search for the ‘Web Performance’ report. 2. Test your store speed with PageSpeed Insights.
How do I make PageFly faster?
To make the page created through PageFly faster, optimize the media elements such as images and videos used in your store or landing page design. Alternatively, you can install GemPages to design fast-loading as well as high-converting store pages and landing pages.
