(Updated in May 2024)
Site speed is a critical factor in search engine optimization (SEO) and conversion rates. A fast-loading eCommerce store provides a better shopping experience, encourages visitors to stay longer, and ultimately leads to more sales.
At Boost, we understand the importance of website speed and are constantly working to improve our app to help your Shopify page speed get a higher score on Google PageSpeed Insights.
As the No.1 search engine, Google serves not only browsers but also website owners. It has developed a bunch of free tools for site builders to monitor and improve their websites so they can rank top on the search result page (SERP).
While Google Analytics provides a more detailed look into website traffic, the Google PageSpeed Insights tool addresses another critical factor in search engine optimization (SEO) - website speed.
“PageSpeed Insights (PSI) reports on the performance of a page on both mobile and desktop devices, and provides suggestions on how that page may be improved.”
PSI uses a scoring system from 0 to 100 to evaluate your Shopify page speed. The higher the score, the faster.
A score of 90 or above is considered good. A score between 50 and 90 needs improvement, and below 50 is considered poor.
One common misunderstanding about PSI is that it is often mistaken with load time. In fact, load time is a component of the PSI performance score.
This score is determined by running Google.
🤓 Textbook definition (you can skip it): A PSI score consists of 6 components:
Countries around the world are pushing to implement 5G mobile networks. This reflects the race for speed in cyberspace.
Online users want things to load faster and faster.
Hubspot reveals that 64% of mobile users expect pages to load in 4 seconds or less while regarding desktop browsers, 47% want a webpage to load in less than 2 seconds.
Google also takes processing time into account when it comes to ranking on SERP.
E-shoppers are demanding. Dissatisfaction with a website's performance makes up to 79% of customers less likely to give the same site a second chance. 1-second delay can cause a 7% reduction in conversion.
According to research done by Google, an increase in page load time can impair bounce rate to a great extent.
A good PSI score (90 or above) is crucial for several reasons:
Boost is dedicated to continuously improving your Shopify store's performance and Google PageSpeed Insights (PSI) score. This is where Boost TURBO, the latest version of our Frontend Library (Fe Lib), comes in.
It's a game-changer designed to significantly enhance your storefront's loading speed and deliver a lightning-fast experience for your customers.
TURBO operates behind the scenes to make your online store stand out and load within seconds. Its secret sauce lies in a special technique called "server-side rendering" (SSR).
This allows for faster initial page loads and a smoother overall user experience.
Our tests across various stores, ranging from small to large, showcase significant mobile page speed improvements compared to previous versions.
TURBO's pagespeed insight on Mobile
What about desktop? We've tested stores of all sizes, and TURBO consistently delivers impressive results across the board.
TURBO's pagespeed insight on Desktop
With TURBO, you can rest assured that your customers will enjoy a lightning-fast shopping experience, regardless of the device they use.
👉 Check out our detailed introduction to Boost TURBO and its advancement to help you boost your storefront performance.
Take TURBO for a spin and see your Shopify store climb the Google PageSpeed Insights rankings, leading to better visibility and organic traffic.
What’s more? Your storefront itself will load much faster, saving you time and money in turning that traffic into potential sales.
In case you have no idea what JavaScript and CSS are and what we do with them, here is a short explanation.
“JavaScript is a logic-based programming language to modify website content and make it behave in different ways in response to a user's actions.”
Hubspot
Boost AI Search & Discovery uses JavaScript for our filter and search functions, so whenever you interact with the filter tree or perform a search on the search box, the website will return the correct results.
CSS or Cascading Style Sheets is also a programming language, but it works more on how elements of a website should look on the frontend of the page.
“CSS helps to style this content so it appears to the user the way it was intended to be seen.”
Hubspot
We can change the appearance of the filter tree, styling the search box thanks to CSS script.
To optimize those things, we split script files into three smaller folders for both JavaScript and CSS:
By doing so, your website will only load the folder it needs for a particular user’s behavior. Also, many separate files can be loaded at once to reduce processing time.
We’ve also improved metrics by simplifying JavaScript, including the Total Blocking Time, Speed Index, and Time To Interactive.
We’ve improved metrics by simplifying CSS, including First Content Paint and more.
In addition to restructuring script folders, we also eliminate redundant files to make your website’s file size around 30% more compact. The code is simpler, meaning you have a faster script execution time.
Moreover, we've reduced the HTML complexity of the filter tree while still keeping the same look and functionality. This helps to accelerate the rendering time of the filter tree after each filter engagement.
Before releasing the upgraded frontend library, we carried out an experiment to see if our time and effort would pay off.
We tested on several popular Shopify themes, including Debut, Turbo, Warehouse, and Prestige in both development stores and customers' stores (with their permission). The result was very positive.
The overall score on both desktop and mobile increased significantly. The highest score difference was up to 20 points on Google PageSpeed.
It’s important to note that the page speed can be affected by many factors other than our app. However, we are and we will keep doing our best to help your site run as fast as possible. That's what we can promise you.
Stay tuned for other good news from Boost and connect with us via Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to get the latest updates in eCommerce.
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