Apps are essential parts of a website, however, they also are the main reasons decreasing site speed. In this article, HappyPoints is going to help you to keep functional apps for your website but still protect site speed.
After establishing a store, works haven’t done yet. In order to create an appealing look and feasible management, apps are necessary. Shopify provides users with a wide range of function apps in the design and management process. With such great advantages, it still exists some certain considerable drawbacks when setting up such a large number of apps. In this article, we will point out apps which downgrade your website performance.
Shopify gives an extraordinary app ecosystem so you can add functional apps to your store. It is an incredible solution to upgrade your Shopify features and make the store you’ve desired for. There are a couple of drawbacks to using too many apps.
So by what means can apps possibly slow down your shop?
One of the main reasons that some apps can reduce your site speed is that they load outer assets from outside of the Shopify system.
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These assets normally are:
- Javascript – for adding dynamic functionality
- CSS – for adding custom styles
There is any chance that the server is not able to handle all of these outer assets, this will cause a negative effect on your user experience. In addition, Shopify apps can reduce site speed by using Javascript.
If an app is utilizing Javascript to add features to your Shopify store, this Javascript can possibly cause a delay before your store is accessible. It can also prevent other features on your Shopify store from loading. As a result, this can create an unqualified user experience with your store.
#1. Keep what giving results.
Installing a large number of apps to make your site look attractional seems to be an appealing idea. However, things are not that simple, apps require a significant resource of your website capacity. As a result, having unnecessary functional apps can lengthen website loading time which leads to high bounce rate.
Commonly store owners might think a slick new app will result in a significant number of new sales or make running a store so much easier. Thus, they install as many apps as possible. Even some deactivated apps still cost the server resource, they make the database burdensome, the server has to handle more queries, HTML, etc. As a result, web performance decreased. Since apps have a significant impact on site speed, it’s necessary to remove non-essential apps in order to speed up loading time.
To find out which one to remove, take a detailed look at statistics and ROI in GA and see how the apps affecting your sales. For example, your site has installed some apps support for the upsell and cross-sell. They can barely bring revenue. But, they also cost server a big resource to maintain apps, as a result, reducing site speed. It’s time for you to consider whether to keep it or not.
Some apps from the third party can provide features which can cause conflict to your Shopify themes, since they may include additional HTML or Javascript that can not adjust with the theme code. Terribly, you’ll have two types of code conflict to each other and you’ll end up with install another pile of apps to resolve the conflict. In this case, rather than relying on other 3rd party resources, you can look for some custom solution.
Consider the usefulness the apps add to your Shopify store and what business impact it may have on your store: Do you have to use these apps so as to meet target revenue? After that, keeping the needed. There are several apps don’t take a huge source of web capacity but still helpful for your Shopify store like Tracking code or Marketing tools, etc. On the other hand, some apps cost a huge space in your server and can delay the loading time. Therefore, thoroughly consider which one is necessary for your business.
The second important thing to do is expel spare code. As mentioned above, as a store owner, you might have downloaded a wide range of free apps or trials and run it on your site to see how they work. Well, but you did not use them all, after a while, you forgot about it or deactivate it. However, the apps which have been deactivated still are burdens with your site. There’s still stand a chance that the majority of CSS files still running on your background. These need to be eliminated to give space for another code. To get rid off these app codes, we recommend you ask for help from developers to help you with the technical stuff. Contact HappyPoints for help!
#2. Install qualified apps
Qualified apps are often used in the community. Besides, using these apps also prevent your server from technical errors which might lead to the downgrading server speed. Furthermore, the managing website process will be much easier. The web developer is able to forecast some certain problems can happen with the server while running these apps, including speed optimisation. Another drawback can be named is that the more unqualified apps install, the more opportunities for issues, the issues might affect further than site speed.
#3. How to choose qualified apps for your Shopify store
When it comes to choosing apps for your Shopify store, besides selecting the appropriate apps for business purposes such as increasing sales, conversion, traffic, etc. The impact of the apps on the server should also be emphasized, as well.
The easiest way to start is by choosing apps by their Shopify review. Searching for those that have high scores over a certain period of time. Both quality and quantity should be taken under account. In other words, the apps should satisfy the quality and quantity standard (e.g Apps should have 5 stars rating and a large number of users/reviewers in the meantime). Skimming the comment about site speed affection. Do not be tempted by the appealing instruction of the app and purchase it. Weigh the pros and cons of installing it on your website.
Secondly, experience by yourself and make a conclusion. Ideally, you should choose the app based on the using purpose, as well as, the features it can bring to your Shopify store. Make a list of apps that is really necessary for your business.Try to experience the features it offers. You will make the judgement by yourself whether it affects your site speed or not. However, we don’t recommend you to use this method. Not only it takes you a huge amount of time to test and try on the go, but also can cause lost revenue if your site has trouble or downgrade of the web performance. Normally, the site speed is not which you can measure with the naked eyes. It requires you to have fundamental knowledge technology and digital measurement tools, as well as, statistics in order to control the effect of the app codes on your web performance. If you’re not, well, you have dug yourself a grave.
The most optimized solution we want to recommend for you is hiring an expert or using speed optimize service, they will do the work for you. They have years of experience in website development, especially speed optimization. Definitely, they understand your website issues more than you do. Moreover, they can easily find the apps that are causing heavy on your server and suggest the best way to resolve the dilemma. They can also help you get rid of the old app codes, and suggest replacing the app that is burdening your website with superior solutions. Moreover, hiring an expert will save you a lot of time struggling with choosing an app to match your website capacity. HappyPoints with the FREE service speed optimization is happy to accompany you on the speedy journey.
#4. Upgrade to Shopify Plus
Upgrading to Shopify Plus isn’t a bad decision for businesses which can earn around $1-2 million in annual revenue. With this amount of money, it means that the site has a large number of visitors per day. The number of visitors won’t be a burden for the small and medium businesses. But, it’s a serious problem for those who have a remarkable number of traffic. More visitors means more queries, images, HTML, etc. request to load your site. And if your site speed hasn’t optimised, the number of revenue you can lose is considerable.
Many superior features, which have been created to support users in order to grow their businesses, have been included in Shopify Plus package. Especially, it has Shopify Flow which is an ecommerce automation platform that could streamline your manual task and save your time to grow business.
And how Flow can help you in saving your website capacity? You can create a workflow which is the most convenient for your store by using the available templates. Flow has integrated a lot of useful functions for users to manage their store without having to install additional apps like:
- Attach loyalty cards
- Cancel orders with high risks
- Mark high-risk orders before payment has been captured
The users no longer have to install a wide range of apps to manage some manual tasks. As a result, the server can have more space to run other codes which can reduce the burden.
It can’t deniable that apps create a lot of wonderful things for Shopify shop owners. It helps grow business and manage elements in an online store. Also, merchants can fill in the deficiency in website theme and function. However, the side effect of apps on web performance is considerable. It can cause conflict to store theme and burden the server. In this article, we have listed out the drawback of having too many apps and how to avoid that. Sincerely, we do not discourage you to not using apps which actually brings benefits to your store. HappyPoints are trying to clarify with you what can cause trouble for your store. Thus, you can weigh the pros and cons before installing any app to your site. Making a smart decision for your business!
Visit HappyPoints to request support on speed optimization and many other excellent services!
