No—if an app is actively used and essential to your store, we’ll keep it!

During our optimization process, we’ll:

1. Audit every app to identify its impact on your site’s speed.
2. Work with you to confirm which apps are no longer in use.
3. Strongly recommend uninstalling unused apps to eliminate performance-draining bloat.

Our goal? Keep what works, remove what doesn’t, and ensure your store stays fast without sacrificing functionality.

No—we optimize stores on any Shopify plan (Basic, Advanced, and Plus)—except headless commerce setups.

Why it works for non-Plus plans:

• Shopify’s core infrastructure (CDN, servers, theme architecture) is identical across all plans.
• Our optimizations target your theme, apps, and assets—not Shopify’s backend.

⚠️ Exception: Headless Shopify stores (e.g., Hydrogen, custom React frontends) require a different technical approach. If you are headless, contact us HERE for custom offer.

Pro Tip: You don’t need Plus to hit 90+ PSI scores. Even Basic stores can outperform Plus sites with our optimization approach!

We focus on achieving a 90+ mobile score on Google PageSpeed Insights (PSI) not because the score itself is the ultimate goal, but because it serves as a comprehensive indicator that key performance issues have been addressed.

🔍 Understanding the Role of PSI Scores

• The PSI performance score is derived from lab data—controlled tests that simulate user experiences using tools like Lighthouse.
• While this doesn't reflect real-world user behavior, it provides a consistent environment to identify and rectify performance bottlenecks such as unoptimized assets, render-blocking resources, and inefficient JavaScript execution.

📊 Complementing Field Data with Lab Insights

• Real User Monitoring (RUM) and Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) data offer invaluable insights into actual user experiences, capturing metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Interaction to Next Paint (INP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) over a 28-day period.
• However, these datasets have limitations, such as delayed reporting and coverage restricted to Chrome users. Lab data fills this gap by providing immediate feedback on potential issues that may not yet be evident in field data.
• By addressing these issues proactively, we can enhance the overall user experience, which in turn positively influences field metrics over time.

🚀 Strategic Optimization for Real-World Impact

• Achieving a high PSI score signifies that we've systematically improved various aspects of your website's performance. And even if your Core Web Vitals are currently passing, significant opportunities highlighted in lab results often point to areas where real-world performance can still be enhanced. In other words, improving lab-based PSI metrics can lead to better RUM/CrUX outcomes—resulting in faster experiences for more users, stronger engagement, and even higher search rankings.
• This proactive approach ensures that your site is not only optimized for current users but is also resilient to future performance challenges.

In summary, while RUM and CrUX data are critical for understanding real-world performance, the PSI score serves as a valuable tool for identifying and addressing potential issues before they impact users. Our focus isn't just on achieving a 90+ mobile PSI score once—it’s on consistently maintaining that level of performance over time.

This ensures that our clients' websites remain fast, efficient, and user-friendly, delivering an exceptional experience and staying fully optimized as technologies, browsers, and user expectations evolve.

Google PageSpeed Insights (PSI) scores fluctuate due to variables outside your control, like server load, traffic spikes, or third-party app activity. A single test is a snapshot, not the full story.

During evaluation of your Shopify store, we run 9 tests daily (3 in the morning, 3 in the afternoon, 3 in the evening) to:

1. Account for Shopify’s shared hosting environment: Server response times (TTFB) can vary based on platform-wide traffic.
2. Unmask third-party app drag: Apps like live chat, reviews, or upsell tools often inject code inconsistently.
3. Factor in global traffic patterns: Slowdowns from geo-specific CDNs (like Shopify’s) or payment gateways (e.g., Klarna, PayPal) won’t show in one test.

By averaging scores, we:

• Eliminate outliers (like a one-time app glitch).
• Pinpoint persistent issues (e.g., unoptimized theme code or oversized images).
• Align with Core Web Vitals’ 75th percentile rule, which Google uses for rankings.

This method ensures your optimization targets real-world performance—not lab-perfect conditions.

No—page builders like GemPages, Zipify, or Replo make meaningful optimization nearly impossible. Here’s why:

Page builders host content on third-party servers and inject code outside Shopify’s native environment. This means:

• 🚫 Zero control over critical resources: Images, scripts, and styling are loaded from the page builder’s server. We can’t optimize file sizes, lazy-load elements, or leverage proper caching.
• 🚫 Third-party server bottlenecks: Speed hinges on their server response times (TTFB), not yours or Shopify’s. If their servers lag, your page lags—and we can’t fix that.
• 🚫 Unavoidable code bloat: Page builders add layers of bulky scripts/CSS to enable drag-and-drop features. Removing this bloat would break your pages entirely.

Example: A GemPages landing page might load 12 external scripts from their servers. Even if we optimize your theme, those scripts still add 4+ seconds to load time.

In short: Page builders prioritize design flexibility over speed, and their technical setup blocks our ability to deliver results.

Heatmaps and A/B testing tools (like Hotjar, Optimizely, or Lucky Orange) add third-party scripts that can slow down your Shopify store in 3 key ways:

1. 🐌 Extra HTTP Requests: Each tool injects external scripts, forcing browsers to fetch more files. For example, Hotjar adds ~150KB of JavaScript—delaying page rendering.
2. ⏳ Render-Blocking Code: Many tools load scripts before your page content, pushing back Core Web Vitals metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP).
3. 🎯 Uncached Resources: Scripts hosted on third-party servers (e.g., VWO’s servers) can’t leverage Shopify’s CDN, leading to slower load times for international visitors.

The good news? These tools are typically used short-term for testing. 

Once testing ends, we remove unused scripts, optimize remaining ones (deferring, lazy-loading), and clean up residual code bloat.

Pro Tip: Always audit and uninstall testing tools after A/B test campaigns—lingering scripts are silent speed killers.

Yes—tracking key metrics is critical to proving the ROI of speed optimization. Here’s what we monitor and why:

🚀 Core Metrics:

1. Bounce Rate (Did faster pages keep visitors engaged?)
2. Conversion Rate (Did speed gains turn more browsers into buyers?)
3. Core Web Vitals (LCP, FID, CLS – Google’s official speed benchmarks).
4. Mobile vs. Desktop Performance (Speed impacts these audiences differently).
5. Revenue per Session (The ultimate bottom-line metric).

📈 Why We Need Access:

• Google Analytics 4 (GA4): To analyze traffic behavior pre- and post-optimization.
• Google Search Console: To identify technical SEO fixes (e.g., mobile usability errors, indexing issues) that align with speed improvements.

📅 What kind of reports we generate:

1. Initial Report: We’ll document your current metrics before touching your store.
2. Custom Updates: Depending on your subscription package we'll share progress on speed gains and their correlation to improved KPIs.
3. Monthly Report: Highlight wins like “40% drop in bounce rate on mobile” or “22% higher conversions from returning visitors.”

Example: After optimizing a client’s Shopify store, we tied a 0.8-second LCP improvement to a 17% revenue increase in their GA4 data—proving speed’s direct impact on sales.

🔒 Your Privacy, Our Priority: Analytics access is used solely for performance tracking and insights. No data is used beyond that scope, and all access remains transparent and purpose-driven.

Speed optimization isn’t a “one-and-done” fix—it’s an ongoing battle against app bloat, code updates, and human error. That's why we carefully structured our plans to protect your store’s performance over time.

🚀 One-Time Optimization

• Guaranteed average 90+ Mobile PSI score post-launch.
• Best for static stores that won’t add apps or change content.
• ⚠️ Warning: Speed gains degrade fast (e.g., new apps/images undo optimizations).

🛡️ Ongoing Maintenance

• Choose your Monthly, Weekly or Daily (hourly) plan:
• Ideal for growing stores: Locks in speed gains, neutralizes new threats (apps, code edits).

Why most clients choose Ongoing:
Shopify stores evolve—your speed shouldn’t regress.

Fact: 79% of active stores lose speed benefits within the first month without maintenance.

Not sure which plan fits?
➡️ 87% of stores with 250k+ monthly visitors choose Daily/24/7 to safeguard revenue.

Still unsure? Book your call HERE for a free discovery call.