Eliminate Render-Blocking
Resources in Shopify
Table of Contents
Render-blocking resources are a common culprit behind slow Shopify store load times. These resources, like large CSS and JavaScript files, prevent your website from being fully displayed until they’re loaded. Research shows that even a 5.7-second delay in page-load time can bring your conversion rate to 0.6%!
Google uses Core Web Vitals (CWV) — a set of metrics — to measure the user experience of your website. The problem is, CWV insists on fast loading times if you want a chance at higher Google rankings. Luckily, tools like PageSpeed Insights can help you identify and eliminate render-blocking resources on your Shopify store.
In this guide, we’ll tell you how to do exactly that!
What Are Render-Blocking Resources?
Render-blocking resources are files that delay the initial rendering of a webpage. These resources, including CSS and JavaScript files, prevent the browser from displaying content until they’re fully loaded. This can affect your store’s performance, especially on slower connections.
CSS files, in particular, play a huge role in styling a webpage. However, if they’re placed above the fold content, the browser must download and parse them before rendering any visible content.
Similarly, JavaScript files, especially those placed in the <head> section, can block rendering until they’re executed. Fonts can also delay rendering if unoptimized or loaded asynchronously.
These resources can lengthen the critical rendering path — the specific steps a browser takes to render visible content. A longer critical rendering path means longer load time, which could potentially drive away customers.
How Render-Blocking Resources Impact Shopify
Render-blocking resources are no good for your Shopify store! Slower load times can frustrate visitors, leading to higher bounce rates and lower conversion rates. Research has found that a 10-second delay can cause impatience, frustration, and feelings of abandonment in users.
Poor performance metrics can also negatively affect your store’s ranking on Google search results. CWV heavily relies on page load speed, stating that the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) should be faster than 2.5 seconds for a good user experience.
Shopify themes and apps, while powerful tools for customizing your store, can sometimes introduce unnecessary render-blocking resources. These resources can range from large JavaScript files to poorly optimized fonts. If left unaddressed, they can significantly slow down your store’s performance.
Why Eliminating Render-Blocking Resources Improves Performance
Reducing the file size and getting rid of render-blocking resources will speed up your Shopify store’s loading time. This improves your store’s Core Web Vitals, which can boost your SEO rankings and drive even more organic traffic. Here’s what you need to know about render-blocking resources’ impact on your store’s performance.
Connection to Core Web Vitals and PageSpeed Insights
The First Contentful Paint (FCP) and LCP are two CWV metrics that directly relate to render-blocking resources. FCP measures the time it takes for your browser to display the first piece of content on the page, while LCP measures the time it takes for the biggest content element to become visible. Render-blocking resources can affect both of these metrics.
PageSpeed Insights can help you identify and assess render-blocking resources on your Shopify store. It’ll analyze your website’s performance and give you specific recommendations to improve your CWV scores. Here are some tips for using PageSpeed Insights:
- Look for resources that are blocking the rendering of critical content above the fold.
- Reduce the size of any CSS and JavaScript files using minification and compression.
- Configure your server to cache static resources — it’ll reduce the need for repeated downloads.
- Deliver only the CSS necessary for rendering the initial page content.
- Delay the loading of JavaScript files that aren’t essential for the initial page load.
How Load Time Affects User Behavior
Load time significantly influences user behavior on your Shopify store. A Web.dev study on Vodafone found that the company sped up its website’s performance with A/B testing. A 31% improvement in LCP led to:
- 8% increase in total sales
- 15% uplift in the lead-to-visit rate
- 11% uplift in the cart-to-visit rate
It’s clear that fast load speeds are a higher priority for customers. A slow-loading website can frustrate users and cause them to abandon their shopping carts. Mobile users, in particular, are less tolerant of slow load times, as they often have limited data plans and slower connection speeds.
Steps to Eliminate Render-Blocking Resources in Shopify
Here’s a practical guide to reducing render-blocking resources.
Minimize and Defer JavaScript
JavaScript files can increase your store’s load time. To minimize their impact, you can identify and remove any unnecessary scripts. You may use the async and defer attributes to load scripts efficiently:
The async attribute tells your browser to download the script asynchronously without blocking the page’s rendering. Once downloaded, the script will execute as soon as possible but won’t block other resources.
The defer attribute tells your browser to download the script asynchronously but to delay its execution until the HTML parsing is complete. This way, the script won’t block the page’s rendering.
Optimize CSS Delivery
Similar to JavaScript, CSS files can also slow down your store’s load time. Here’s how you can optimize their delivery:
- Remove unimportant characters, such as whitespace and comments, to reduce the total size of your CSS files.
- Inline the CSS that’s essential for rendering the initial page content directly into the HTML <head> section. This will cut down the amount of HTTP requests and improve the initial page load time.
- Defer the loading of CSS styles that aren’t immediately needed, such as styles for elements below the fold.
Use Shopify-Specific Apps for Optimization
Shopify has several apps designed to optimize your store’s performance and reduce render-blocking resources. For instance, PageSpeed Insights integrates directly with your Shopify store, providing detailed performance reports and recommendations.
Meanwhile, the Velocity App can optimize your store’s speed and performance by minifying CSS and JavaScript files. It can also defer non-critical JavaScript and optimize large images. Lastly, Boost Speed has tons of features like minification, compression, and lazy loading.
Tools and Techniques to Diagnose Render-Blocking Issues
There are many tools and techniques to help you identify and address render-blocking issues. A great example is Chrome DevTools, which allows you to inspect your website’s performance, network activity, and rendering process. One look at the network tab will tell you about all the large resources, slow load times, and render-blocking requests.
Chrome DevTools also allows you to analyze the critical rendering path (CRP), a sequence of steps the browser takes to render a page’s initial content. This way, you can pinpoint specific resources that are delaying the rendering process. Look for long resource load times, especially for CSS and JavaScript files.
Using PageSpeed Insights
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to use PageSpeed Insights:
- Go to the PageSpeed Insights website.
- Input the URL of the specific page that you want to analyze on your Shopify store.
- Click the “Analyze” button.
- PageSpeed Insights will provide a performance score for your page, ranging from 0 to 100. The higher, the better.
- Look for specific recommendations related to render-blocking resources, such as:
- Eliminate render-blocking resources
- Reduce JavaScript, CSS, and HTML size
- Leverage browser caching
- Click on each recommendation to get more detailed information and actionable advice.
- Follow the advice, such as minifying CSS and JavaScript, deferring non-critical JavaScript, and leveraging browser caching.
Shopify-Specific Strategies
When it comes to optimizing Shopify stores, there are a few specific strategies you can use to address render-blocking resources:
- Theme optimization: Don’t customize your Shopify store too much, as it can introduce additional JavaScript files. More importantly, go for a theme that’s well-coded and optimized for performance. You may even find a theme specifically designed for speed and optimization.
- App optimization: Reduce the number of apps installed on your store — each app can introduce even more JavaScript and CSS files. Stick to apps known for their performance and minimal impact on load times. These apps should be configured correctly and not cause any unnecessary performance overhead.
- Image optimization: Reduce the total size of images without compromising quality. You can also defer loading images that aren’t visible on the page at first glance. Either way, make sure to pick the right format for each image (e.g., JPEG for photographs, PNG for graphics).
Long-Term Benefits of Eliminating Render-Blocking Resources
Just by getting rid of render-blocking resources, you can reap long-term benefits for your Shopify store:
- Better performance scores and search engine rankings, since Google’s CWV focuses heavily on page load speed.
- Higher conversion rates and better user experience, since visitors don’t like to wait more than a few seconds for pages to load.
- Positive impact on your Shopify store’s revenue and performance, thanks to the drop in bounce rates.
Monitoring Your Shopify Store’s Performance
We recommend checking PSI daily to track any improvement in your website’s performance, especially after you’ve made any changes. This way, you can identify quick wins and areas needing further attention.
On a weekly basis, you can conduct a more thorough review to analyze trends over time. Since field data updates are collected daily but reflect a trailing 30-day period, you should start to see improvements about a week after optimization.
Lastly, don’t forget to perform a complete analysis every month. This will let you assess long-term performance trends and the effectiveness of your changes. CWV metrics are especially important here as they reflect user experience over time.
Conclusion: Optimizing Shopify for Speed and Performance
Not only are slow-loading Shopify stores frustrating for visitors, but they’re also bad for business. If you make $100,000 a day, a one-second delay can cost you up to $2.5 million a year! Don’t worry; achieving a faster, smoother Shopify store experience is entirely possible.
Let the BLiNK ViTALS team unlock the full potential of your store’s speed and performance today. A speedy website means a happy customer — and a happy customer is a converting customer.
Contact us today to start eliminating those render-blocking resources!
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