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Understanding Pagespeed Score

Performance is a complex yet critical topic—and a common source of confusion for merchants. This guide addresses shared concerns and provides actionable, realistic advice to improve your store’s performance—without chasing misleading scores.

📊 Measuring Your Store Performance​

Many tools exist (e.g., PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse), but we recommend using Shopify’s built-in performance score (powered by Lighthouse and adapted for e-commerce).
📘 Learn more in Shopify’s official performance documentation.

❓ Is Performance Important?​

Yes—but context matters.

  • ✅ Good performance improves SEO and reduces bounce rates.
  • ⚠️ But: A high Pagespeed score ≠ business success.
  • E-commerce stores require rich media, apps, and dynamic features—unlike simple blogs. These inherently impact scores.

🎯 Key insight: If an app or feature boosts sales but lowers your score by 10–15 points, it’s often worth it. Prioritize user experience and conversion over perfect scores.

🧩 How Does the Theme Impact Performance?​

All Scenario themes are performance-optimized:

  • Minimal, efficient JavaScript and CSS
  • Smart image loading (e.g., LCP-aware lazy loading)
  • Zero layout shifts (CLS-optimized by default)

✅ Trust us: We’ve spent hundreds of hours optimizing code. The theme is rarely the bottleneck.
If your store is slow, the cause is almost always apps, media, or third-party scripts—not the theme.

🆚 “But the Free Theme Is Faster!”​

It’s true that Dawn (Shopify’s free theme) may score slightly higher—but it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison:

FeatureDawn (Free)Scenario (Premium)
Sections~10 basic sections50+ advanced sections
MediaBasic image supportVideo, 3D models, galleries, carousels
UXMinimal interactivityRich interactions, quick-buy, sticky elements

💡 Trade-off: Advanced features = slightly lower scores. But if they increase conversions, the trade-off is justified.

🎯 What’s a “Good” Performance Score?​

Forget “100.” For real-world e-commerce stores, here’s a realistic benchmark:

Score RangeInterpretation
70+Excellent. Faster than 99% of websites. No action needed.
45–70Good. Functional for most users. Optimize only if you have bandwidth.
25–45Acceptable, but may feel slow on mobile or 3G. Consider light cleanup.
< 25Poor. Likely hurting SEO and conversions. Take action.

📌 Goal: Aim for ≥50. Anything above 70 is exceptional for a feature-rich store.

⚠️ Beware of “90+ Score” Promises​

Avoid “performance apps” or freelancers (e.g., on Fiverr) promising 90+ scores for $50. These often:

  • Break core functionality (cart, checkout, analytics)
  • Hide content from Google (via delayed rendering)
  • Disable essential scripts (payment, tracking, personalization)

🛑 Result: Higher scores—but lower sales, broken tracking, and lost data. Not worth the risk.

🌐 Understanding Core Web Vitals​

Google’s Core Web Vitals directly impact your Pagespeed score. Here’s how Scenario handles them—and what you can do:

📏 CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)​

  • What it is: Unexpected layout shifts (e.g., images jumping after load).
  • Scenario status: Optimized by default (no CLS from theme).
  • Your action:
    • Avoid apps that inject content after load
    • Use width/height on images
    • Prefer system fonts over custom web fonts (or use font-display: swap)

🖼️ LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)​

  • What it is: Time to load the main visual element (e.g., hero image, product photo).
  • Scenario status: Smart preloading for likely LCP elements.
  • Your action:
    • Place slideshow or text hero as the first section on homepage
    • Compress images (use WEBP, max 2560px wide)
    • Avoid huge hero videos on slow connections

⚡ FID / INP (Interaction Metrics)​

  • FID (First Input Delay) is being replaced by INP (Interaction to Next Paint) in 2024.
  • Measures responsiveness to clicks, taps, and scrolls.
  • Scenario status: Lightweight, deferred JavaScript.
  • Your action:
    • Remove unused apps (biggest cause of poor INP)
    • Limit heavy sections (e.g., only 1 slideshow per page)
    • Avoid “mega-menus” with 100+ links

🛠️ What Can You Actually Do?​

Focus on high-impact, low-effort wins:

  1. Audit apps: Remove any unused or redundant apps.
  2. Optimize images: Convert to WEBP, compress, and use proper dimensions.
  3. Limit sections: Keep pages under 15 sections (see Best Practices for Using Sections).
  4. Avoid custom code: Unless absolutely necessary—every script adds weight.
  5. Test on real devices: Use Chrome DevTools > Lighthouse on mobile 3G throttling.

🔗 Next step: See our full guide: Improving Store Performance.

💡 Final Thought:
Don’t optimize for robots—optimize for humans.
A store that loads in 2.5 seconds with great UX will always outperform a “100-score” store that feels empty and lifeless.