Slow WooCommerce Site? 3 Myths About Speeding Up Your Site
October 2023
A slow WooCommerce site will hurt your sales. Sluggish loading speeds can reduce your revenue by as much as 40%, if not more.
Your customers lose. You lose.
What's worse is that many of the common remedies work only for so long. The most common advice consists of something like:
- use a CDN,
- install Plugin X or Plugin Y,
- and get better hosting.
You follow the advice. But still, your site is too slow.
Now, these do have their place. You can achieve better performance with these solutions, even if it's only temporary. The trouble is, behind these apparent savior angels lurks a monster. And this monster bites.
To understand how this creature slows down your site, we first have to build a basic understanding of why your site is slow. Here are three myths you must dispel to get to the root cause of your problems.
Myth #1 - "Plugin Z can fix most of these issues."
This myth is the most common one, and it's easy to fall for it. If everybody is doing it, it must work. Right?
Trying to fix speed issues with a plugin is like locking a tiger up in a wooden shed. It's just a matter of time till it gets out again.
In reality, several variables affect your site's speed. Every WooCommerce store is slightly different. Usually, there's a quirk or a unique challenge the plugin cannot resolve. Your site's situation may be an edge case. So the plugin cannot help you. Plugins exist to deal with the most common scenarios, not specifically for your site.
Myth #2 - "Just minify all the JavaScript."
Minifying scripts is an important step. This step doesn't solve all the problems, though. Scripts with inefficient code can still drag your site down. When you minify such a script, it still kills your load time. (Many scripts ship in the minified form already, anyway.)
Now it gets tricky. For inefficient JavaScript, there is no single solution. The only way to discover what's slowing down your site is to analyze your specific stack. You must look at the scripts and see how they affect your site. Hint: you probably don't need all of those scripts.
There could also be challenges with the overall plugin setup. In this case, your server will be slow when sending out data. This problem usually happens when you have plugins that have only one feature you need. You don't want the other features, but you have no way of only running what you need.
Myth #3 - "It's normal to have to speed up your site."
Your site should not be slow in the first place. When you buy a car, you don't say, "Yeah, it goes 5 miles per hour now, but I'll have it sped up later." You want it to work up front.
The truth is most of the technology available to the average business owner allows them to build the site fast - not for the site to run fast. Also, developers often have to rush the process because of budget constraints.
If your site is small and you don't rely on your business for income, this won't affect you as much. However, if you have employees, mouths to feed, and the taxman at your door, you can't deal with site speed the same way the average business does.
You don't want your site to go down or kill your sales during your busiest period. If you lose 10% of your revenue, how does that affect your profit?
For large sites, the real monster is structural weaknesses. The weaknesses started to build up during your site's development stage. Simply put, your site being slow was inevitable because speed wasn't part of the plan.
So, rather than slapping plugins on, like band-aids, it's better to trace back to the core issues. You want to deal with the root causes. Give your site a chance to run faster. Your revenue may depend on it.
Here's what to do next. Click here to get in touch. Fill out the form and share what you have already tried.
Shortly after, you will receive an email to book a time when you can speak. Once we connect, you will get an overview of what's happening to your site. You will then get a set of steps to improve the situation. There's no obligation on your part. This meeting is free. Get in touch now!
All the best,
Jean Paul (Lead developer)
WPGem.com