The Store's Starting Position
The store had been running for 3 years with 12 installed apps (7 still active). They had a custom theme that hadn't been updated in 18 months. PageSpeed scores: Mobile 38 / Desktop 51. Load time: 6.8 seconds on mobile. Bounce rate: 74%. Monthly revenue: ~$18,000.
Audit Findings
Our technical audit revealed 5 major issues: (1) 4 uninstalled apps still had scripts loading on every page, (2) 23 unoptimized images above the fold averaging 450KB each, (3) Google Fonts loaded synchronously blocking render, (4) No lazy loading on any images, (5) jQuery loaded twice due to a theme conflict.
What We Did: Step by Step
Day 1: Full theme backup. Removed dead app code from 4 uninstalled apps. Day 1-2: Compressed and converted all product images to WebP. Implemented lazy loading across all image elements. Day 2-3: Fixed jQuery conflict, deferred all non-critical JavaScript. Added font-display: swap to Google Fonts. Day 3: Implemented conditional loading for app scripts. Final testing across 5 browsers and 3 devices.
The Results After 30 Days
Mobile PageSpeed: 38 → 91 (+53 points). Desktop PageSpeed: 51 → 94 (+43 points). Load time: 6.8s → 1.4s (-79%). Bounce rate: 74% → 51% (-23 points). Monthly revenue: $18,000 → $22,400 (+24.4%). The entire project took 68 hours of work over 3 days — with zero downtime.
Key Takeaways for Store Owners
The biggest wins came from removing dead app code and image optimization — both relatively simple changes. The compound effect of multiple optimizations working together is what pushed the score from 60 to 91. No single fix got them there; it was the systematic approach that made the difference.