StoreVitals

Sample Store
Speed, SEO & Conversion Audit

https://sample-store.example (anonymized real audit) · Shopify · June 9, 2026
Overall: 77/100 · Grade C

Executive summary

We audited Sample Store across 5 pages and 20 checkpoints covering speed, search visibility, and conversion trust signals. We found 2 critical issues, 3 warnings, and 3 further opportunities — alongside 12 checks the store already passes.

The five highest-impact fixes are listed in the action plan below. Most are theme-level changes a developer can complete in under a day total.

77
Overall
40
Speed
91
SEO
100
Conversion & Trust

Mobile experience (lab-measured)

Measured with Google Lighthouse on a simulated mid-range phone — the same methodology Google uses for ranking signals.

19.9s
Until main content visible (LCP) — good: <2.5s
0.03
Layout shift (CLS) — good: <0.10
999ms
Page frozen by scripts (TBT) — good: <200ms
8.9 MB
Total page weight

Priority action plan

Critical Speed & Performance

1. 1 oversized image on the homepage (largest: 1134 KB)

Example: 25Q2_BAU_Site_MenApparel-Tile_Desktop_2x3_a33afc6a-0d4a-4ff6 is 1134 KB and not served as WebP/AVIF. On a phone over LTE this single image can take seconds. Images are the #1 cause of slow store pages.

How to fix: Serve responsive sizes (srcset), compress to WebP/AVIF, and keep hero images under ~200 KB.

Critical Speed & Performance

2. Main content takes 19.9s to appear on mobile (homepage)

Largest Contentful Paint is 19.9s on a simulated mid-range phone — Google's "poor" threshold is 4.0s and its ranking systems use this number. Shoppers on phones are staring at an incomplete page for ~19.9 seconds.

How to fix: Compress/resize the hero image, preload it, and cut render-blocking scripts. This is usually the single highest-impact fix.

Warning Speed & Performance

3. Homepage HTML alone is 1004 KB

Heavy HTML usually means inlined app code or huge menus; it delays everything that comes after it.

How to fix: Audit installed apps and theme sections; remove what you no longer use.

Warning Speed & Performance

4. Page is frozen for 999ms of JavaScript execution (homepage)

Total Blocking Time measures how long taps/scrolls go unresponsive while scripts run — usually app scripts.

How to fix: Remove or defer heavy third-party scripts; load chat/review widgets after interaction.

Warning Search Visibility (SEO)

5. 59 of 91 homepage images missing alt text

Alt text is how Google Images indexes your products (a real discovery channel for e-commerce) and how screen-reader users shop your store.

How to fix: Add descriptive alt text to product and lifestyle images: "{product name} – {key attribute}".

All remaining findings

Opportunity Speed & Performance

Lighthouse opportunity: Reduce unused JavaScript

Estimated saving ≈ 1.9s on mobile (homepage).

Opportunity Speed & Performance

Lighthouse opportunity: Reduce initial server response time

Estimated saving ≈ 0.7s on mobile (homepage).

Opportunity Search Visibility (SEO)

3 H1 headings found (best practice: exactly one)

Multiple H1s dilute the topical signal of the page.

How to fix: Keep the hero headline as the only H1; demote the rest to H2.

What's already working

Pages sampled

homehttps://sample-store.example/
robotshttps://sample-store.example/robots.txt
sitemaphttps://sample-store.example/sitemap.xml
producthttps://sample-store.example/products/example-product
collectionhttps://sample-store.example/collections/mens