To set up & run a Shopify store, speed is very important in the context of user experience and overall performance. Slow pages cause more bounces, less page views, and fewer sales all of which means Google ranks you lower. Liquid, which is the templating language Shopify uses is one of the foundations that affect how well and fast a Shopify store will work.
Keep reading, we will outline how Liquid code impedes page load time, and what you should do to optimize it in your store so that everything runs as fast as possible.
What is Liquid Code in Shopify?
Liquid,on the other hand,is a template language created by Shopify which developers are utilized for loading content on real shops! The Shopify API is the process that runs in the background and interacts with shopify back end to pull data from your store like product information, collections,customer details etc..and then all this data is displayed on the front end.
Liquid is used in many different aspects i.e: making themes, product pages, collection pages, navigation and so on. Liquid is powerful, but due to inefficient usage, can slow down load times and effectively the overall speed of your Shopify store. So, to improve the performance it is important to know how Liquid works and some optimization in the code.
How Liquid Code Affects Page Load Times
Server-Side Rendering
Liquid is a server-side processing language and Shopify’s servers interpret the Liquid code to deliver the final HTML to your browser. This contributes to the page load time because if the Liquid code is complex and requires dozens of queries to the Shopify database, then it will be increased by this process.
Multiple Loops and Data Requests
An example of such a data processing done with liquid is Loops, conditionals, and filters. A loop counting every product for a shop or every variant of a product can also be complex and slow down the page to load. As was said, written Liquid repeated queries in Shopify database takes time – each query needs to be processed.
Complex Logic
Developers can use complex logic implemented through Liquid to create highly customizable pages — but the complexity of this logic can be a double-edged sword, causing some performance pitfalls.
If you are using something like nested loops, conditionals or filters in your transformations this can lead to a bloated code and slower processing. If not done carefully, it can cause rendering of the HTML to be delayed for that page.
Shopify Limitations
Liquid code is flexible, although Shopify limits how we can use the code out of security measures. For example, Liquid doesn’t have support for async operations of JavaScript.
That is, whenever a page is requested for loading all the Liquid code has to be run completely before we can generate and serve the page, which might make this possibly slower when using Liquid.
Best Practices for Optimizing Liquid Code
To ensure that Liquid code does not slow down your Shopify store, follow these best practices:
1. Minimize Loops
Try to minimize loops, especially in `for` and do not use loops for huge collections or datasets unnecessarily. In this case, if you are going to display only 5 products in ascending order of best sellers, make sure to limit the loop for five iterations as shown below using the `limit:5` filter. Skip iteration 100 over products, variants or collections.
{% for product in collections.all.products limit: 5 %}
{{ product.title }}
{% endfor %}
2. Use Caching with `render` and `section` Tags
Shopify allows the use of `render` and `section` tags to embed reusable code across pages. This can also help you improve maintainability and reduce redundant processing by breaking down your Liquid code into smaller, reusable components. Also, these snippets can be cached saving our application from recalculating the same data multiple times.
3. Leverage `limit`, `offset`, and `paginate`
If your store has a large number of products or customers, make sure to use the `limit`, `offset`, and `paginate` options to control how much data is retrieved at a time. So, if you have asked to display products on multiple pages, instead of pulling loads of data at once use `paginate` to chunk the data and make it consumable.
{% paginate collection.products by 12 %}
{% for product in collection.products %}
{{ product.title }}
{% endfor %}
{% endpaginate %}4. Use Lazy Loading for Images
One very notable thing about Shopify is that it lets you defer loading images, as convenient a feature as lazy loading options that stores and websites are equipped with. This decreases the loading time in the first place by only loading images if they are in the visible portion, not every image at once. Especially for shops with a lot of product images this is an incredibly valuable technique.
<img src="{{ product.featured_image | img_url: 'large' }}" loading="lazy" alt="{{ product.title }}">5. Avoid Excessive API Calls
Be cautious about Liquid code that regularly retrieves data from Shopify’s database. As an example, never query data in loops, otherwise parts of your template will make multiple database requests per page load. Fetch data only one time and save it to a variable which can be used on the page wherever it is required.
{% assign products = collections.frontpage.products %}6. Use the `defer` and `async` Attributes for Scripts
While this applies more to JavaScript than Liquid, combining optimized Liquid with smart script handling can enhance performance. By adding the `defer` or `async` attributes to scripts, you can prevent them from blocking the initial page rendering.
<script src="example.js" defer></script>7. Optimize Conditional Statements
Liquid conditionals (`if`, `else`) allow developers to control what content is displayed. However, complex and nested conditionals can slow down performance. Simplify conditionals wherever possible, and avoid nesting too many layers deep.
{% if product.available and product.price > 100 %}
{{ product.title }} is available and priced over 100.
{% endif %}8. Preload Critical Assets
Preloading assets such as fonts, key images, or essential scripts can help improve the perceived performance of your Shopify store by allowing the browser to load critical resources sooner.
<link rel="preload" href="{{ 'theme.css' | asset_url }}" as="style">Monitoring and Measuring Liquid Code Performance
Even with best practices, it’s important to monitor how your Liquid code impacts performance. Shopify provides built-in tools to analyze page speed, including the Shopify Analyzer tool and Google’s PageSpeed Insights.
Use the Shopify Theme Inspector (essential for all of you that use Liquid templates) This shows you where in your code there are delays that need to be optimized.
Google PageSpeed Insights (Another crucial free tool that provides real-time performance advice along with actionable insights on your store speed. It can focus on areas such as image optimization, dialing back render-blocking resources, or time to first byte (TTFB).
Conclusion
Liquid is important for your Shopify store and optimizing it can give a real performance boost to your pages. Since your store is now fire-walled with some of the best SEO and performance strategies like loop minimizing, variation of caching strategy, conditional optimization (finding out where you need to split or cache), lazy load image (Smartest images to upload) will give your store a blazing fast experience to your visitor/future customer.
So monitoring this regularly and updating it as needed will ensure that your store remains in full working order, topping up your customer satisfaction levels (which have an impact on your SEO ranking) along the way.
By mastering Liquid code optimization, you can unlock the full potential of your Shopify store’s performance!
