The Challenge
Project Overview
Armed American Supply is a Shopify Plus e-commerce store specializing in tactical and firearms accessories. They needed Core Web Vitals optimization to improve organic search rankings and deliver a faster shopping experience for their customers.
The Shopify Plus store had accumulated numerous apps and heavy theme customizations that degraded Core Web Vitals scores. LCP and INP were particularly problematic on the homepage, product, and collection pages, impacting both SEO performance and user experience on mobile and desktop.
The Goals
Goals & Objectives
The primary goal of this project was to improve Google's Core Web Vitals, site speed, and overall user experience and usability.
Our primary goals were to:
- Pass Core Web Vitals on CrUX real user data
- Improve LCP and INP scores on mobile and desktop
- Improve organic search rankings
The Solution
Our Approach
A systematic, step-by-step process tailored to Armed American Supply's needs.
- 1
CWV Audit
Comprehensive Core Web Vitals audit across all major page templates including homepage, product, and collection pages.
- 2
Theme Optimization
Optimized Liquid templates to reduce render-blocking resources and improve initial paint times.
- 3
App Script Management
Deferred and optimized third-party app script loading to reduce INP and improve interactivity.
- 4
Image & Media Optimization
Implemented proper sizing, next-gen formats, and lazy loading across all templates.
- 5
CWV Validation
Validated passing CWV scores using CrUX real user data over a 28-day period.
The Results
Outcomes
Core metrics that improved over the duration of the project.
- Passed Core Web Vitals Assessment. All key pages now pass Google's CWV assessment on both mobile and desktop using real CrUX data.
- 2.5s Mobile LCP. Largest Contentful Paint on mobile reduced from 2.8s to 2.5s, within the 'good' threshold.
- 0.01 Mobile CLS. Cumulative Layout Shift on mobile dropped from 0.07 to 0.01, virtually eliminating layout shifts.
Lessons
Key Takeaways
- Shopify Plus apps are often the biggest CWV bottleneck, optimizing script loading order made the largest impact on INP.
- Liquid template optimization delivers consistent improvements across all page types.
- CrUX real user data validation over 28 days confirms sustainable field improvements, beyond lab scores.
