This past week we've been doing some spring cleaning (yes, I know it's autumn now..)
A big part of that is going through things we are using and giving them away.
It takes much more effort to get rid of something than it did to buy it, but afterwards it feels nice to reclaim the space.
Shopify's App Store makes it super easy to install apps. It's easy enough that there's a running joke about how Shopify apps are like Pokémon ("gotta catch them all").
Apps are one of the great parts about Shopify. Many can serve a vital role in your store and others turn a hard job into something easy.
The problem is when they start to clutter up your storefront, especially after you've demoed a few of them.
It's just like walking into a house where every square inch is covered with clutter.
Some apps will leave code around, some will break parts of your store when they are removed, and some are like that pestering sister-in-law who you just can't get rid of no matter how many times you move...
This month is a good time to do a bit of spring-cleaning in your storefront, before the busy season starts.
Take backups before you start like always, and then go through your theme and clean up any old app code you have lying around.
Your customers will thank you later for having better site performance in your Shopify store. And by thank you, I mean in the form of sales and orders.
Just be careful when you remove code. Some apps like JSON-LD for SEO leave their code around after uninstalling on purpose. Otherwise you could lose all your Rich Results when the code is removed like I've seen with competitors.
If you aren't confident with removing the code, it might be worth the investment hiring someone to do a review and cleanup of your store. That could even be a quarterly "Shopify theme deep-clean" now that I think of it...
Eric Davis