Most "Shopify speed optimization" advice tells you to compress images and call it done. After working on 50+ Shopify storefronts, I can tell you images are rarely the problem. The real LCP killers are usually further down the stack — and you have to fix them in the right order, or you waste hours on changes that don't move the needle. Here's the exact triage order I follow. 1. Audit, don't guess Before touching anything, run the page through PageSpeed Insights AND WebPageTest. PSI gives you the Core Web Vitals number Google cares about. WebPageTest gives you a waterfall that tells you why . Look for these in the waterfall: Render-blocking scripts in the Large hero images without fetchpriority="high" Third-party scripts loaded synchronously (the usual suspects: chat widgets, review apps, analytics stacks) 2. App audit — the 80/20 of Shopify performance Open your theme's theme.liquid and search for every <script> tag injected by an app. Each one is a candidate for removal or deferral.…