PrestaShop SEO audit: the issues built into PrestaShop — and how to fix them

Reduce Interaction to Next Paint (INP) to under 200 ms by breaking up long JavaScript tasks, deferring non-critical third-party scripts, and lightening event handlers so the page feels fast and responsive after every tap or click.

1. 1Go to Back Office → Advanced Parameters → Performance. Enable 'Compress, minify and cache JavaScript' and 'Combine JavaScript files'.
2. 2In Modules → Module Manager, disable or uninstall any front-end module (chat, slider, pop-up) that you are not actively using — each adds JavaScript weight.
3. 3In Back Office → Design → Theme & Logo → Advanced Customisation, identify custom JS files added to the theme. Open them and refactor heavy event handlers to defer work using `setTimeout`.
4. 4Use PageSpeed Insights to identify which specific interactions are slow, then target those handlers in the theme's JavaScript.

Reduce Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) to under 2.5 seconds by serving the hero image in a next-gen format (WebP/AVIF), preloading it, and eliminating render-blocking resources.

1. 1Convert your hero/slider images to WebP and upload them via Back Office → Design → Image Slider (or your installed slider module, e.g., ps_imageslider).
2. 2Install the 'psgdpr' or a dedicated performance module like 'PrestaSEO Speed' or 'Krona SEO & Speed' from the PrestaShop Addons marketplace to handle JS/CSS minification and deferral.
3. 3Edit your theme's header.tpl (themes/YourTheme/templates/_partials/head.tpl) to add: <link rel='preload' as='image' href='{$hero_image_url}' fetchpriority='high'>.
4. 4In the slider module settings, ensure the first slide image does NOT have lazy loading enabled.
5. 5Enable PrestaShop's built-in CCC (Combine, Compress, Cache) settings: Back Office → Shop Parameters → General → CCC → enable for CSS and JS.
6. 6Clear the cache (Advanced Parameters → Performance → Clear cache) and verify with PageSpeed Insights.

<!-- Step 1: Preload the LCP hero image -->
<link
  rel="preload"
  as="image"
  href="/images/hero-banner.webp"
  imagesrcset="/images/hero-banner-400.webp 400w,
               /images/hero-banner-800.webp 800w,
               /images/hero-banner-1500.webp 1500w"
  imagesizes="100vw"
  fetchpriority="high"
>

<!-- Step 2: Hero <img> tag — eager, high priority, no lazy-load -->
<img
  src="/images/hero-banner-1500.webp"
  srcset="/images/hero-banner-400.webp 400w,
          /images/hero-banner-800.webp 800w,
          /images/hero-banner-1500.webp 1500w"
  sizes="100vw"
  alt="[Descriptive alt text for your hero image]"
  width="1500"
  height="600"
  loading="eager"
  fetchpriority="high"
>

Write a unique, page-specific meta description for every page on your store so Google can display a compelling, accurate snippet for each one in search results.

1. 1For a product: go to Catalog → Products, open the product, click the 'SEO' tab, and fill in the 'Meta description' field.
2. 2For a category: go to Catalog → Categories, click 'Edit' on the category, select the 'SEO' tab, and update 'Meta description'.
3. 3For CMS pages: go to Design → Pages, open the page, update the 'Meta description' field in the SEO section.
4. 4For the homepage: go to Shop Parameters → Traffic & SEO → SEO & URLs, find the 'index' page entry, and edit its meta description.
5. 5For bulk updates, use an SEO module such as 'SEO Expert' from the PrestaShop Marketplace, which provides a spreadsheet-style editor for all meta descriptions.
6. 6Clear the cache (Advanced Parameters → Performance → Clear cache) after making changes, then verify with a browser and re-index in Google Search Console.

<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <meta name="description" content="Shop women's running shoes at Acme Store — lightweight, cushioned designs for road and trail. Free shipping on orders over $50.">
  <title>Women's Running Shoes | Acme Store</title>
</head>

Give every page a unique, descriptive title tag that accurately reflects that page's specific content.

1. 1For products: go to Catalog → Products → open a product → 'SEO' tab → edit the 'Meta title' field.
2. 2For categories: Catalog → Categories → open a category → 'SEO' tab → 'Meta title'.
3. 3For CMS pages: Design → Pages → open a page → edit 'Meta title'.
4. 4For the shop's default title settings: Shop Parameters → General → set 'Shop name' which is appended to page titles; ensure templates use {$meta_title} in the head.tpl Smarty template.
5. 5For bulk updates use a CSV import module or an SEO module (e.g. SEO Expert by PrestaHero) that lets you set title templates with dynamic product/category name variables.

<head>
  <title>Merino Wool Running Socks – Free UK Shipping | BrandName</title>
</head>