Hunt Seat Paper Co. review for Swift SEO Page Speed Optimizer

April 10, 2023

The day I installed this app was the day my website went insane. I had multiple issues right out of the gate with this one. I ran the free speed optimizer and also used their image tool to optimize 100 images. My thinking was I would test the free version, and if it worked I would pay for monthly optimizations. Test failed. The first, and biggest problem, was that the app made a duplicate version of my website. I did not realize right away, but the "optimized" theme was downgraded from Dawn 7.0 to a modified Dawn 4.0 that was unable to update. And not just the theme it duplicated....ALL my backups were suddenly Dawn 4.0. My website is less than a year old, Dawn 4.0 was never previously installed on my site, ever. I also had multiple product images that simply vanished and needed to be re-uploaded. On mobile, my product image swipe quit working. Even though it would say 1/4 images....It would only show one on mobile. I also had two "sale" icons on the products that were on sale, and one was half way off the screen so it was definitely causing glitches. Random icons on my website also disappeared and my website was overall glitchy. The optimizer tool got my page speed from a 28 to a 41 right away. However, the next day I was down to a 21 page speed and my website was simply not working. I decided to try to update my website to Dawn 9.0 since 4.0 was such an old version I figured that could be part of the problem...But no, the theme was modified and could not be updated. I had to download a fresh version of my theme. None of my page templates would transfer....I would have to completely re-design my website. So I got in touch with Shopify support hoping for an easier solution, who told me whatever the optimizer did to my theme to remove the "unused" javascrips and css, did something to my theme files. They suggested I contact the app developer support and ask for whatever they did to my website to be rolled back or removed. The Swift app developers got back to me quickly and looked into my issue, which I was happy about. However, they came back and told me it was "impossible" that my themes were downgraded to 4.0, and that it was "unreasonable" that I did not notice immediately (Do you check what version of theme you're using every day?) They offered zero solution, and told me to go back to Shopify with their email. So I did. Shopify support agreed that the email from the Swift app support was incredibly unhelpful and basically dodging responsibility. I spent a whopping four hours with Shopify support, and spoke to multiple people as they sent my case up the ranks to figure out why my site wouldn't update, why there were so many glitches, and why none of my page templates would transfer to my fresh Dawn 9.0 theme download from the modified 4.0 themes. After all that time, it was finally suggested that I just rebuild my page themes and redesign my website. We had to delete all my old backups that were corrupted by the Swift Page Speed Optimizer tool and start over. Devastating. After removing all of the theme backups that were corrupted and starting on a fresh theme download....My google page speed went from a 21 to a 64. Removing whatever the Swift app did, fixed everything. My website now runs flawlessly with a vastly improved speed score. In hindsight, I should have just upgraded to 9.0 before trying this app. I asked the Shopify support rep how a Shopify app from the Shopify App Store could so severely damage my website files...and they told me that Shopify has no control over what apps are on the app store and to use caution. They told me the best thing I can do is to leave a detailed review of what happened so other users may not have this problem. So here I am . I give one star for the support team responding to me, thanks for the response, as unhelpful as it was. Otherwise, I would avoid this app, or any app, that automatically alters theme files. Zero stars.