Hand & Lock – 250 Years of Craft, Now Optimised for the Digital Age
We boosted speed, SEO, and structure - without touching the charm.
See how we modernised a heritage brand’s website.
Case Study: Embroidering Digital Excellence
Hand & Lock – Performance, SEO, and Ongoing Technical Transformation
Sector: B2B & B2C Embroidery Services
Location: United Kingdom
Client Since: November 2022
Services: Web Development, SEO Optimisation, UX Updates, SLA Support
About the Client
Founded in 1767, Hand & Lock is a prestigious embroidery house, celebrated worldwide for its hand-crafted excellence in ceremonial, ecclesiastical, and bespoke fashion embroidery. With a heritage spanning over 250 years, they also run an Embroidery School to nurture new talent and preserve this traditional craft.
Project Goals & Initial Challenges
After transitioning to Shopify, the Hand & Lock team experienced a range of performance issues: poor mobile metrics, excessive loading times, and suboptimal SEO structure. The new theme introduced bloated code and app conflicts, leaving the site sluggish and failing Google’s Core Web Vitals.
Our objective was to elevate performance, accessibility, and search visibility - without compromising the visual style or functionality already in place.
That’s when we stepped back in.
Technical Fixes & Performance Results
Optimisation Phase: March 2025
Sitechecker Score: 65 → 72
What We Achieved
SEO Score: 100 (Google PageSpeed)
Accessibility Score: 100 (Google PageSpeed)
Mobile Core Web Vitals: ✅ Passed
Shopify Load Speed: 2.87s → 2.07s
First Contentful Paint (FCP): 5s → 1.8s
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): 13–19s → 4.3s
Speed Index: 7.7s → 4.7s
Total Blocking Time: 290ms → 170ms
Technical Fixes & Performance Results
Optimisation Phase: March 2025
Sitechecker Score: 65 → 72
What We Achieved
Image Optimisation: Compressed oversized images, added dimension attributes, and lazy-loaded offscreen elements to reduce layout shifts and speed up rendering.
Script & Style Minification: Trimmed unnecessary CSS/JS to reduce total page weight and block time.
App & Feature Clean-Up:
Removed: Aftership Returns, Buy Button
Disabled: BSS Product Labels
Animation Tuning: Disabled animation on the homepage banner, which alone pushed desktop PageSpeed scores past 90.
Heading Structure & Metadata: Refined site-wide heading hierarchy and social metadata for better search and share visibility.
Technical Fixes & Performance Results
Despite inherent limitations in Shopify’s theme structure (including DOM width issues that prevent Sitechecker scores from rising further without a full rebuild), we delivered measurable speed and usability gains where it matters most: real user experience.
“The site now loads faster, passes mobile vitals, and feels smoother—especially on mobile, where most of our customers visit from.”
Technical Fixes & Performance Results
Mobile Before SEO & Speed Optimisation
Mobile After SEO & Speed Optimisation
Desktop DebugBear Report Before SEO & Speed Optimisation
Desktop DebugBear Report After SEO & Speed Optimisation
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