2026-02-09 · Web Performance

Speed up navigation with prefetch and prerender

Guess the next click, render it early, and only pay for the guesses that turn out right.

Introduction

Compares link rel prefetch, prerender, and the newer Speculation Rules API, plus a throttle trick so hovering does not load your whole site.

The mental model

  • Start from the smallest version that could work, and make it observable.
  • Write down the trade-off you are accepting, not only the feature you are shipping.
  • Revisit the decision when the team grows; most choices in Web Performance have a shelf life.

A practical starting point

  1. Reproduce the situation on a scratch branch, next to a measurement you trust.
  2. Change one variable at a time, and keep the diff small enough to explain in one sentence.
  3. Keep the result, throw away the scaffolding.
Terminal window
git switch -c experiment/one-thing

Closing thoughts

None of this is doctrine. Treat it as a checklist you are allowed to disagree with — ideally with an experiment of your own that settles the argument.