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How does preloading critical assets improve perceived performance?
Asked on Oct 28, 2025
Answer
Preloading critical assets is a technique used to enhance perceived performance by ensuring essential resources are available as soon as they are needed. This approach reduces the time users wait for key elements like fonts, stylesheets, or images, leading to a smoother and faster user experience.
Example Concept: Preloading involves using the attribute in HTML to instruct the browser to load critical resources early in the page lifecycle. By prioritizing these assets, such as fonts or above-the-fold images, the browser can render the page more quickly, improving the perceived load time and user interaction readiness.
Additional Comment:
- Preloading is particularly useful for resources that block rendering, like CSS or web fonts.
- Use the "as" attribute to specify the type of resource being preloaded, such as "style", "script", or "image".
- Ensure that preloaded resources are actually used on the page to avoid unnecessary network requests.
- Monitor the impact of preloading on overall page load performance to avoid overloading the network.
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