Description
Slow-loading websites hurt your SEO, frustrate users, and kill conversions.
Smart Prefetch Plugin solves this by using predictive intelligence to prefetch the next most likely page — so your visitors experience lightning-fast navigation across your site.
Unlike basic prefetching plugins that load every visible link, Smart Prefetch uses a data-driven algorithm to identify which link a user is most likely to click next, based on behavior patterns, device, country, and more. It then injects prefetch hints at the right time — after critical resources load — to avoid hurting current page performance.
This means your visitors get fast, responsive navigation without the resource drain of indiscriminate prefetching.
Improve Google PageSpeed scores and Core Web Vitals, delight your users, and gain an edge in SEO rankings — with zero coding required.
Perfect for bloggers, businesses, eCommerce, and anyone serious about speed.
Smart Prefetch leverages the browser’s native Speculation Rules API to dynamically inject prefetch hints based on predictive signals. This modern browser feature is designed specifically to improve the performance of future navigations, making Smart Prefetch both forward-compatible and standards-based.
Features
- Intelligent, data-driven prefetching tailored to real user behavior and context.
- Predicts the most probable next page based on usage patterns.
- Built on the Speculation Rules API, a modern browser standard for predicting and preloading future navigations.
- Prefetches before the click, enabling near-instant navigation between pages.
- Delays prefetch requests until after key resources are loaded to avoid performance conflicts.
- Helps improve Core Web Vitals scores (especially responsiveness and perceived load time).
- Easy to set up — no advanced configuration required.
- Optional dashboard visibility into prefetching behavior.
- Lightweight, optimized frontend script — adds negligible overhead.
Why Use Smart Prefetch Plugin?
- ⚡ Boost Website Speed: Make your site feel instantly responsive.
- 🎯 Improve User Experience: Keep visitors engaged with seamless browsing.
- 🔍 Enhance SEO: Better performance = better search rankings.
- 📉 Reduce Bounce Rates: Faster sites retain more users.
- 💰 Increase Conversions: Speed drives action. A smoother journey = more sales/signups.
- 👌 Simple to Configure: No developer needed to benefit from modern performance tech.
From within WordPress
- Go to Plugins > Add New
- Search for “Smart Prefetch Plugin“
- Click Install Now, then Activate
Manually
- Download the plugin ZIP from this page
- Upload it to your site via Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin
- Click Install Now, then Activate
After activation, you’re good to go! Prefetching works out of the box.
External services
This plugin connects to an API to collect and obtain page navigation history, it’s needed for the prefetch algorithm to predict the most accurate future navigation and prefetch the page for speculations rules.
The plugin sends the site visitors’s previous page and current page URL every time a page is loaded, along with anonymous device information such as screen type, network strength, time zone of the browser etc to the plugin’s backend server. We do not collect or transmit any personally identifiable information (PII) or sensitive user data from your site visitors.
This service is provided by “SmartPrefetch.link”: by using the plugin, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.
Support
Need help? Visit the support forum to ask questions or get assistance.
Reviews
Love the speed boost? Let others know!
⭐ Leave a review on the plugin page — your feedback helps us grow!
License
This plugin is licensed under the GPLv2 or later. See https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html for details.
FAQ
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What is website prefetching?
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Website prefetching is the act of preloading resources (like another page) before a user actually clicks a link, making the experience feel faster.
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How does this plugin work?
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Smart Prefetch uses lightweight client-side logic and contextual data (like device, country, and referrer) to predict which link a user is likely to click next. It then injects a
<link rel="prefetch">tag for that URL in the background. -
What is the Speculation Rules API and how does this plugin use it?
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The Speculation Rules API is a modern browser capability that allows websites to define which pages should be prefetched or prerendered based on rules. Smart Prefetch uses this API to dynamically inject rules predicting a user’s next navigation, enabling efficient and standards-based performance optimization. It ensures your site stays compatible with the latest web technologies.
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Why is smart/data-driven prefetching better than simple prefetching?
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Basic plugins prefetch all visible links, wasting bandwidth and possibly slowing down the page. Smart Prefetch only targets the most probable links, improving efficiency and performance.
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Will this slow down my current page?
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No. Prefetch requests are intelligently delayed until the main content of the page has loaded, so current-page performance is not affected.
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Is it compatible with caching or optimization plugins?
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Yes, it’s compatible with most popular caching and performance tools. For best results, avoid using multiple plugins that modify prefetching simultaneously. If conflicts arise, disable prefetch features in other plugins and test.
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What are Core Web Vitals and how does this plugin help?
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Core Web Vitals are a set of performance metrics Google uses for ranking. Smart Prefetch helps improve responsiveness (INP) and perceived load speed (LCP) by making page transitions feel much faster — a key factor in UX and SEO.
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What WordPress and PHP versions are required?
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WordPress 5.6 or higher and PHP 7.2 or higher are recommended.
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“Smart Prefetch: Unlock Lightning-Fast Navigation” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “Smart Prefetch: Unlock Lightning-Fast Navigation” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.0.0
- Initial release of Smart Prefetch Plugin.
- Intelligent link prediction and background prefetching.
- Lightweight and performance-safe design.