Speculative Loading does not wait for the reader to click a link before it loads the page. The browser guesses the page they are about to open and loads it, or its resources, into memory ahead of time, so the page opens faster when they click.
The technique cuts both ways: it has a good side and a bad one. To use it well, you need to know what it loads and when, and only then pick a mode.
What do you need to get ready?
- WordPress 6.9 or later. The current plugin version (1.7.0) needs WordPress 6.9 or later. Check the version in the admin area. The site in the video ran 6.8.1, when the plugin still accepted 6.8.
- Permalinks set to
postnameor similar. It does not work with the default setting. Any of the other options is fine; most people pick the post name. Remember to save. - A cache plugin already set up for the site, so the server does not get overloaded when the browser loads many pages ahead.
How do the two modes differ?
| Mode | What it loads | Fits |
|---|---|---|
| Prefetch | Static resources such as CSS and scripts. The page opens faster when clicked. | Sites with many posts that need to spare the server |
| Prerender | The whole page. It shows the moment you click. | Sites made mostly of pages, with many landing pages |
The eagerness setting decides when the browser starts loading. At Moderate, it starts when you hover over a link. At Eager (on slightest suggestion), it starts sooner, on mobile too.
Turn on Speculative Loading for WordPress
Install the Speculative Loading plugin
Install the free plugin Speculative Loading.
Once installed, go to Settings > Reading to set it up.
Pick one of the two recommended setups
- Prerender + Moderate (typically on hover). Fits a site with many landing pages that should load as fast as possible. On mobile it may do little, since there is no hover.
- Prefetch + Eager (on slightest suggestion). This one loads ahead on mobile too and can warm up the cache better, but it is not as fast as the first.
Cuong’s site has many blog posts, so it uses the second. If your site is mostly pages and landing pages, use the first so pages open as fast as possible.
Clear the cache
Clear the cache and you are done.
How do you know Speculative Loading works?
Log out of the admin account and open the site as a reader. Hover over a link: the browser starts loading that page ahead. Click it, and the page appears almost at once. With prerender the browser has loaded the whole page, so it shows right away.
Notes on using Speculative Loading
Without a cache, the requests that load pages ahead can overload your server, so the site hangs or slows down, and the speed gain is gone.
Pages with many links are where the server suffers most. Let the browser load every link freely and each visit costs extra server resources for pages the reader may never open. So set it up with care: loading only when the reader hovers over a link is the safer choice.
Speculative Loading no longer needs an extra script as older methods did: the browser supports it. At the time of writing (May 2025), Safari and Firefox did not support it yet. As of October 2026, Safari has it but turned off by default, and Firefox has only partial support, so in practice it is still mainly Chrome, Edge and Opera.
WordPress 6.8 turns Speculative Loading on by default at its lightest level, only for logged-out visitors and only on sites with pretty permalinks. On Cuong’s site it did not turn on until the plugin in this guide was installed. The plugin also lets you pick a stronger mode.