Image Preloading: rel=preload for Critical Images
Preload your hero image and critical above-the-fold assets to eliminate render-blocking delays and improve LCP scores.
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Tags: image, performance, html
Preload Critical Images: Faster LCP With rel=preload The browser's preload mechanism lets you tell the browser about critical resources before it discovers them during normal HTML parsing. For images, this is especially valuable because the hero image — typically the Largest Contentful Paint element — is often discovered late in the parsing process. By the time the browser gets to the tag, it has already spent time downloading HTML, parsing CSS, and executing render-blocking JavaScript. Preloading the LCP image can reduce LCP by 300–800ms on real-world pages. This guide explains exactly how for images works, the attribute, and when to use each. How Image Preloading Works Without preloading, the browser discovers an image only when it parses the tag in the HTML. The sequence: With…
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