Optimizing User Experience: Pre-fetching Pages in Next.js with the Link Component

At itselftools.com, we've had the opportunity to work on over 30 projects using Next.js and Firebase, gaining deep insights into efficient web application development. Today, we're excited to share a key technique that can significantly enhance your website's user interaction: pre-fetching pages using the Next.js Link component.

Understanding the Code Snippet

Here's a straightforward code snippet from a React function component using Next.js:

import React from 'react';
import Link from 'next/link';
export default function Nav() {
  return (<nav>
    <Link href='/about' prefetch={false}>
      <a>About Us</a>
    </Link>
    <Link href='/contact' prefetch>
      <a>Contact</a>
    </Link>
  </nav>);
}

This code defines a simple navigation bar with two links - 'About Us' and 'Contact'. The Link component from Next.js is used to route to different pages within the app, and it includes an important prop: prefetch.

The Prefetch Prop

The prefetch prop is what makes the Next.js Link component truly remarkable. It allows Next.js to pre-load the page associated with the link in the background when the link is visible in the viewport or when Next.js thinks it will be navigated to soon. By doing this, the page loads almost instantly when a user clicks on the link.

• prefetch={false}: This tells Next.js not to pre-fetch the page. In our example, the 'About Us' page will not be loaded in advance.
• Without specifying prefetch: It defaults to true, meaning the page will be pre-fetched. For the 'Contact' link, Next.js will pre-load the Contact page as soon as this component mounts if it's assumed the user might navigate there.

Prefetching predominately harnesses the user's idle time to improve the site's performance, reducing load time when the actual navigation happens.

## Why Use Prefetching?
Prefetching can dramatically improve the user experience on a web application, especially on sites with high interaction and engagement rates. By loading future pages before they are needed, the perceived latency is greatly reduced, providing a more fluid browsing experience.

Conclusion

Optimizing your web application with prefetching can provide a smoother, faster user interaction, enhancing overall user satisfaction. If you're intrigued to see this functionality in action, visit some of our applications like Find English Words, Test Your Mic, and Extract Archives Online.

Feel free to dive deep into these optimizations, and adapt these strategies to enhance your Next.js projects!