Like object prefetching, page prefetching instructs ​Akamai​ edge servers to retrieve content from your origin before an end user’s browser request. ​Akamai​ Instant allows for configuration of both page and object prefetching, and is mutually exclusive with using the object prefetching feature alone.

How it works

If your end users request one particular page, you can use Page Prefetching to request additional page links to the ​Akamai​ edge server before their browser sends a request for them, resulting in faster response times.

With this behavior enabled you can designate which page links to prefetch. This is done by adding HTML tag attributes such as, rel=Akamai-prefetch, to your hyperlinks and anchors in the requested HTML page (for example—<a href="./page2.html" rel="Akamai-prefetch">Page2</a>).

Prefetching cacheable content

You can prefetch cacheable objects embedded in HTML files. In order for an embedded URL to be considered prefetchable, you need to define a caching rule that is based on either filenames or URL extensions. Prefetchable content must appear in one of the following HTML tags: <base>, <img>, <script>, <input>, <link>, <table>, <td> or <th>. Prefetching of cacheable content requires Tiered Distribution to be enabled for that content.

Prefetching no-store content

Prefetch no-store (non-cacheable) objects embedded in HTML files. For no-store URLS to be considered prefetchable, the URL must end in either one of the following extensions or be a request for a default file in a directory (as specified by ending in a /, for example, http://www.example.com/product/). Prefetchable content must appear in one of the following HTML tags: <base>, <img>, <script>, <input>, <link>, <table>, <td> or <th>. Prefetching of no-store content requires SureRoute to be enabled for that content.

Prefetching HTML

With this feature the ​Akamai​ platform can prefetch additional HTML pages when another page is being delivered. Prefetchable URLs must be included in an <a/> tag or <link/> tag, and have a rel attribute with one of the specified values (defaults of either prefetch or Akamai-prefetch).