diff --git a/web/SitePreview.tsx b/web/SitePreview.tsx
index 51880a4..0ccbd67 100644
--- a/web/SitePreview.tsx
+++ b/web/SitePreview.tsx
@@ -226,6 +226,31 @@ export const SitePreview = ({
     setLoaded(0);
   }, [reloadToken, changed]);
 
+  /*
+    Reload by NAVIGATING the frame, not by replacing it.
+
+    The frame used to carry `key={reloadToken}`, so a reload was a new element: React unmounted the old
+    one and the panel went white until the new document arrived. On a page whose crop has just changed
+    that is not instant — the site is asking av-club for a fresh ladder — so every framing adjustment
+    flashed an empty panel for a second or two, which reads as the preview breaking.
+
+    A browser keeps painting the current document while the next one is being fetched. So the same
+    element stays, and the old page is on screen until the new one commits.
+
+    Same origin, through the dev proxy, which is what makes `contentWindow` reachable at all.
+
+    Skipped on the first run: the element has only just mounted and is already loading its document.
+  */
+  const first = useRef(true);
+
+  useEffect(() => {
+    if (first.current) {
+      first.current = false;
+      return;
+    }
+    frame.current?.contentWindow?.location.reload();
+  }, [reloadToken, changed]);
+
   useEffect(() => {
     if (!loaded) return;
     const frameDocument = frame.current?.contentDocument;
@@ -345,9 +370,8 @@ export const SitePreview = ({
               remove the attribute. This is the owner's own development server on this machine.
             */
             <iframe
-              // The key is what makes `reloadToken` reload: a new key is a new element, so the browser
-              // fetches the document again and `onLoad` runs, which re-injects the builder's chrome.
-              key={`${reloadToken ?? 0}:${changed}`}
+              // No key. See the reload effect above: replacing the element is what made the panel go
+              // white between documents.
               ref={frame}
               // Applied on load as well as on change: the document is replaced on a reload, and the
               // properties go with it.