Google Set to Introduce New Core Web Vital Metric in 2024

This is why it may surprise many that Google plans to change one of its core web vitals to make way for a new web performance metric. The search giant announced that in March 2024, Interaction to Next Paint (INP) will take First Input Delay’s (FID) place as a Core Web Vital metric.

Understanding INP 

INP evaluates a webpage’s responsiveness to user interactions by measuring the delay experienced during clicks, taps, and keyboard inputs throughout a user’s visit. The final INP value represents the longest interaction observed, disregarding any anomalies or outliers. 

To help you better understand INP, let’s discuss what an “interaction” is. An interaction refers to a collection of event handlers occurring during a single user gesture. It includes: 

• Clicking with a mouse
• Tapping on a touchscreen
• Pressing a key on a physical or onscreen keyboard 

Interactions can be initiated through JavaScript, CSS, browser controls (e.g., form elements), or a combination of these methods. The latency of an interaction is determined by the duration of the longest event handler within the group, starting from when the user begins the gesture until the subsequent frame is displayed with visual feedback. 

INP is calculated after a user leaves the webpage. This results in a single value representing the page’s overall responsiveness throughout its entire lifecycle. If the page receives a low INP score, it means it responds well to user input.

Why the Change to INP? 

Switching from FID to INP makes sense, as Chrome usage data have shown that web users spend 90% of their time interacting with a page after it loads. This highlights the significance of accurately measuring responsiveness throughout the entire lifespan of a webpage. 

Good responsiveness refers to a webpage promptly reacting to user interactions, resulting in visual feedback displayed in the subsequent browser frame. Visual feedback is vital in conveying information to users, such as confirming an added item to a shopping cart or authenticating login details. While certain interactions may naturally require more time, it is crucial for websites to provide initial visual feedback quickly. This lets web visitors know that their actions are being processed. 

The INP metric focuses on measuring the time until the next paint is blocked rather than capturing all the subsequent effects of the interaction. By minimising the delay in presenting visual feedback, the INP metric aims to create a perception of high responsiveness, ensuring a short time interval between user-initiated interactions and the subsequent frame being painted.

Key Differences between FID and INP 

If we were to simplify the crucial difference between INP and its predecessor First Input Delay (FID), FID is all about making a great first impression, while INP prioritises a user’s overall experience with the page. FID also only considers the first interaction’s input delay while disregarding the time it takes to run event handlers or load the next frame. 

With FID, a webpage is considered highly responsive if there is little to no perceptible input delay when a user interacts with it during the loading phase. On the other hand, INP considers all user interactions before and after a page loads, making it a more accurate indicator of overall page responsiveness.

The Best INP Score 

It can be challenging to define precisely what a good page responsiveness score is. As a site owner, you’d want your SEO and web development team to implement practices focusing on good responsiveness. However, you should also keep in mind that people use devices with different specs and capabilities to access the internet. 

Nevertheless, to ensure your web pages respond well to user input, you can use the 75th percentile of page loading times recorded in the field as your guide when optimising your website: 

• An INP score lower than 200 milliseconds indicates good page responsiveness.
• An INP score between 200 and 500 milliseconds indicates a need for improvement.
• An INP score higher than 500 milliseconds indicates poor page responsiveness.

Let the Google Experts Help 

With Google revising its Core Web Vitals to measure a page’s overall responsiveness accurately, it is up to you to make all the requisite adjustments to ensure your website is ready for the upcoming change. Because page responsiveness is closely tied to user experience, ensuring that your website reacts well to interactions can go a long way towards improving your online visibility and Google ranking. 

As a business owner, you probably already have a lot on your plate. Because it is impossible to master SEO overnight, it would do you well to seek professional SEO solutions. With expert assistance, you can rest assured that your site is primed and ready when INP finally becomes a new Core Web Vitals metric.