Interaction to Next Paint (INP)
The metric that will replace First Input Delay in Core Web Vital reports from March 2024
Google introduced a new metric for page experience called Interaction to Next Paint (INP). INP is an experimental field metric that measures responsiveness. Responsiveness is how fast a page responds to user inputs and is thus a critical metric for tracking user experience scores.
Google puts a lot of emphasis on improving user experience.
The Core Web Vitals update rolled out last year is proof that user experience is a key ranking factor for Google. There was a lot of chatter about if and when INP will replace FID (First Input Delay) to become a Core Web Vitals tracking metric. In May 2023, Google announced that INP will replace the FID as a core web vitals metric for measuring responsiveness, effective from March 2024.
Let us look at and understand this new metric that will replace FID and learn how we can improve our website’s performance score for INP.
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What Is Interaction To Next Paint (INP)?
Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is a field metric that measures page responsiveness. A page is considered responsive if it responds to user input quickly.
INP is particularly useful for measuring the responsiveness of a web page as it does not require any JavaScript or CSS code, unlike some other metrics. Instead, it measures only how fast the browser displays elements on the screen after receiving user actions.
Google Webmasters blog post on page responsiveness mentions that INP is an experimental metric and will be available in Google Search Console (GSC) as “Page Experience” under the “Site Performance” section. However, currently, GSC shows FID (First Input Delay) under Site Performance instead of INP. But with this new update, you will see the INP scores in the Search Console’s Core Web Vitals report later this year, and in March 2024, FID scores will not be shown in the report.
It is, however, currently live when checking a page’s score through Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool. Upon testing various URLs across different websites, the INP score can vary dramatically from the more traditional FID score. In cases where a website may be well-optimized towards FID and report a “good” score for this metric, the Interaction to Next Paint (INP) metric may be vastly different and unveil some additional implementations needed before scoring well there.
Why is Interaction to Next Paint (INP) a Field Metric?
A field metric is a measurable factor or characteristic used to assess a specific field's performance. A field metric requires user input to measure which is collected from real users.
Interaction to next paint is a field metric because it measures how quickly a user can interact with the next element on the page after the current element. This metric is important because it can help to gauge how smoothly the website is running and how quickly users can navigate through the pages.
Advantages of Interaction to Next Paint (INP)
1. It helps measure how fast a page responds to user inputs without any JavaScript or CSS code, as some other metrics do. It can be used for both mobile and desktop sites which makes it more universal than FID (First Input Delay).
2. It works across devices and browsers, which means that even if your website looks good on Chrome but not on Firefox, you can still measure its responsiveness using INP, as this metric does not depend on JavaScript or CSS code executed by browsers but just measures how fast your browser responds to user inputs without any external factors like network latency and rendering.
3. It can be used to measure the responsiveness of your homepage and any page on your website, especially pages that could have a lot of interactivity.
Drawbacks of Interaction to Next Paint (INP)
1. It is not supported by any third-party service right now. So if you want to use it, you will have to implement it yourself.
2. It depends on the Google Chrome browser, so if you want to get this data for your website, you will have to use Google Chrome as your primary browser (if you don’t already).
3. Even though it measures how fast a page responds to user inputs without any external factors like network latency and rendering, there still might be some internal factors that cause delays in the responsiveness of a page that INP does not measure. For example, suppose a webpage has JavaScript code that loads many resources from other domains (like ads or widgets). In that case, this could cause delays in that web page's responsiveness even though it responds quickly to user inputs without any external factors like network latency and rendering.
What is a Good Interaction to Next Paint (INP) Score?
Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is measured in milliseconds, and it measures the time taken for a page to respond to the first input after a user action, like clicking a link or button.
According to Google, an INP below or equal to 200 milliseconds indicates good responsiveness. An INP above 200 milliseconds and below or at 500 milliseconds means that your page's responsiveness needs improvement. An INP above 500 milliseconds implies that your page has poor responsiveness.
INP Core Web Vitals in GSC
Interaction to next paint metric is a crucial aspect of the GSC core web vitals report. A shorter interaction to next paint time results in a better user experience and improved search engine rankings. By optimizing your website for this metric, you can enhance your overall website performance and provide a seamless user experience, ultimately leading to increased engagement and conversion rates.
Optimize & measure INP Core Web Vitals in GSC using the steps below:
1. Log in to Google Search Console and select the website for which you want to measure the core web vitals.
2. Select the "Core Web Vitals" report from the left-hand menu.
3. Scroll down to the "Interactions" section and click on "Explore Report."
4. In the "Interactions" report, you can see the "First Input Delay" (FID) metric, which measures the time it takes for a user to interact with your website and the website's response time to that interaction.
5. You can use the "Interactions" report to identify pages with poor FID metrics and prioritize website improvements to improve user experience.
6. To measure the "Next Paint" metric, go back to the "Core Web Vitals" report and click on "Explore Report" in the "Loading" section.
7. In the "Loading" report, you can see the "Next Paint" metric, which measures the time it takes for the website to display the next meaningful content after the first content paint.
8. Use the "Loading" report to identify pages with poor "Next Paint" metrics and prioritize website improvements to improve user experience.
9. Once you have identified the pages with poor FID and "Next Paint" metrics, take appropriate measures to improve them, such as optimizing server response times, compressing images, reducing JavaScript and CSS file sizes, and other website speed optimization techniques.
10. Monitor the "Core Web Vitals" report regularly to track the progress of your website improvements and ensure that your website meets Google's performance standards.
Interaction to Next Paint in PageSpeed Insights
Interaction with the Next Paint is crucial in improving your website's PageSpeed Insights score. Users who visit your website expect it to load quickly and seamlessly. Interaction to paint is now a core web vitals metric in page speed insights report.
Optimize INP by minimizing JavaScript and CSS files, preloading important resources, and optimizing images for faster loading times. Inspect INP with PSI using the steps below:
1. Go to the Page Speed Insights tool website
2. Enter the URL of the webpage you want to test in the field provided and click "Analyze"
3. Wait for the tool to analyze the page and generate a report
4. The report will show you your INP score. Click on it for details
5. You can now view the top issues that are lowering your page's Interaction to Next Paint
6. Scroll down to the "Diagnostics" section of the report for further insights
7. Use all this information to identify problems and make changes to improve performance.
How is Interaction to Next Paint (INP) different from First Input Delay?
Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is the delay that is introduced by the input buffer, while First Input Delay is the delay that is introduced by the first stage of the pipeline. INP is more than about first impressions as it represents the amount of time it takes for an input to be registered and available to subsequent stages of the pipeline. Whereas First Input delay only measures the first interaction's input delay, not the time it takes to run event handlers or the delay in presenting the next frame.
Read our full blog on INP vs FID.
Will Interaction to Next Paint (INP) Replace FID In Core Web Vital Reports?
Yes, INP will replace FID as a Core Web Vitals metric. This shift comes as Google acknowledges the limitations of FID in capturing the complete user experience. While FID only considers the first interaction and measures input delay alone, INP offers a more comprehensive perspective by tracking all page interactions from loading to exit.
INP ensures a thorough evaluation of responsiveness throughout the entire lifecycle of a page, making it a more reliable indicator than FID. Like Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), INP dynamically updates and evolves as user interactions occur. It's important to note that INP should only be measured when the user has finished their engagement with the page.
With this update, Google emphasizes the significance of understanding and optimizing the complete range of user interactions, by embracing INP as the new Core Web Vitals metric, website owners and developers can better assess and enhance the overall responsiveness of their pages, ultimately improving the user experience and satisfaction.
Stay ahead in the ever-evolving web landscape by adopting INP as a crucial measure of your website's performance and responsiveness.
Optimize Web Pages for Interaction to Next Paint (INP)
Since Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is a new metric, webmasters and SEOs have to learn how to interpret this data. It will take a while for the industry to agree on an acceptable level of INP. Therefore, you must start measuring your website’s INP now and keep measuring it until the industry has some agreed-upon thresholds.
Keep in mind that Google doesn't expect you to reach zero or even near-zero values to get a good score. It is more important that the trend is positive and your website's performance is improving over time.
Here are some tips from Google to improve INP:
1. Identify all user interactions on your page (e.g., clicks, scrolls, form submissions, etc.) and measure the input delay for each one (see the section below for details).
2. Measure the input delay for each interaction on many different devices (desktop/laptop, mobile, tablet).
3. Measure over multiple days (preferably at least 5 days per week) using different devices and internet connections (e.g., home WiFi/cellular).
4. As soon as you obtain reliable data, work with your engineers/developers to improve input delay by optimizing event handlers or resolving network issues.
5. If you don't have access to engineers/developers who can help optimize your code or resolve network issues, try using AMP, which has been built from the ground up with performance in mind.
6. Measure again after making changes and iterate until your input delay is consistently fast.
If you use Google Analytics, here is a guide on measuring input delay in GA.
Continue to Optimize Interaction to Next Paint (INP)
It is highly recommended to measure the Interaction to Next Paint (INP) metric for your website because it is crucial for user experience and SEO. You can use it to evaluate your website against competitors and see how much time you need to decrease before you can claim that your website is “responsiveness optimized.”
It will help improve your SEO since it is a necessary Core Web Vitals metric, but it is also just an excellent best-practice UX tactic that can improve other KPIs such as conversion rates.
Suppose you don’t have the resources or time to optimize your website right now. In that case, we suggest starting with the low-hanging fruits like lazy loading of images and videos, pre-caching content, and optimizing the critical rendering path (doing these steps will make a huge difference in responsiveness).
INP is one of the core web vitals metrics to track page experience for users. Therefore, your website must be optimized for all the Core Web Vitals metrics to improve SERP rankings. Read our Core Web Vitals Guide to improve and automate your page experience optimization efforts.
Scale your Page Responsiveness & Optimization Efforts today!
Test Drive QuattrInteraction to Next Paint (INP) FAQs
What is INP?
Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is a field metric that assesses the responsiveness of a page. A page is considered responsive if it responds quickly to user input.
What is a "good" INP score?
As per Google, a score below or equal to 200 milliseconds indicates good responsiveness for Interaction to Next Paint (INP). INP is measured in milliseconds and measures the time a page takes to respond to the first input after a user action, like clicking a link or button.
How to measure INP?
INP (Interaction to Next Paint) can be measured by measuring the time it takes for a user to progress from a current action (clicking, tapping, swiping, etc.) to the subsequent paint. This process typically involves recording the time between the user's action and the time it takes the screen to paint, then dividing the time by the duration of the interaction.
How to Fix INP issues?
To fix INP issues, developers should use techniques such as reducing page size, optimizing images and scripts, and caching static resources. Additionally, developers should test their pages with various performance tools to ensure their pages are optimized and their INP is above acceptable levels.
About The Author
About Quattr
Quattr is an innovative and fast-growing venture-backed company based in Palo Alto, California USA. We are a Delaware corporation that has raised over $7M in venture capital. Quattr's AI-first platform evaluates like search engines to find opportunities across content, experience, and discoverability. A team of growth concierge analyze your data and recommends the top improvements to make for faster organic traffic growth. Growth-driven brands trust Quattr and are seeing sustained traffic growth.
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