Google's Core Web Vitals Update: Embracing Interaction to Next Paint (INP)

Google redefined the landscape of Core Web Vitals metrics on March 12, 2024, introducing Interaction to Next Paint (INP). This new metric aims to provide a more comprehensive measure of a website's responsiveness, replacing the First Input Delay (FID).

For those who might be navigating through the terminologies of INP, FID, or Core Web Vitals for the first time, we've prepared an in-depth guide to bring you up to speed. Essentially, both FID and INP are designed to gauge the interactivity and responsiveness of a website, playing a crucial role in Google’s initiative to measure the quality of user experience on any website.

A website with stellar FID or INP scores is perceived as quick and responsive, whereas lower scores might signal a sluggish, less user-friendly experience. This perception is grounded in the delay (or lack thereof) between a user's interaction with a website element and the website's response to that interaction.

For instance, consider the immediate feedback you expect when clicking a button – a change in colour to acknowledge your action. A significant delay in this feedback can tarnish the user experience, highlighting the subtle yet significant differences between FID and INP metrics.

What is Interaction to Next Paint & Why Now?

Google’s introduction of INP addresses some known limitations of the FID metric by accounting for all user interactions, not just the first. This broader perspective makes INP a more accurate reflection of a website's overall user experience.

The team at web.dev offers a deep dive into the technicalities of INP, shedding light on its significance and operational details.

This shift towards INP aligns with our commitment at WebHero to excel in providing top-tier Core Web Vitals, ensuring our platform is optimised for this new metric. Our platforms engineering team leveraged Google Chrome’s Dev Tools to analyse INP metrics across numerous WebHero sites, identifying and addressing common latency issues to enhance performance platform-wide.

Here are some insights into the development teams optimisation strategies, highlighting a move towards native CSS animations, optimised analytics calls, and process reallocation to improve responsiveness without bogging down the main thread.

These optimisations have markedly improved INP scores across WebHero client websites, reinforcing our commitment to delivering exceptional Core Web Vital scores.

Staying Ahead with WebHero

For WebHero clients, the transition to INP metrics should be seamless, thanks to ongoing efforts to optimise underlying technologies for the best possible Core Web Vital scores, including INP.

You can verify this for yourself using Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool, where INP is listed under “Other Notable Metrics.”

While most websites currently excel in Core Web Vital metrics, there’s always room for improvement, especially for sites utilising custom or 3rd party integrations. A significant delay in this feedback can tarnish the user experience, highlighting the subtle yet significant differences between FID and INP metrics.

*Googles Technology Report

Optimising for INP

Before overhauling your widgets, confirm if your site indeed requires optimisation via real-world data from PageSpeed Insights. Identifying the INP bottleneck can be challenging, but Google’s web.dev blog provides guidance on pinpointing and addressing unresponsive elements.

Prioritise scrutinising custom or third-party JavaScript for potential inefficiencies, focusing on optimisations that directly improve INP performance.

Elevating Your SEO Game

Core Web Vitals, including INP, are integral to SEO, but they're part of a broader strategy. Enhancing your site's SEO involves a holistic approach, including optimising image alt-text, meta titles, descriptions, and content, all areas where WebHero’s AI Assistant can provide support.

Rest assured, with WebHero handling Core Web Vitals, you can devote more time to exploring additional SEO strategies through our SEO-focused articles, ensuring your website climbs the search engine rankings.