Google will make a big update to Core Web Vitals on March 12, 2024. They’re swapping First Input Delay (FID) for Interaction to Next Paint (INP). This switch will impact website owners globally, so they need to pay attention to this metric and any improvements it might require.

Google posted the announcement on its Web.dev blog on January 31.

“Today, we’re announcing that INP will officially become a Core Web Vital and replace FID on March 12 of this year and that FID will be deprecated in this transition.“

Before delving into this change, it’s important to take a quick glance at the current Google Core Web Vitals metrics and their role in Google’s website analysis.

As we mentioned in a previous blog post, Google introduced Core Web Vitals in 2020, three specific metrics Google deems crucial for a web page’s user experience:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This measures loading performance.
• First Input Delay (FID): This measures interactivity.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): This measures visual stability.

They all aim to assist website owners and developers in understanding and enhancing their site’s performance.

Watch this clip to learn more about Core Web Vitals.

What is the New Interaction to Next Paint (INP) Metric?

According to Google, Interaction to Next Paint (INP) measures the delay users may face when interacting with your website. This metric evaluates the time gap between a user’s action, like clicking a button or touching the screen, and the subsequent visual update on the site, termed as the “next paint.” For instance, if a user clicks a button and encounters a half-second delay before the page refreshes, the INP value would be 500 milliseconds. The browser dedicates time to processing the website code and producing the updated page display during this period.

To sum things up, Google is introducing this update to provide users with a more comprehensive understanding of how responsive a website is to their inputs and how quickly they can see the outcomes of their actions, which, in turn, will provide a more accurate and uniform method for assessing user experience across various devices and network conditions.

How to Prepare for This Update?

Since Google has explicitly stated that including INP as a Core Web Vitals metric will impact search rankings, websites that provide a smooth and captivating user experience with immediate visual feedback after interactions are likely to receive a ranking boost; conversely, websites that show significant delays between user inputs and visible feedback may experience a negative impact on their rankings.

Let’s explore Google’s recommendations for a website to succeed in search rankings and user engagement:

“The first step in this transition is to figure out if your website’s INP passes the “good” threshold. All Core Web Vitals are scored based on how well they perform in the field at the 75th percentile of all page loads.

The easiest way to see how your website is doing on INP is to use PageSpeed Insights…“

For websites that do not currently meet the “good” INP threshold, Google offers this guide on optimizing for INP.

Final Thoughts

With INP replacing FID as a Core Web Vitals metric on March 12, 2024, how your website handles user interactions can significantly impact its SEO performance. Interaction to Next Paint (INP) will become a crucial metric for assessing web page responsiveness, providing a comprehensive understanding of how quickly a site responds to user interactions beyond just the First Input Delay (FID). Enhancing your INP score results in a better user experience, which is certainly worth the time and effort!

Managing a law firm’s website can be demanding, often requiring specialized expertise in both SEO and technical aspects. At Justia, our team of legal marketing experts can assist your law firm in maximizing its return on investment by staying up to date with Google’s ever-evolving updates and industry trends.

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