With Google continuing to refine its search ranking criteria toward user experience, Interaction to Next Paint has become a key Core Web Vitals metric. It supersedes First Input Delay to highlight Google’s focus on a responsive, interactive experience every time users interact with a site-not just the first time. In this article, we’ll go into further detail about why INP matters, plus some actionable ways to enhance your INP score and ways to continuously monitor it.
What is INP and Why is it Important?
INP, or Interaction to Next Paint, is a metric that measures any user interaction such as clicking or scrolling on a page, and the next on-screen painting of an update, commonly referred to as “next paint.” INP’s predecessor, FID, only measures this delay once for the first interaction. In other words, INP captures a more holistic view of responsiveness on a page, where latency is assessed across many interactions. Here’s why that matters:
Improved User Experience: The sites that respond quickly to user interactions will tend to keep users longer and reduce frustration.
Better SEO: As INP forms part of the Core Web Vitals today, it directly influences the ranking position in search. A site with low INP scores may lag behind competition that better optimizes responsiveness.
Full Performance Insight: INP shows performance bottlenecks that may never be seen if only the first interaction is measured. It gives developers a fuller view of the user experience across interactions.
INP Scoring
A good INP score is 200 milliseconds or less; a score above 500 milliseconds is poor. Anything between 200 and 500 milliseconds shows room for improvement.
How to Optimize for INP
Getting a fast, responsive web page requires taking careful steps to score well in Interaction to Next Paint (INP). Here are some easy steps our web development team utilizes to help boost page responsiveness:
1. Reduce Work on the Main Thread
- Make JavaScript More Efficient: Cutting down on JavaScript running on the main thread helps make your site feel quicker.
- Break Up Large Code Files: Split big bundles of code into smaller pieces to speed up loading.
- Delay Non-Essential Scripts: Only load scripts when they’re actually needed.
- Clean Up Unused Code: Remove code that’s outdated or repetitive.
2. Improve Interaction Readiness
- Optimize Input Handling: Use passive event listeners to avoid blocking actions that don’t need it, and avoid long-running tasks when handling inputs to keep interactions responsive.
- Use Efficient Event Listeners: Events like scrolling and resizing can quickly bog down the main thread. Debounce or throttle these events to keep things running smoothly.
3. Optimize for Smoother Rendering
- Leverage GPU Acceleration: Use the GPU for animations like sliders or carousels to reduce main thread load.
- Avoid Layout Changes During Animations: Instead of changing CSS properties that trigger reflow, use transforms and opacity to keep animations smooth.
4. Prioritize Async Loading
- Lazy Load Non-Essential Content: Delay loading for images, videos, and other secondary content to allow faster interaction with key features.
- Use Progressive Enhancement: Load the core functionality of your site first, and add animations or extra content afterward so users can interact right away.
5. Monitor and Test INP Performance
The optimal INP score requires ongoing monitoring and testing. Here’s how you make sure that gets better with time:
- Performance Testing Tools: Utilize tools such as Google Lighthouse, PageSpeed Insights, and Chrome DevTools for INP testing and analysis. These tools will give you actionable insights on the causes of poor responsiveness and very specific guidance for improvement.
- Real User Monitoring: By using RUM,you would be able to track real users interactively in real time, thus giving a more and more accurate picture of what actually happens to users in reality regarding INP. With this approach, you can capture different latencies related to devices, networks, and the behavior of the user.
- Google Search Console: Check your Core Web Vitals report on a regular basis in Google Search Console as a way to monitor INP. The report shows which interactions by users may lag behind, and thus you learn where exactly to put efforts to better optimize your website.
Conclusion
Optimizing for INP isn’t just about checking that box in Google’s Core Web Vitals; it’s about creating a better experience for your users and making sure your website really performs at its best. Since INP takes a holistic look at interactivity, efforts you invest in improving INP will result in a smoother, more responsive, and more enjoyable experience on your website for all users.
For organizations that want to get an edge over their competitors, INP optimization is key. Since it’s about users’ time on site and SEO, investment in INP optimization means better engagement, higher rankings, and at the end, conversions.
Ready to take your website to a whole new level of interactivity and responsiveness? At Big Drop, we are experts in enhancing Core Web Vitals to optimum for the best results on your website. Contact us today. Let’s work together for a more engaging, faster online experience.