Introducing INP to Core Web Vitals

In an ongoing effort to enhance web performance and user experiences, Google has recently introduced a significant update to the Core Web Vitals metrics. As of May 10, 2023, Google has introduced a new metric called Interaction to Next Paint (INP) within the Core Web Vitals framework. This update aims to provide a more comprehensive evaluation of a webpage's responsiveness and overall user experience. Let's explore the details of this latest update and its implications for website owners and developers.

In early 2020, Google's Chrome Team introduced the Core Web Vitals to offer a suite of quality signals for web pages. Today, the Google Team announced an upcoming change in the metrics for the Core Web Vitals to enhance the evaluation of a webpage's user experience. In this article, we will delve into this change and its implications for Google Search and site owners.

One of the metrics within the Core Web Vitals, First Input Delay (FID), focuses on measuring responsiveness. However, the Chrome team acknowledges the limitations of FID and has been actively exploring alternative metrics to address these constraints more effectively. In 2022, they introduced Interaction to Next Paint (INP) as an experimental metric and collaborated with the community to assess its efficacy.

After a year of rigorous testing and valuable feedback from the community, the Chrome team has made the decision to promote INP as the new metric for responsiveness within the Core Web Vitals. Starting from March 2024, INP will replace FID. The Chrome team has shared an informative blog post elaborating on the rationale behind this transition and providing further details on the new metric.

Impact on Google Search Console

With the integration of INP into the Core Web Vitals, FID will be phased out by March 2024. To assist site owners and developers in preparing for this change and evaluating their pages based on the new metric, Search Console will include INP in the Core Web Vitals report later this year. When INP officially replaces FID in March 2024, the Search Console report will cease displaying FID metrics and instead utilize INP as the new measure of responsiveness.

Implications for Site Owners

If you have been following the recommended guidelines to enhance Core Web Vitals, you likely have already considered the responsiveness of your pages. The improvements made to optimize FID serve as a solid foundation for further enhancing INP and the overall responsiveness of your webpages.

We strongly urge site owners to prioritize achieving satisfactory Core Web Vitals for improved search rankings and an enhanced user experience. However, it's important to note that while favorable statistics within the Core Web Vitals report on Search Console or other third-party reports are beneficial, they do not guarantee top rankings.

For a comprehensive understanding of page experience and its relationship with Core Web Vitals, we recommend reviewing our guidance on comprehending and approaching page experience within Google Search results.

To obtain additional information about the new metric, we encourage you to consult the Chrome team's blog post. Additionally, you can refer to our optimization guide specifically designed to assist you in optimizing your pages with respect to INP.