Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is a new Core Web Vitals statistic that will start influencing Google results in March 2024. INP assesses how rapidly your websites respond to user inputs, such as button clicks, by presenting visual feedback, such as altering the shopping cart icon or product color.

However, because INP is an important indicator that influences website user experience, you should work on increasing it as soon as feasible rather than waiting for Google to start using it as a ranking factor.

In this blog, let’s walk through What is INP and google's latest addition in its core web vitals. Let’s get started!

What is Interaction to Next Paint (INP)?

Interaction to Next Paint is a new statistic that helps website owners and developers determine whether the webpage's overall interactions are responsive.

INP calculates the time it takes for a website to respond to all user interactions (e.g., clicking a button or tapping a link) and returns the maximum time that all or most interactions were under.

For example, if a page has a bad INP value of more than 500ms, it indicates that one or more interactions on the page take more than 500ms to reply, which is deemed unresponsive. On the other hand, an excellent INP score of 000-200ms indicates that your website is extremely responsive and engaging, resulting in a seamless user experience. 

Why is INP important?

INP focuses on user experience and reactivity. We all know that site speed is really crucial. Users in today's fast-paced digital environment want websites that are both speedy and responsive. If your website is sluggish to respond to user inputs, it can result in a bad user experience, higher bounce rates, and, eventually, lost income. INP helps to reveal interactivity pain sites.

This new statistic varies from current Core Web Vital indicators in that it focuses solely on user interactions. The remaining metrics complete a balanced picture for page speed.

INP is especially critical for websites that rely extensively on user interaction, such as e-commerce stores, social networking platforms, and gaming sites. A low INP score suggests that the website is responsive and offers an excellent user experience. Improving your website's INP score can also help your search engine rankings.

How to View Your INP? (Google's latest addition in its core web vitals)

Although INP is not currently being utilized as a ranking criteria, it is still being reported. This allows you to address any INP-related concerns before they become a ranking factor in March 2024. There are now several ways to examine your site's INP rating and associated pages.

One option is to enter the URL of a page into Google PageSpeed Insights. 

Logging into Google Search Console and viewing the Core Web Vitals section will also show you your site's NPI status, if you've added it to Search Console.

What causes INP issues?

Before we get into how to enhance INP, it's crucial to understand what's generating problems at your site.

Poor performance is frequently caused by underpowered or low-quality hosting, unoptimized themes or site designs, and bloated or misconfigured plugins, which all contribute to lower INP ratings.

Another typical problem is having too much JavaScript on your website or deploying JavaScript where it isn't needed.

Tags that are no longer required, such as those from third-party services like Google Analytics, can contribute, as can plugins that have been installed but are no longer in use.

Conclusion

Thanks to INP, you can now discover which pages on your website are unresponsive to user interactions.

Even if INP isn't influencing your Google results right now, you should absolutely aim to increase this measure to make your store more user-friendly.