As we know, Google regularly releases new updates and metrics. One such update is the Interaction to Next Paint (INP). You might have heard of this term. 

It is a performance metric used to measure websites’ responsiveness to user interactions. If you want to improve your search engine rankings, then it is crucial for you to learn everything about this metric.

In this blog, we will discuss the Interaction to Next Paint in detail and offer some tips on optimizing it. 

What is Interaction to Next Paint (INP)?

Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is a Core Web Vitals introduced by Google in March 2024 which has replaced the First Input Delay (FID). It is a performance metric tool used to check a website’s responsiveness to user interactions. 

Simply put, it means that Google Interaction with Next Paint measures how quickly a website responds to user interactions. It tracks the timings when a user interacts with any page (like clicking a button or typing) and when the page visibly updates in response.

What user interactions does INP consider?

For INP, the following interactions are valid:

• Clicks
• On a touch screen, taps
• Pressing a key

The following exchanges are not considered valid:

• Hovering
• Scrolling

Why is Interaction to Next Paint Important?

Take an instance: Imagine you are looking to do some shoe shopping. You find a website and open it, but it takes too long to respond. Don’t you feel frustrated? Or will you not press the back button at that time? Your answer would be yes!

So, this is important for the INP-Interaction to Next Paint. Whenever a user visits a site that takes longer than usual, he will think that there are some errors or the site is unresponsive or broken; all these things will lead to a poor user experience.

That is why INP is important. It tells website owners how their website responds to users’ input. Therefore, they can take the necessary steps to fix it by measuring their INP score if it is low. 

Interaction to Next Pain (INP) as a Core Web Vital

As mentioned earlier, Interaction to Next Paint Google has replaced the First Input Delay, thus becoming a core web vital. Although it has replaced it, they are different in work. 

So, let us see how they are different.

How is Interaction to Next Paint Different from the First Input Delay?

The significant difference between the INP and FID is that the latter focuses on one element, the load responsiveness, which means the webpage’s loading speed. The INP focuses on user-centric page experience and quality of interaction between the website and the user. This signifies that INP is much more efficient than FID.

 Let’s see how this Google Interaction to Next Paint (INP) works.

How does the Google Interaction to Next Paint (INP) work?

As we know, the INP measures the time it takes for a page to respond visually after a user interacts with it. Here is how it works:

• User Interaction: A user initiates an action, such as a click or a tap.
• Processing: The webpage processes this input, which might involve running scripts, fetching data, or making layout changes.
• Next Paint: Once the processing is complete, the webpage updates the visible content on the screen. The INP measures the time from the initial interaction to this visual update.

How to Measure Interaction to Next Paint (INP)?

You can accurately measure the Interaction to Next Paint using website speed testing tools like Page Speed Insights, Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX), Google Lighthouse, or GTmetrix and WebPageTest.

These tools will help you monitor and improve your website’s responsiveness. They will give you information on the performance of your Core Web Vitals metrics and how to optimize for them.

The important point to note here is that several variables, including the size and complexity of a web page and the quantity of CSS and JavaScript files loaded, can influence an INP value.

Now, you must be wondering how I can tell if my website INP score is good or not. Don’t worry; we are moving towards this.

What is a Good Interaction to Next Paint (INP) Score?

The INP score consists of three major categories. The range provided under these categories decides whether your Interaction to Next Paint score is good or if you need improvements to optimize it.

• Good: INP under 200 milliseconds (ms)
• Needs Improvement: INP between 200 ms and 500 ms
• Poor: INP over 500 ms

The INP timings are measured in milliseconds. When you get a score under 200 ms, your website has good responsiveness.

An INP score between 200 ms and 500 ms suggests that it is mediocre and needs improvement. It would help if you focused on how to improve interaction -to-next paint (INP).

A score above 500 ms shows that your website has poor web page responsiveness and user interaction.

How to Optimize Interaction to Next Paint?

If you have found that your interaction with the following paint Google score is low, it is time to optimize it.  Here are some techniques through which you can improve your INP score:

Optimize JavaScript

It would help if you optimized your website’s Javascript for an excellent INP score. It is a significant element for the websites built in that. You can optimize it by doing the following steps:

• You can minimize the javascript so that your website loads faster.
• Make sure your JavaScript code is efficient. You can use some tools that you organize, like AngularJS.
• You can make use of CDN- Content Delivery Network. This will help to deliver your website to the right audience. 

Enhance Every Phase of Interaction

• Reduce Input Delay: This is essential for INP, as it slashes the time it takes for event processing to begin after a user action.
• Quicken the Processing Speed: To increase INP, extend event callbacks as much as possible.
• Diminish Presentation Delay: Reduce the time between the event’s end and the visual update.

Use Web Workers

Web Workers permit you to run scripts in the background without affecting the user interface. This can help keep your main thread free of user interactions.

You have to create two Javascript files to use web workers. The first is to build main.js to initiate the web worker script tasks; the other is worker.js, which contains the web worker’s tasks. 

Reduce Heavy Tasks

If you want to perform heavy tasks or calculations on your website, try to do them in idle time or asynchronously so that they do not impact the page response. 

Reduce the Input Delay component.

Input Delay means the time between a user’s interaction and the server’s response, such as clicks. You should take the following steps:

• You can reduce this by breaking the background CPU activity on the main thread.
• You can effectively manage several simultaneous user operations to cut down on input delay.
• Also, the interaction delays should be tracked regularly for the ongoing process. 

Conclusion

To conclude the content here, the Interaction to Next Paint is a core web vital used to measure the time the website takes to respond to the user’s interaction.

The lower your INP score, the better. A good INP score is under 200 ms. As mentioned above, you can use various tools like Page Speed Insights. Moreover, it would help if you always aimed for this score to get a better user experience. Follow the tips we discussed earlier to optimize your INP.

For more updates, connect with iYnix Digital, a comprehensive digital marketing company in the USA. We provide a complete set of digital marketing solutions that can help a business flourish efficiently.