This Tuesday, Google is rolling out changes to its core Web Vitals metric, replacing First Input Delay (FID) with Interaction to Next Paint (INP) as a core Web Vitals metric. On March 12, 2024, FID will be phased out and replaced by INP.
The Core Web Vitals update is different from the ongoing March 2024 Google Core update. Core updates and Core Web Vitals are not related to each other.
The news of INP replacing FID is not new. we knew it was coming. Google prepared us. And that will happen this Tuesday.
What is the next interaction with Paint? INP is a metric that uses data from the Event Timing API. Evaluate the responsiveness of your web pages. Google said interactions that cause a page to become unresponsive result in a poor user experience. INP observes the latency of every interaction a user has with a page and reports a single value below which all (or nearly all) interactions were.
Google provided the following example of what poor and good responsiveness looks like.
On the left, a long task prevents the accordion from opening. This causes users to click multiple times thinking the experience is broken. Once the main thread catches up, the delayed input will be processed, which may result in the accordion opening and closing unexpectedly.
What's changing? Google will replace the FID metric with the INP metric as part of Core Web Vitals on March 12, 2024. Google Search Console will include his INP in its Core Web Vitals report later this year, so you'll be able to start measuring your new INP score.
why do we care? Many SEOs have spent a lot of time on Core Web Vitals and FID scores, for better or worse. In the future, her same SEO person may shift focus from her FID to her INP. Here's our guide on how to optimize your INP: This change took some time to prepare, and Google added the new INP report to Search Console in the middle of last year.
Overall, we recommend that you don't get caught up in these metrics. Even Google says these are just one of the factors to consider when improving your site's page experience.
The fact that Google released the March 2024 Core Update at the same time that this Core Web Vitals change is being rolled out will confuse many SEOs and site owners. This means that if you see a significant drop in your rankings over the next few weeks, it's likely related to a core or spam update and has nothing to do with changes to your Core Web Vitals metrics.
This means that when you browse a website, you will know if it is responsive and fast. You don't necessarily need a third-party tool to clarify that. Create a great site for your users, but don't get hung up on these scores. Keep an eye on your INP score and see if there are any areas you can improve on right away.