How we prepared for Google's INP Update
Mastering Google's INP Update: Our Success Strategy Revealed!
Google is set to revolutionise their Core Web Vitals metrics on March 12, 2024, by introducing Interaction to Next Paint (INP), a new measure of responsiveness that will replace First Input Delay (FID).
If you're not familiar with INP, FID, or the Core Web Vitals, we've crafted an in-depth guide to help you navigate these concepts. The essence of the article lies in the fact that both FID and INP gauge the responsiveness and interactivity of a website. These metrics are integral to Google's overarching Core Web Vitals framework, which aims to assess the quality of a user's experience on any given website.
We often hear users describe websites with high FID or INP scores as "fast" and "snappy," while those with low scores are labeled as "sluggish" and "laggy." This is because, fundamentally, both metrics analyze the time lapse between a user interacting with a website element and that element responding.
Consider a button as an example. Upon clicking a button, you anticipate a color change to confirm that your click has been recognised. If this color change were to take a full second, the website would seem sluggish, resulting in a subpar user experience. It's important to note that although FID and INP are closely related, they are not identical metrics.
Rising to the Challenge: Our Success Story
Google's introduction of INP instantly piqued our interest. Our clientele across the globe relies on us for top-notch Core Web Vitals, necessitating a swift pivot to fine-tune our platform for this fresh metric. Leveraging Google Chrome's Dev Tools, our platform's engineering team meticulously scrutinized INP metrics to identify latency in every interaction across multiple websites. This deep dive unearthed prevalent issues that, when rectified at a platform-wide level, brought about substantial improvements.
Our Platform Maintains Commanding Lead - Still!
If you're involved in website development, the transition to INP is more of an interesting tidbit rather than a pressing concern. This is due to our platform's engineering team consistently enhancing the foundational technologies of each website to ensure optimal Core Web Vital scores, including INP. You can verify this first hand! The new INP measurement is now visible through Google's PageSpeed Insights tool in the "Other Notable Metrics" section. While most websites on our platform currently achieve a "Good" ranking for all Core Web Vital metrics, there are exceptions. Websites that utilise proprietary code or custom/third-party widgets may require additional optimizations to improve their scores.
