Technical Seo

Interaction to Next Paint (INP)

A Core Web Vital that measures the responsiveness of a page to user interactions like clicks, taps, and key presses. It replaced First Input Delay (FID) in March 2024. Google considers under 200 milliseconds as good.

Why Interaction to Next Paint (INP) Matters for SEO

INP captures how snappy your site feels throughout the entire visit, not just the first interaction. Slow INP means users click a button and nothing happens for a noticeable delay, which kills trust and engagement on interactive pages.

How Interaction to Next Paint (INP) Works

INP observes all interactions during a page visit and reports the worst one (with some outlier filtering). The measurement covers the full round-trip from input to the next visual update. Poor scores usually come from heavy JavaScript execution blocking the main thread.

Common Mistakes

  • Loading too much third-party JavaScript that blocks the main thread
  • Running expensive DOM operations synchronously on user interactions
  • Ignoring INP because the old FID metric looked fine
About the Author

Lawrence Hitches is an AI SEO consultant based in Melbourne and General Manager of StudioHawk. He specialises in AI search visibility, technical SEO, and organic growth strategy. Book a free consultation →