Interaction to Next Paint (INP): Meaning & Optimization

Website speed and user experience are inextricably linked. In our fast-paced digital world, every millisecond counts. Today's users expect websites to respond instantly and load information quickly. A key aspect of this is website responsiveness, which refers to how quickly a website responds to user interactions.

Google has always taken this aspect of user experience seriously and is constantly developing new metrics (Core Web Vitals) to better evaluate and rank websites. One such upcoming change, scheduled to be introduced in March 2024, is Interaction to Next Paint (INP). It is designed to measure the responsiveness of a website throughout interactions on a page.

While the First Input Delay (FID) metric has been used to measure responsiveness up to now, Google has recognized the limitations of this metric and developed a more comprehensive and effective method with INP. 

These new demands on responsiveness can seem intimidating at first glance, especially for companies that are comfortable with their existing digital platforms. But don't worry—we at this:matters are here to help.

As experts in managed WordPress hosting and WordPress development, we understand the importance of website speed and responsiveness. We have the tools, knowledge, and experience to ensure that your website meets the new INP standards and goes above and beyond. 

With our specialized hosting and development services, we can ensure that your website not only loads quickly, but also responds immediately to user interactions—for a seamless, satisfying user experience...and, as a result, better Google ranking results.

What is Interaction to Next Paint (INP)?

Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is a metric that assesses the overall responsiveness of a web page to user interactions by observing the latency of all click, tap, and keyboard interactions that occur during the duration of a user visit to a page. The final INP value is the longest observed interaction, ignoring outliers. Latency is the time between a user action and the occurrence of a visible response to it.

An interaction is a group of event actions triggered during the same logical user gesture. For example, "tap" interactions on a touchscreen device include multiple events, such as pointerup, pointerdown, and click. An interaction can be driven by JavaScript, CSS, built-in browser elements (such as form elements), or a combination thereof.

A good INP value is difficult to define, as the aim is to promote the development of technologies that prioritize good responsiveness. However, the many different types of devices must also be taken into account in order to set achievable development goals. 

An INP of up to 200 milliseconds means that the page has good responsiveness. An INP above 200 milliseconds and below 500 milliseconds means that the responsiveness of the page needs to be improved. An INP above 500 milliseconds means that the page has poor responsiveness.

The primary driving force behind interactivity is often JavaScript, although browsers also provide interactivity through controls that do not use JavaScript, such as check boxes, radio buttons, and CSS-driven controls.

For Interaction to Next Paint, only the following interaction types are observed:

• Clicking with a mouse
• Typing on a device with a touchscreen
• Pressing a key on a physical or on-screen keyboard

Hovering and scrolling are not included in INP. However, interactions can occur in the main document or in iFrames embedded in the document—for example, clicking the play button in an embedded video. Since a user does not know whether they are in an iFrame or not, measurement within iFrames is also necessary to measure the entire user experience for the parent page.

INP is hugely important for website performance. It contributes significantly to the user experience and influences search engine rankings. It should therefore be a key focus for web developers and SEO specialists who are constantly striving to optimize the performance of their websites.

Why is INP optimization important?

Optimizing the Interaction To Next Paint value is a crucial aspect of improving the quality of the user experience and ultimately the effectiveness of a website. If a website loads slowly, users may become frustrated and leave the page or not even click on it in the first place. This has an impact on various aspects such as user satisfaction, conversion rates, and even ranking in Google search results.

Impact of a slow website on user experience and conversion rates

User experience is a key aspect of any website. If users are dissatisfied because they have to wait too long for a website to load, they are likely to leave the site and may never return. This leads to high bounce rates and low user satisfaction.

In addition, loading speed is directly linked to a website's conversion rate. Conversion rates refer to the number of users who perform a desired action on the website, whether it be a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or contacting the company. Studies have shown that even a one-second delay in loading speed can reduce conversion rates by up to 7%.

Studies and statistics on loading speed and user satisfaction

There are numerous studies that prove the connection between a website's loading speed and user satisfaction. Google, for example, reported that 53% of mobile website visitors leave a page if it takes longer than three seconds to load.

Another study by Akamai found that the figure was still 40% for the same question. They also found that every second of delay in loading speed leads to an 11% reduction in page views, a 16% reduction in user satisfaction, and a 7% loss in conversions.

How do I optimize Interaction to Next Paint (INP)?

As already discussed, Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is a metric that evaluates a website's responsiveness to user interactions. It considers the latency of all qualified interactions during a visit to a page. 

Various factors can influence INP, including resource blocking and JavaScript optimization. A high INP can negatively impact the user experience, so websites should strive to achieve an INP of 200 milliseconds or less.

11 proven methods for improving the Interaction to Next Paint value

There are a number of ways and strategies to improve your INP score, including: 

1. Code minimization

Code minimization is the process of removing unnecessary or redundant code from a website's HTML, CSS,and JavaScript files without affecting functionality. By removing spaces, line breaks, and comments, the code becomes more compact, which reduces the file size and thus decreases the loading time of the website. 

2. Lazy loading

Lazy loading is a technique that delays the loading of content on a web page until it is actually needed. Images that are "below the fold" (i.e., not immediately visible when the page loads) are only loaded when the user scrolls to them. This reduces the initial data load that needs to be loaded from a server, thereby improving initial load times and INP.

3. Caching

Caching is a method of storing copies of files or data in a temporary location (the cache) in order to serve future requests more quickly. Once a web page has been loaded, elements such as images, CSS, and JavaScript are stored in the browser's cache. When the web page is visited again, the browser can load these elements from the cache instead of requesting them again from the server, which significantly reduces load time and improves INP. There are different types of caching, includingbrowser caching,server caching, and content delivery network (CDN) EDGE caching, each with its own specific advantages and use cases.

4. Optimization of server response time

Server response time is the time it takes for a server to respond to a request from a browser. Optimizing this time can significantly improve INP. Possible measures include better configuring the web server or database, improving the server infrastructure, or using serverless architectures such as AWS Lambda.

5. Content Delivery Network (CDN)

A CDN is a network of servers that delivers content to users based on their geographic proximity. A CDN can improve INP by reducing latency and delivering content to users faster. One that we always like to recommend is Cloudflare.

6. Image optimization

Images often account for a large portion of the data volume on a website. By optimizing images (compression, use of suitable formats such as WebP, use of responsive images), loading times can be significantly reduced.

7. Use of HTTP/3

This newer HTTP/3 protocol enables more efficient data transfer between server and client and can improve INP.

8. Preloading and prefetching

While lazy loading delays the download of resources until they are needed, preloading and prefetching download resources in advance that are likely to be needed shortly. This can help avoid delays in interaction.

9. Reducing redirects

Each redirect increases the loading time of a page. By minimizing the number of redirects, you can improve the INP.

10. Minimizing HTTP requests

Each additional HTTP request increases the loading time. Therefore, merging files such as CSS or JavaScript and reducing dependencies on third-party providers can reduce the number of HTTP requests and thus improve the INP.

11. Use asynchronous or delayed loading for JavaScript

By moving JavaScript that is not immediately needed to the end of the page, you can prevent the page from being delayed by the loading of JavaScript.

The importance of efficient WordPress configuration for INP optimization

Efficient WordPress configuration can significantly improveINP optimization. This can be achieved through various methods, such as optimizing website speed, using http/3, reducing HTTP requests, minimizing server response time, optimizing images, and implementing lazy loading.

It is important to note that every interaction can be divided into three phases:

1. Input delay that begins when the user starts interacting with the page and ends when the event callbacks for the interaction start running.
2. Processing time, which includes the time required to execute the event callbacks to completion.
3. Presentation delay, which is the time it takes for the browser to display the next frame containing the visual result of the interaction.

The sum of these three phases is the total interaction latency. Each individual phase of an interaction contributes a certain amount of time to the total interaction latency, so it is important to know how to optimize each part of the interaction to keep the runtime as short as possible.

These methods require careful planning and implementation, but they can bring significant improvements to INP, user experience, and ultimately search result rankings. this:matters is here to support you with its experienced team and outstanding expertise. Request a quote today, with no obligation. 

The role of managed WordPress hosting in INP optimization

Managed WordPress hosting plays a crucial role in optimizing the Interaction to Next Paint value. Compared to traditional shared hosting or do-it-yourself (DIY) hosting, managed WordPress hosting offers a variety of advantages that have a positive impact onwebsite performance.

Managed WordPress hosting services are specifically tailored to WordPress websites and include numerous features and optimizations focused on performance, security, and efficiency. A dedicated technical team at this:matters takes care of all backend tasks such as server setup, WordPress updates, data backup, and much more, so you can focus on growing your business.

this:matters is a provider of managed WordPress hosting and places particular emphasis on the performance of your hosting environment. Your servers are designed from the ground up for high performance, and the performance of the hosted websites does not come from a single element, but from a series of optimizations that are integrated into the entire hosting environment.

This starts with faster PHP processing, which significantly reduces your website's time to first byte (TTFB) – an important factor in making a good first impression with your website. Combined with a database that is up to 40% faster, intelligentHTML caching, and many other server-side adjustments, Managed WordPress Hosting from this:matters ensures that your website runs at its best.

Finally, this:matters' hosting infrastructure is designed to reduce the amount of code that needs to be executed on your WordPress website, resulting in faster and more resource-efficient processes. This also opens up the possibility of scaling your website without compromising performance.

With managed WordPress hosting from this:matters, you can be sure that visitors to your website will have the best experience.

The importance of WordPress development for INP optimization

Another crucial aspect of optimizing your website's INP isWordPress development. Although managed WordPress hosting offers important advantages forwebsite performance, it is individual and customizedWordPress development that can give you a real competitive edge.

WordPress development can take many forms, including theme development, plugin creation, or customizing your WordPress code. Each of these techniques allows you to optimize specific aspects of your website and improve its performance.

By developing and customizing WordPress themes, you can ensure that your theme is lean and efficient, which has a positive effect on your page's loading time. A bloated and inefficient theme, on the other hand, can significantly impair your website's performance.

Custom-built or customized WordPress plugins can help you optimize specific functions on your website. This can be achieved, for example, through better database management, a more efficient caching strategy, or the optimization of images and other resources.

Last but not least, directly customizing your WordPress code gives you almost unlimited control over your website's performance. This can involve optimizing existing code, removing unnecessary code, or even completely redesigning certain aspects of your website to improve performance.

This is precisely where the team of experts at this:matters comes in. With extensive experience in WordPressandplugin development and a clear focus on performance, this:matters offers you customized, high-performance solutions for your WordPress website.

You can rest assured that we at this:matters will be by your side every step of the way to help you get the most out of your WordPress website. Request a personalized quote today. 

Conclusion

In this article, we discussed the impact of INP onwebsite performance and user experience. It has become clear that faster websites lead to an improved INP value. This, in turn, is a reflection of optimized 

user experience and ultimately has a positive effect on search enginerankings. 

With customized solutions through managed WordPress hosting and WordPress development, this:matters can help you optimize your INP value and maximize your website's performance. Don't hesitate to contact us. Your website and its users will thank you for it.

Frequently asked questions about INP at a glance

What is Interaction to Next Paint?

The INP value is a metric that measures the time that elapses between a user interaction (e.g., a click) and the next visible reaction of the website. This can be the loading of new content or the appearance of a pop-up. The lower the INP value, the more responsive a website is and the better the user experience.

Is INP one of the new Core Web Vitals metrics?

INP is one of the new Core Web Vitals metrics. Google introduced this metric to measure the time that elapses between a user interaction and the next visible response on the website. This change underscores the constant adaptation and further development of Google's requirements to always promote the best possible user experience on the web.

What are good INP values and what are bad ones?

A value below 200 ms is considered a good INP value. Values between 200 and 500 are considered improvable, and values above 500 ms are poor values that have a direct impact on the ranking. 

Why is the loading time of a website so important?

The loading time of a website is a crucial factor for the user experience. Long loading times can cause users to become frustrated and leave the site, resulting in high bounce rates. Furthermore, search engines such as Google consider the loading time of a website to be one of the ranking factors. A fast loading time can therefore help your website achieve a better position in search engines.

How are managed WordPress hosting and a good Interaction to Next Paint value related?

Good managed WordPress hosting can help improve INP time by ensuring fast and efficient data processing. Managed WordPress hosting takes care of all the technical management of your website, including security, speed, WordPress updates, daily backups, and website availability. All of this contributes to faster loading times and better overall performance and security.