Before March 12th, a good INP score was just a bonus, but NOW it should become one of your main web performance goals. INP has officially been included in Core Web Vitals! Are you ready for the change?

If you don’t know what Interaction to Next Paint (INP) actually is, read our detailed explanation here: What is INP? 

In this article, we will cover the topic of poor and bad INP scores.

Which values are acceptable, what should you aim for, and how does a good INP look in practice? 

INP scores – good, needs improvement, or poor

The INP score tells you how fast users can interact with your website. 

How it happens?

Each timespan between a click or another interaction and its effect is measured. The result can be considered  “good,” “needs improvement,” or “poor.” 

Sounds like all other Core Web Vitals, right? 

There’s a catch though. All interaction times are measured, but INP typically reports the longest one. 

You can read about exceptions to the rule in our article. 

Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is calculated in milliseconds. We can classify the scores into three levels: 

• Time below 200 milliseconds is “good”,
• Between 200 and 500 milliseconds “needs improvement,” 
• Over 500 milliseconds: “poor.” 

How to pass the INP threshold? 

For each page, aim to reduce the time of the longest interaction below 200 milliseconds. To pass the INP threshold for your website as a whole, 75% of all your page views need to report good INP scores. 

The easiest way to verify if you pass this threshold is to look into the CRUX data. You can see INP scores divided by device type and month by month. 

This website passes the 75% mark for the desktop, but for mobile devices, it needs to be improved. 

You can get a user-friendly Looker Studio report with CrUX data right here, just follow the instructions.

What does good INP really mean? 

Good INP means that even the longest interaction by a real user with your page was fast.

That’s impressive.

It means your customers can quickly and smoothly navigate your website and perform additional actions such as purchasing or submitting forms. 

Good and poor INP scores example

An INP score over 500 milliseconds is considered “poor.” 

It does not sound like a long time, but it takes forever when interacting with the page.

Imagine waiting over half a second to see any effect of your click every time you click something. 

Click here to see the full DevTools recording

This is different from what a good INP score looks like.

After a link is clicked, the user has to wait longer to see any visual effect of their interaction. In our video, the first effect after clicking or tapping a link is a narrow loading bar at the top of the page. When it shows up, the interaction time is measured. INP does not report the time needed to load a new page, but to show the user that the link appears clicked. 

The user can click on the element again and become frustrated when new elements show up on the screen with a considerable delay.

Or they can just leave the website after a few such situations. 

Don’t underestimate how important good INP is for both SEO and users.

Your returning visitors know your product and website, but they still value their time. Not all users will wait until the last photo below the fold is loaded and your website is fully ready to process the action. They tend to start interactions as soon as possible. Individual user interaction times can be affected by their behavior or even browser extensions, but that’s how the real user experience looks. 

Below, you can see what a good INP score looks like. All the interactions were handled smoothly and quickly. 

Click here to see the full DevTools recording

What should you aim for? 

The shorter the interaction time, the better. You should reduce the Interaction to Next Paint as much as possible. 

The best scenario is when you see a “No INP issues detected.” message in your Google Search Console: We can help you with that part! 

Remember, the INP affects not only your SEO but especially user experience and conversions. 

If you need help achieving better INP scores, reach out to us and let’s chat! 

Read our articles about the INP: 

More coming soon!