Everything You Need to Know About the March 2024 Core Web Vitals Update

On 12th March 2024, there was a major update to Google’s Core Web Vitals. We have known about this for a while, as it was first announced in 2022. So, what exactly does this update entail? Should you, as a website owner, be concerned in any way?

What Are Core Web Vitals? And Why Are They So Important?

Core Web Vitals are metrics determined by Google used to measure a website performance to ensure the user page experience is as smooth as possible. Website and business owners are able to track these core web vitals, using the valuable information in these metrics to boost rankings and provide the best possible user experience to everyone who clicks onto their site.

Whenever there is a Core Web Vitals update, every webmaster scrambles to see how it might impact their own site pages.

Keep in mind that this Core Web Vitals report differs from the March Core Update! It can be a little confusing, considering these are both Google updates that occurred in March 2024 and include the word ‘core’. Click here if you’re looking for information on the March 2024 core update.

What Has Changed?

The only thing that has changed in the new Core Web Vitals report is a single metric. Google has replaced the First Input Delay (FID)First Input Delay measures the time between the user's initial input and when they see the result of that action on screen. with Interaction to Next Paint (INP). It was first announced back in May 2022, with 12th March 2024 becoming the official starting date. So, as of right now, it’s been entirely replaced. The update certainly isn’t news for SEO professionals (or those who like to keep up with Google’s metric updates), as it’s been coming for a while.

Will it Impact Your Ranking?

You may be worried that the metric change from FID to INP will affect your Google ranking, but you don’t need to worry about that. If you’ve experienced a significant shift in your search rankings, it’s probably more to do with the March 2024 core update, which changed ranking quality thresholds. If your ranking has plummeted, it’s worth looking into content quality instead.

Worried about your ranking dropping? Check out our other blog: Identifying the Cause of Your SEO Ranking Drop. We also offer a free site-wide audit for SEO.

FID Vs. INP: What’s the Difference?

First, let’s be clear: both FID (First Input Delay) and INP (Interaction to Next Paint) are metrics that measure website responsiveness. They just do it a little differently.

The FID metric measures from when a user interacts with the web page to the very first response from the page, which can be influenced by things like network stability. In a gist, it shows how long it takes for the browser to respond, but it only measures the delay for the very first interaction a user has.

Then there’s the new one: INP. This metric measures the time between a user’s interaction with a site until that interaction is processed and visible on the screen. It’s about how fast the interaction occurs, and the feedback is more visual, as it focuses on critical content rendering. If it doesn’t render quickly enough, such as a button turning a different colour when hovering over it, that indicates a poor user experience on a web page.

Overall, INP is more visual and about every user interaction, whereas FID focuses more on tracking clicks. If you want to learn more about the INP update, click here.

What is a Good INP Score?

Naturally, you’ll want to measure this new metric, which means knowing what makes a good INP score. Good is anything under 200 milliseconds. Between 200-500 milliseconds means it needs improvement, and anything over 500 milliseconds is considered poor.

Optimizing your INP score is all about identifying the slower interactions so you can reproduce them in the lab or field. Here’s a good resource for this!

Don’t Worry Too Much About the Details

It can be easy to fall into the trap of obsessing too much about individual Google metrics such as page speed, but that might not actually help your website perform better. It can be tempting – these metrics provide objective, clean, and easy-to-define scoring, something concrete you can trace and manipulate. However, spending too much time on that for SEO purposes is likely a waste of your time. An all-encompassing managed SEO service is more valuable, as it considers everything from content creation to website loading speed.

Improving Your Rankings

Keeping up with these changes is helpful, and knowing your INP score and what Google measures is a great way to ensure your website is keeping up with quality changes. Don’t fall too deep into the game of metric scoring, though.

Are your rankings taking a hit after the March changes? Let the team here at Click Intelligence help you with SEO auditing. We comply with all Google updates, taking everything on board to help our clients create a high-performing website that boosts traffic. You’ll be in safe, experienced hands with us, so book a free strategy call today.