Google has announced improvements to its Interaction to Next Paint (INP) metric for websites using popular consent management platforms (CMPs).
Google made this possible by working directly with platforms like OneTrust, Complianz, and Axeptio.
Barry Pollard, a Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) team member, announced the initiative in a recent post on the CrUX Announcements group.
Pollard stated:
“The team at Google have been working with a number of Consent Management Platforms, including OneTrust, Complianz and Axeptio, to improve Interaction To Next Paint (INP) by yielding more often—particularly when cookies are accepted.”
INP Insights From Google’s Chrome UX Team
Pollard revealed that Google’s collaboration with CMPs has “resulted in much improved INP for sites using these platforms.”
The team at Google have been working with a number of CMPs (including OneTrust, Complianz and Axeptio), to improve INP by yielding more often—particularly when cookies are accepted. This has resulted in much improved INP for sites using these platforms.https://t.co/W9P6uqNrc8 pic.twitter.com/Ce5nFY2TtO
— Chrome UX Report 📊 (@ChromeUXReport) April 9, 2024
He explained that the platforms now “yield more often” when cookies are accepted, directly impacting the site’s INP performance.
Related: Get Ready For Google’s INP Metric With These 5 Tools
The Importance Of INP
Introduced as a replacement for First Input Delay (FID), INP measures the time from when a user interacts with a page to when the browser can render the changed pixels to the screen.
As a Core Web Vital, INP plays a role in assessing a website’s interactivity and overall user experience.
Optimizing INP & Identifying Issues
You can evaluate your site’s current INP performance using tools like PageSpeed Insights and CrUX.
Google has also published a tutorial on identifying and resolving INP issues, guiding developers through steps like diagnosing problematic areas, optimizing JavaScript, and streamlining the DOM structure.
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According to data from DebugBear, a web performance monitoring platform, the average website takes 1.3 seconds to load the main page content (as measured by the Largest Contentful Paint metric).
However, there is significant variation in loading speeds across different websites, devices, and locations.
See also: How PubConsent CMP reduced INP for their customers by up to 64%
FAQ
What is Interaction to Next Paint (INP) and why is it important?
In simple terms INP measures the time from when a user interacts with a page to when the browser can render the changed pixels on the screen. It’s an evolution from the First Input Delay (FID) metric and is considered a Core Web Vital by Google.
INP is important because it quantifies the responsiveness of a webpage, which is an aspect of user experience. A lower INP ( < 200ms ) indicates a more interactive and responsive website, which can contribute to user satisfaction and potentially better search visibility.
How have Consent Management Platforms been improved for better INP results?
CMPs like OneTrust, Complianz, and Axeptio have been optimized through Google’s collaboration to enhance website INP metrics.
This was achieved by having the platforms “yield more often,” specifically when users accept cookies.
Yielding more often means these platforms allow the browser’s main thread to be less occupied with processing consent-related tasks, improving the INP metric and overall performance.
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