Welcome back to Wildfire Marketing’s ongoing series on the latest changes to Google’s search algorithm: The Core Web Vitals. This time, we’re putting our combined decades of expertise in Search Engine Optimisation to explain the First Input Delay (FID) metric that will play a key part in getting you to the top of page one from Mid-June onwards!
What is First Input Delay?
First Input Delay is a real-time metric used to measure the delay between two events. The first is the point in which a user clicks an interactive, finite element, such as a download button or search bar. This does not include actions such as zooming and scrolling. The next is the point where your site can register the input and provide an output. This could be beginning the download or allowing the user to type in the search box. This will typically happen after your Largest Contentful Paint, also known as LCP, which we discussed in the introduction to this mini-series. The FID can also be described as the time it takes for a browsers event handlers to process an event.
Your FID needs to be quick, with Google believing an ideal time to be as low as 100ms
How to track First Input Delay?
As with most of the Core Web Vitals, FID is currently not supported by many commonplace page speed analysis tools. You may need to search for specific tools to find these new Core Web Vitals. Here at Wildfire Marketing, we are fully capable of providing in-depth analysis of your Core Web Vitals and can act upon that information to get the highest score possible.
What are The Benefits of First Input Delay?
As with the rest of The Core Web Vitals, improving your First Input Delay is highly beneficial for blog content in Google’s algorithm. You may be aware that Google currently places text content from AMP pages at the very top of Google results on mobile, and even gives them a separate “News” category on the Google App. If your page scores a high “Page Experience” score, your content will now be given this position. This practically guarantees that your content will be seen by 99% of users searching for the term. If you can improve your Core Web Vitals early – this could cement you at the top of the results whilst your competitors scramble to adjust to Google’s new metrics.
If you’re looking to improve your Core Web Vitals and get your new pages to the top of Google – trust Wildfire Marketing today. We hope our latest mini-series instalment on First Input Delay has improved your SEO knowledge, stay tuned for our final Core Web Vital blog on Cumulative Layout Shift or contact us today to improve your Core Web Vital scores.