Google Just Changed Core Web Vitals. Your Site Might Have Become Invisible.

On January 14, 2026, Google quietly dropped an update that blew up the rankings of half the web. New metric: INP (Interaction to Next Paint) replaces FID. If you don't know what that means, don't sweat it. Here's what matters: your Google ranking might have tanked 20 positions overnight.

Yeah, you read that right. While you slept, Google changed the rules.

The News in Two Sentences

Google now measures how your site REACTS to clicks, not just how fast it loads. A site that loads in 1 second but freezes every time someone clicks = penalized. Hard.

Why This Matters (And Why It Sucks)

Look at these numbers:

• 40% of web traffic comes through Google (Search + Display)
• Slow pages = poor ranking
• Poor ranking = no visitors
• No visitors = no conversions = no revenue

Simple math.

Why does it suck? Because Google changes the rules every 6 months. Last time it was speed (LCP), before that it was visual stability (CLS), now it's interactivity (INP), and next month it'll probably be something else. The color of your logo based on the user's GPS location.

It's exhausting. Absolutely exhausting.

BUT (and this matters) : Google is actually right this time.

Why Google Is Right (Even Though It's Annoying)

Think about the last terrible website experience you had. Not a slow-loading page (at least you see something happening). No. A page that loads normally, but absolutely nothing happens when you click.

You click a button. Nothing. You wait 2 seconds. Still nothing. You click again. Suddenly the page explodes with 3 simultaneous actions because all your clicks stacked up.

That's a shit experience.

Analogy: it's like a restaurant that seats you instantly (fast loading) but takes 10 minutes to take your order (zero interactivity). Technically the service starts fast. Practically it's a nightmare.

That's why INP is a real metric. Google penalizes sites that behave like that restaurant. And it's justified.

Who's Actually Getting Hit

Symptoms of bad INP (>500ms):

• You click a button → nothing happens for 500ms or more
• Forms that lag like an old PC game
• Dropdown menus taking half a second to respond
• Chat widgets freezing the entire page
• Animations that make scrolling stutter

Who gets crushed the hardest:

• Sites with heavy JavaScript (React, Vue, Angular not optimized)
• Landing pages loaded with third-party scripts (Facebook pixel, Google Analytics 4, Drift, etc.)
• Pages with complex, unnecessary animations
• E-commerce with too many event listeners on products

Who doesn't care:

• Simple static sites (basic blogs, simple brochures)
• Truly minimal pages
• Sites already optimized for performance (hey Stripe, hey Notion)

What This Means for You

If your site has good INP (<200ms), you're fine. Google smiles at you.

If you're in the orange zone (200-500ms), you need to watch. It could get critical.

If you're beyond that (>500ms), you're getting buried in search results. And every week you lose more positions.

Here's the irony: you could have the world's best content, best conversions, best customer reviews. But if your site freezes on clicks, Google hides you. It's absurd and logical at the same time.

How to Test Your INP (10 Minutes, Really)

Go to PageSpeed Insights (google.com/pagespeed/insights) and enter your URL.

Scroll down to Interaction to Next Paint (INP). You'll see a score in milliseconds.

• Green (0-200ms) = Good. You're safe.
• Orange (200-500ms) = Needs improvement. You'll start losing ranking soon.
• Red (>500ms) = Critical. You're sinking.

Test on mobile mandatory. That's where the real scores happen. Your desktop score might be good and your mobile score catastrophic (and it's your mobile score that counts for ranking).

How to Fix This (This Week)

Bad INP? Here's what to do first.

Step 1: JavaScript Audit (30 min)

Which scripts are killing your INP? Here's how to find out:

1. Open DevTools (F12 on Chrome)
2. Go to Performance
3. Record a session of clicking a button (press Record, click a button, stop)
4. Look for "JavaScript Execution" spikes

9 times out of 10, it's a third-party script : Analytics, Chat, Facebook pixel, or a badly optimized React bundle.

Step 2: Remove (or defer) useless scripts

That chat widget generating 2 leads per month but adding 500ms of latency? Remove it. Or at least load it after 5 seconds (defer).

Every third-party script should pass this test: "How much revenue does this generate per month? If it's less than the cost in INP, kill it."

Step 3: Optimize your JavaScript

If you're using a framework (React, Vue), there's an 80% chance you're loading unnecessary code:

• Code splitting: load only what you need
• Tree shaking: remove dead code
• Lazy loading: load heavy components after the click

Step 4: Optimize event listeners

Big projects attach 50 event listeners everywhere. Many are debounced poorly, or execute heavy code.

Use requestAnimationFrame for animations and DOM operations. That's what it's for.

Step 5: Test again, and again

After each change, retest on PageSpeed Insights. You need to aim for <200ms minimum.

What You Need to Know About Google and Core Web Vitals

Google will keep changing the rules. That's what they do. They find a metric that reflects good user experience, weight it in the algorithm, and 6 months later they change again.

It's frustrating. But it's also... justified.

Because fundamentally, Google wants the same thing your users want: fast, responsive sites that don't lag.

Focus on that. Not on Google's metrics of the day. On the real experience.

If your site is fast, responsive, and your visitors don't rage quit, you'll always be in the game. No matter what Core Web Vitals Google invents tomorrow.

The Action to Take Right Now

Right now (10 minutes):

1. Open PageSpeed Insights
2. Enter your landing page URL
3. Check your INP
4. If it's orange or red, keep reading

This week (1-2 hours):

1. Audit your third-party scripts (what's actually useful?)
2. Defer non-critical scripts
3. Test the changes
4. Retest on PageSpeed Insights

What NOT to do:

• Panic completely
• Rebuild your site from scratch
• Delete all your scripts (you'll also delete your conversions)
• Think this is unsolvable

This is a real technical problem, but it solves in 1-2 hours of focused work. Max.

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You know now. The question is: are you going to stay in the orange/red zone and lose ranking every month, or are you going to take action this week?

Spoiler: you should take action this week.

If you want a complete analysis of both performance and content of your landing page, RoastMySite analyzes both in 30 seconds. We tell you exactly what's killing your INP and how to fix it.

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