Manualul SEO : First Input Delay (FID)

First Input Delay measures how quickly a page loads so that the visitor can use buttons, see images, menus, etc. Each element on a web page loads separately, and FID measures how quickly or slowly certain commands are executed.

The definition provided by Google:

… First Input Delay (FID) is an important, user-centric metric for measuring response times to commands, quantifying the type of experience users have when trying to interact with a page that is unresponsive – a low FID helps ensure that the page is usable.

FID measures the time from when a user first interacts with a page (e.g., when clicking on a link, tapping a button, or using a JavaScript-based custom control) to the time when the browser is able to begin processing event handling routines in response to this interaction.

In practice, FID measures what the user’s first impression is when accessing a page for the first time. The way the site’s response is perceived by the user is reflected in their immediate actions.

For example: a site that takes more than 3 seconds to load page elements will suffer because users don’t want to wait to receive a response to their question or action.

Secondly, Google employs an algorithm capable of processing data in real-time and providing the best answer to a user’s query. This form of Artificial Intelligence is called RankBrain and is an integrated part of the world’s #1 search engine.

Already, things are connecting, and we can see the puzzle in front of us, namely that Google is shifting its focus from platform owners and the technologies used to how users interact with platforms and their behavior.

A high bounce rate can indicate that a site is not optimized and provides an unpleasant experience to the user, forcing them to perform another search to get the desired answer. This means that the search engine is not functioning as it should.

How can we improve FID?

To optimize the FID score, Google recommends conducting a test using the Pagespeed Insights or Lighthouse tool, both of which use the same method of testing the page for indexing.

You can also use other tools such as:

• Chrome User Experience Report
• PageSpeed Insights
• Search Console (Core Web Vitals report)
• Firebase Performance Monitoring (beta)

The most common issue negatively impacting the FID score is high execution of JavaScript scripts. Analyzing, compiling, and executing JavaScript scripts will have a direct effect on the FID score, says Google.

The more data we can provide to Google without it needing to perform specific tasks to obtain them, the more pages Google will index as we believe they should.

Structured data, meta properties, heading hierarchy, and SILO structure are just a few examples of methods through which you can provide information easily to the search engine.

Conclusions

FID is an important metric for users and provides valuable data to search engines about user experience on a site.

This can be a double-edged sword as it can raise or lower a site in search rankings.

We believe that for a site to be considered a functional web platform, it must adhere to Google’s recommendations. They have been developed after decades of traffic research since 1998.