Which UX Signals Is Google Using in 2025?
Reading Time: 3 minutesBack in the dark ages of the Internet, when practices like keyword stuffing and spammy backlinks were rewarded with top search rankings, user experience was a secondary concern, mainly because those who focused on it ended up lower down on the SERPs. However, UX is now a core ranking factor, and those who don’t pay attention to it are likely to miss out. Google has always tried to prioritize user experience (thus the numerous core updates), but how its algorithm measures UX has changed over time.
User experience may be one of the most important factors in search rankings, other than keywords. If users aren’t having a good experience on your site, they won’t stay, and your search rankings will suffer because of it.
How Does Google Measure User Experience?
Google is a search engine that uses an algorithm to match users with content based on search terms. How can it tell whether someone is having a good experience on a website or not? And while Google can’t really tell how you’re feeling, there are some signals that it can measure. For example, if a website isn’t loading quickly enough, it’s not what you’re looking for, or it’s got loud autoplaying ads that you can’t pause, you aren’t likely to stay on that website. Google can measure how long users stay on a site before returning to the SERP–the dwell time–and can interpret a very short dwell time as an indicator that it wasn’t the right fit, while a longer dwell time would be a signal of a better user experience.
The following are some of the UX signals that Google typically considers when adjusting SERP rankings:
- Dwell time
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Pogo-sticking
- Load speed
- Responsive design
- Clickable elements aren’t too close to each other
- Readable text and font sizes
- Accessible color contrast
- Semantic HTML
- Screen reader support
- No intrusive pop-ups
- No autoplaying videos
- Logical site hierarchy
- Breadcrumb navigation
- Anchor text
- Scannable content
- And more
What’s New in UX Signals?
The above UX signals are all things that Google has been measuring for years. In 2025, these are still important signals because the information they provide has continued to be useful in indicating user experience. However, that doesn’t mean that Google isn’t continually looking at what works and making changes as needed. A new UX signal that Google has begun monitoring is Interaction to Next Paint (INP).
What Is Interaction to Next Paint (INP)?
Interaction to Next Paint is a metric that measures web performance. First introduced in a Google core update in early 2024, it replaced First Input Delay (FID) because it was considered to be a more accurate indicator of user experience. INP measures the time in between a user’s interactions with the website (be it clicking, tapping, typing, or something else) and the time the next frame is painted on the screen. What this boils down to is that INP measures how long it takes for a website to respond to a user’s actions.
What Is the Difference Between INP and FID?
FID, or First Input Delay, measured much the same thing, except that it measured only the very first interaction. INP takes that many steps further and continually monitors the website’s response time after a user interaction. It’s more accurate than FID because it paints a bigger picture. FID might miss later delays beyond the first one.
Why Is INP So Important?
INP is an excellent indicator of user experience because, simply put, the longer a website takes to load, the more likely a user is to leave unless they really, really want to be on that site. INP is an indicator of website loading speed and responsiveness (200 milliseconds or less is considered good), and the faster a site can load after a user interaction, the better that user’s experience with the site.
Recent Comments