Does a poor ‘INP’ score actually hurt my sales? 

The short answer is a definitive yes. Interaction to Next Paint (INP) measures the heartbeat of your user experience, how quickly your site reacts the moment a customer clicks a button, taps a menu, or hits “Add to Basket.” 

In 2026, the threshold for a good experience is a lightning-fast 200 milliseconds. Anything slower is perceived by the human brain as sluggish or broken. This invisible friction frustrates customers, spikes your bounce rates, and signals to search engines that your site is no longer a top-tier destination. If your developer has flagged a poor INP score, they aren’t just talking about code; they are identifying a direct leak in your sales funnel.

How INP and E-E-A-T Define Your Brand Authority

While the immediate impact of a poor Interaction to Next Paint (INP) score is felt in lost sales and abandoned baskets, the long-term damage happens where you can’t see it: in your search engine authority.

In 2026, Google doesn’t just look at what you say; it looks at how your website behaves. This brings us to the core of modern SEO: E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness).

INP: The Hidden Pillar of Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T)

Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines place a massive emphasis on Trust. A website that is slow to react to a user’s click feels unreliable. If a user clicks a “Submit” button on a financial form or a “Book Now” button for a medical consultation and the site hangs for 500ms, the perceived Trustworthiness of that business plummets.

Experience (E): If your site is sluggish, you aren’t providing a quality experience. Google prioritises sites that demonstrate firsthand ease-of-use.

Trustworthiness (T): A responsive site is a secure-feeling site. Technical friction is often interpreted by users and algorithms, as a lack of professional maintenance or, worse, a security risk.

By fixing your INP, you aren’t just fixing a bug; you are signaling to Google that your brand is a high-quality, reliable entity worthy of a top-tier ranking.

The New Frontier: AI Search and Answer Bots

The search landscape has shifted. We are no longer just optimising for a list of blue links. We are now optimising for Answer Engines (like ChatGPT search) and AI Overviews (SGE).

This changing landscape makes technical performance even more critical.

Avoiding “Crawl Blindness”

AI agents and agentic crawlers (the bots that browse the web to find answers for users in real-time) are built for speed. If your site is heavy with unoptimised JavaScript, the primary cause of poor INP, these bots may struggle to read your content. While a human might wait three seconds for a page to settle, an AI bot tasked with generating an answer in milliseconds will simply move on to a faster competitor. If the bot can’t parse your site, your brand won’t be cited as the source.

The Rise of AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation)

To show up in an AI-generated summary, your site must be Machine Readable. This requires a perfect marriage of:

• Speed: Fast response times (INP) so the bot can ingest data instantly.
• Structured Data (Schema): Using technical code to tell the AI exactly who you are and what you do.
• Topical Authority: Providing deep, original insights that AI can’t simply guess.

Zero-Click Reality

In 2026, many users get their answers directly on the search page without ever clicking through. To be the brand that the AI recommends in that summary, your technical foundation must be flawless. Google and other AI models are less likely to cite a source that provides a poor user experience, as it reflects poorly on the AI’s recommendation.

The Verdict: Technical Excellence is No Longer Optional

In the era of AI-first search, your website’s plumbing is just as important as your marketing copy. A poor INP score is a signal to both humans and AI bots that your business is lagging behind.

Is your site ready for the AI-driven future?

At CitCom, we don’t just look at the surface. We dive deep into the technical architecture to ensure your brand remains visible, authoritative, and trusted.

FAQs

Q: What is a good INP score for 2026?

A: A good Interaction to Next Paint (INP) score is 200 milliseconds or less. Anything over this threshold tells Google (and your customers) that your site is unresponsive.

Q: Can a slow website stop me from appearing in ChatGPT or AI Overviews?

A: Yes. AI crawlers prioritise machine-readable and high-performance sites. If your site has technical friction, AI bots may skip your content in favor of faster, more accessible sources.

Q: Is SEO dead because of AI?

A: No, but it has evolved. Traditional SEO is now AISO (AI Search Optimisation), focusing on technical excellence, E-E-A-T, and structured data to ensure your brand is the “chosen answer” for AI bots.