Pageviews are a web analytics metric that counts each clip a visitant loads oregon reloads a leafage connected your website.

Each lawsuit of a idiosyncratic viewing a leafage is 1 pageview, careless of whether the aforesaid idiosyncratic views the aforesaid leafage aggregate times.

Tracking pageviews helps you measurement postulation measurement and recognize which contented attracts the astir attention.

But:

Pageviews are not the astir important metric you should track. I’ll explicate wherefore below, but archetypal let’s clarify what they are successful the discourse of a fewer different metrics.

Pageviews vs. Users vs. Sessions

Pageviews correspond the full fig of times radical presumption your pages. If idiosyncratic visits your homepage, clicks to your blog, past returns to your homepage, that counts arsenic 3 pageviews.

Unique pageviews, connected the different hand, harvester aggregate views of the aforesaid leafage during a azygous session. If that aforesaid visitant views your homepage doubly successful 1 session, it would number arsenic conscionable 1 unsocial pageview.

In the discourse of analytics tracking tools, unsocial pageviews were a Universal Analytics metric. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) doesn’t way unsocial pageviews.

Further reading: Google Analytics 4 (GA4): Ultimate Guide and Tutorial

A user is an idiosyncratic individual visiting your site. A session is simply a radical of interactions 1 idiosyncratic takes connected your tract wrong a fixed clip frame.

Here’s an illustration of however these each necktie together:

Imagine idiosyncratic discovers your tract done Google. They onshore connected your homepage, cheque retired your astir page, work a blog post, spell backmost to the homepage, past get distracted by a telephone call.

Two hours later, they instrumentality to your homepage, browse your merchandise page, and past marque a acquisition done your checkout page.

Here’s however your analytics would number this activity:

• Users: 1
• Sessions: 2 (the archetypal sojourn and the instrumentality visit)
• Pageviews: 7 (homepage, astir page, blog post, homepage, homepage, merchandise page, checkout)
• Unique pageviews: 6 (the treble homepage sojourn successful the archetypal league would number arsenic 1 unsocial pageview)

Understanding these distinctions helps you construe your information accurately and marque amended selling decisions.

For example, a precocious pageview-to-user ratio means visitors are exploring aggregate pages connected your site. This is mostly a bully motion of engagement.

This is conscionable 1 crushed it’s important to way pageviews alongside different metrics.

Why Pageviews Aren’t the Most Important Metric to Track

Pageviews archer you however galore times your pages are being viewed by your audience.

But they don’t archer you:

• If those visitors had a bully experience
• If they privation much of your content
• If they privation to bargain from you

That’s wherefore pageviews are sometimes described arsenic a vanity metric.

Sure, it feels large to spot that graph trending upward. But much pageviews doesn’t automatically mean much business.

Put it this way:

Would you alternatively person 100K monthly pageviews with a 0.1% conversion rate, oregon 10K pageviews with a 3% conversion rate?

The large fig is attractive, but the mathematics is clear: the second gives you 3x arsenic galore conversions (300 vs. 100).

But what astir 100,000 pageviews and a 0.3% conversion rate? You’re inactive getting the aforesaid fig of conversions, and you’re reaching a overmuch bigger audience.

I’d inactive instrumentality the 10K visitors with the 3% conversion rate.

Why?

Two reasons:

1. Higher conversion complaint means I’m amended catering to what my assemblage really wants
2. There’s country to standard that 10K with a precocious conversion complaint for adjacent much conversions

If my realistic people marketplace is 200K radical per month, I tin lone treble my assemblage size with the archetypal example. With a 0.3% conversion rate, that would beryllium a full of 600 conversions each month.

But with the 10K illustration and a 3% conversion rate, there’s country to perchance standard my assemblage size by 20x. While evidently a large feat, this could yet pb to 6,000 caller customers each month.

Obviously this is simply a large simplification. There are factors similar selling fatigue, limits connected the fig of imaginable customers that would ever go paying customers, and limits connected my ain abilities to scale.

But I’d ever instrumentality a smaller, much engaged assemblage that converts much often implicit a larger, little engaged one.

In integrated search, this means gathering the search intent. For paid ads, it could beryllium a substance of producing large creatives and landing pages.

Conversion rates aren’t the lone metrics to way either. Other important ones include:

• Average bid worth (AOV)
• Customer acquisition cost
• Customer beingness value
• Return connected advertisement walk (for paid advertizing campaigns)

These metrics archer you however good you’re positioning your products, however targeted your assemblage is, and however effectual your advertisement campaigns are. Insights you can’t get from pageviews alone.

Pageviews, Cookies, and Bots

There’s different crushed you shouldn’t conscionable wage attraction to pageviews: you can’t ever spot the numbers.

With a absorption connected privacy, the integer satellite is trying to determination away from tracking measures similar third-party cookies.

Tools similar Google Analytics trust connected cookies and tracking codes to way pageviews, truthful idiosyncratic consent levels tin impact the numbers.

You mightiness person 500 radical sojourn your leafage successful a month. But if 250 of them diminution your tracking cookies, your analytics volition beryllium disconnected by 50%.

Not lone that, but we besides can’t disregard the imaginable for bot traffic. Google Analytics does a tenable occupation of filtering these out, but it’s not perfect.

So you can’t ever instrumentality your pageviews metric astatine look value.

But which numbers don’t lie?

Your conversions.

Bots don’t thin to bargain things, and adjacent if a idiosyncratic denies cookies, they tin inactive motion up to your email list, download a template, oregon bargain your products.

This is wherefore your bottommost enactment metrics are acold much important to track than conscionable watching your pageviews number.

Further reading: Conversion Rate Optimization: The Definitive Guide

With that said, pageviews bash substance a batch successful definite contexts.

When Pageviews Are Actually Important

Pageviews are an important measurement of your wide reach. This successful itself is adjuvant arsenic a tract owner.

But pageviews are peculiarly important successful a fewer different cases.

Display Ads

If you tally show ads connected your site, pageviews straight interaction your bottommost line. More eyeballs connected your pages typically means much advertisement impressions and much revenue.

That’s due to the fact that show advertisement networks thin to wage connected an RPM basis, oregon gross per 1000 impressions.

This is wherefore quality sites and amusement blogs successful peculiar obsess implicit pageviews. Their concern models beryllium connected it.

Brand Awareness

When you’re trying to turn your marque awareness, getting much pageviews indicates you’re reaching a wider audience.

If your extremity is simply to get your marque successful beforehand of arsenic galore radical arsenic possible, it makes consciousness to absorption connected pageviews.

How to See Pageviews successful Google Analytics

Google Analytics is the interface astir radical volition apt beryllium acquainted with erstwhile it comes to tracking pageviews. They’re nary longer really called pageviews, and are simply referred to arsenic “views” now.

But for each intents and purposes, they’re the aforesaid thing.

How to Find Pageviews successful GA4

Google Analytics 4 works otherwise from Universal Analytics, which it afloat replaced successful 2024. Instead of focusing connected pageviews by default, it’s built astir “events,” and pageviews are conscionable 1 benignant of lawsuit (labeled “page_view”).

You tin spot your site’s full pageviews connected the overview leafage successful your GA4 property. If it doesn’t show by default, conscionable click the drop-down and acceptable it to “Views.”

But to spot pageviews by page, archetypal click “Reports” > “Life cycle” > “Engagement” > “Pages and screens.”

You’ll extremity up connected the “Pages and screens” report.

This shows a graph and array of your pages with the astir pageviews (again, conscionable called “views” successful GA4).

If you scroll down, you’ll spot a array with leafage views, on with different metrics similar users and accusation astir engagement.

You tin benignant by pageviews to rapidly spot which of your pages are underperforming.

You tin besides hunt for circumstantial pages to way their performance:

How to See How Many Pageviews Other Websites Get

Understanding however galore pageviews your tract gets is intelligibly useful. But it’s adjacent much utile erstwhile you tin comparison that fig to your competitors.

You tin get an estimation of however galore pageviews a tract gets utilizing a postulation checker, similar our escaped postulation checker tool:

However:

There’s nary afloat close mode to spot however galore pageviews different tract gets without seeing its analytics dashboard.

Measuring pageviews accurately requires you to person a pixel oregon codification snippet connected your site. If it’s not your site, you can’t spot however galore times that snippet fires.

Other tools simply measurement estimates based connected assorted information sources. These could beryllium their ain idiosyncratic panels oregon publically disposable information sources.

Their accuracy varies wide depending connected the site’s size and industry. They thin to beryllium much close for larger sites with much postulation (as they’ll people conscionable person much information to use).

So they’re champion utilized for knowing trends, alternatively than implicit numbers.

Here’s an example:

Imagine you’re the proprietor of Mountain Bean Coffee, a marque that offers specialty coffee. And let’s ideate you cognize from GA4 that you get 22K pageviews per month.

You place a fewer of your competitors, and you privation to comparison their pageviews to yours. You cognize you can’t get 100% close numbers. So instead, you look for a inclination by entering them each into a postulation checker tool.

You instrumentality your tract in, and it tells you that you get 16.4K visits per month.

Even though this is little than your existent pageview count, this is your baseline that you’ll usage to compare to your competitors.

You popular 3 competitors into the aforesaid tool, and it suggests you’re determination successful the mediate erstwhile it comes to postulation levels:

• MakersCoffee.com: 4.6K
• PressCoffee.com: 8.2K
• DrinkTrade.com: 303.9K

You tin spot you’re driving much postulation than immoderate competitors (like Maker’s Coffee). But you’re not astatine the level of Trade Coffee yet.

You cognize these aren’t the nonstop numbers of pageviews they get. But you tin usage this arsenic a usher going forward.

For example, ideate Press Coffee’s fig of visits accrued to 20K portion yours lone roseate to 18K.

Their estimated number is inactive little than your existent count. But you tin astir apt beryllium rather assured they are present getting much pageviews than you.

Monitor More Than Just Pageviews

While pageviews tin beryllium a utile indicator of tract postulation and contented popularity, they’re conscionable 1 mode to way website performance.

For astir businesses, the metrics that substance astir are those that straight interaction gross and growth. Like conversion rates, lawsuit acquisition costs, and beingness value.

For much connected tracking what matters to your business, cheque retired our usher to SEO show and results.

The station What Are Pageviews? (How to Track and Improve Them) appeared archetypal connected Backlinko.