A pageview is a single recorded load of a web page. Each time a browser requests and renders a page—and your tracking code fires—a pageview is counted. Refresh the page? That’s another pageview. Open the same URL in two tabs? Two pageviews. It’s the most atomic unit in web analytics: raw page consumption.
Pageviews are not people and not sessions. One visitor can generate many pageviews within one session, and a session can include multiple pages. If you need de-duplicated counts, that’s where Unique Pageview (or similarly named metrics) come in.
Why it matters
- Measures content demand at the page level: which URLs attract attention.
- Powers navigation analysis—what paths people take before exits or conversions.
- Serves as a denominator for rates like Bounce Rate, Exit Rate, and CTR of internal elements.
Measurement nuances (read before you brag)
- Browser behavior: Hard refreshes, back/forward navigation, and prefetching can all trigger extra pageviews depending on implementation.
- Single-Page Apps (SPA): Route changes don’t reload the document. You must send a “virtual” pageview on route change; otherwise your SPA looks eerily quiet.
- Auto-load patterns: Infinite scroll or “load more” can inflate pageviews if each chunk is tracked as a new page. Decide deliberately.
- Bots & filters: Well-configured filters reduce bot noise, but nothing is perfect. Expect a little fuzz.
- Redirects & errors: Server redirects might count zero or multiple pageviews based on where tracking executes. Error pages can rack up views if they’re tracked like normal pages—check your 404s.
Quick comparisons
| Metric | What it counts |
|---|---|
| Pageview | Every tracked page load or route change |
| Unique Pageview | Pageviews de-duplicated per visitor within a session |
| Session | A time-bounded visit that can include many pageviews |
| User | A person/device over time (approximate) |
How to use it well
- Trend pageviews alongside Time on Page to separate clickbait from genuinely engaging content.
- Pair with Pages per Session to spot navigation friction.
- Normalize by traffic source or campaign to compare like with like.
Pageview is your baseline. Stack it with sessions, users, and engagement metrics to tell a story that leads to decisions, not dashboards.