Google Analytics Unique Page Views

Google Analytics metrics explains the different metrics being used in Google Analytics reports. Unique Pageview metric can be found in Google Analytics Top Content report after your website’s Google Analytics setup completes.

Page Views

Page views are the number of times a web page is viewed. Additional page view counts can be triggered via visiting the same web page multiple times by the same visitor, when the visitor:

  • Reloads after reaching the web page.
  • Navigates to a different web page and then returns to the original web page.

Pageviews is one of the useless web metrics.

Unique Page Views

Unique page views are the total number of unique visitors to a given web page during the same session (visit).

  • If a visitor views the same web page 3 times during the same visit, then it will count as 3 page views and 1 unique page view.
  • If the same visitor exits your site, comes back after 30 minutes (session expires) and views the same web page again, it will count as 3 page views and 2 unique page views.

Additional page views will not be counted during the same session for the visitor:

  • If the visitor reloads the web page.
  • If the visitor navigates to a different web page and then returns to the original web page within 30 minutes (before session expires).

Entrances vs Unique Page Views

Unique page views and entrances are different.

  • Unique pageviews are the number of unique visits that view specific pages which include visits that land on landing pages (or entry pages) of your site.
  • Entrance is a Google Analytics metric that has to do with visitors and landing pages (or entry pages) of your site. Entrances are the number of visits that land on specific web pages as landing pages.

Example to differentiate unique page views and entrances:

  • Your site contains 3 web pages. A visitor enters your site through page A, then page A gets 1 entrance and 1 unique page view. Then the visitor views page B which counts as a unique page view for page B, but does not count as an entrance. The result is 2 unique page views and 1 entrance.

Comments

2 Responses to “Google Analytics Unique Page Views”

  1. Lisa Sanchez on November 10th, 2011 5:40 pm

    Thanks for the clarification on that Gordon. I might have been chasing the wrong metrics.

  2. art on February 23rd, 2012 7:42 pm

    I like the explanation.
    I wish Gordon wrote it more simply and directly instead of relying too heavily on passive form.

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