What Are Page Views (PV)? Definition, Sessions vs. Unique Users, GA4 Guide & How to Increase PVs
"I want to track my website traffic, but I'm confused about the differences between page views, sessions, and users." This is a common concern. Page views (PV) are one of the most fundamental metrics in web analytics, essential for measuring a site's traffic and content popularity.
This article provides a comprehensive guide to page views — from their definition and how they're measured, to differences from sessions and unique users, how to check them in GA4 (Google Analytics 4), and practical strategies to increase your PV count.
A page view (PV) is the number of times a web page is displayed in a web browser. Each time a user opens a page, it counts as one PV. If the same user opens the same page multiple times, each instance is counted separately.
For example, if a user browses Page A → Page B → Page C on a site, the PV count is 3. If another user browses Page A → Page B, the site's total PV count becomes 5.
Phrases like "surpassed 1 million monthly PVs" are widely used to indicate a website or media outlet's scale and popularity. It's also worth noting that the term "access count" is often used as a near-synonym for PV count.
In GA4 (Google Analytics 4), the metric formerly known as "Pageviews" in Universal Analytics (UA) has been renamed to "Views." This change reflects GA4's ability to measure both websites and apps within a single property — since apps don't have the concept of "pages," a more generic term was adopted.
In GA4, when a page loads, a "page_view" event is automatically sent, which is counted as a view. While slight discrepancies may occur between UA and GA4 PV counts, they generally stay within a few percentage points.
Note that when web and app are measured in the same GA4 property, "Views" combines both page views and screen views (app screen displays). If you want web-only figures, you'll need to apply a filter.
Let's clarify three commonly confused analytics metrics.
Page views (PV) count the total number of times pages are displayed. Even if the same user opens a page multiple times, each instance is counted. It measures how much content was consumed on a site.
Sessions count each visit from arrival to departure as one session. Even if a user browses multiple pages in one visit, the session count remains 1. In GA4, a session expires after 30 minutes of inactivity.
Unique users (UU) count the actual number of distinct people who visited a site within a given period. Even if the same user visits multiple times during the period, they are counted as 1.
Here's a practical example: User A visits a site in the morning and browses 3 pages, then returns in the afternoon and browses 2 pages. The PV count is 5, sessions is 2, and UU is 1. The general size relationship is: UU ≤ Sessions ≤ PV.
Although PV is a simple metric, it plays an important role in site analysis.
First, it reveals content popularity. Comparing PVs across pages instantly shows which content resonates with users. Analyzing popular content trends helps inform future article planning and product page improvements.
Second, it enables campaign performance measurement. Comparing PV counts before and after a campaign provides a quantitative basis for evaluating whether traffic-driving efforts were successful. It also helps verify how well newly published pages are performing.
For e-commerce and comparison sites where users are expected to browse multiple pages, increased PVs tend to correlate directly with sales and conversions. More product views can lead to more items purchased per visit.
However, high PVs without conversions may indicate users are wandering the site unable to find what they're looking for. Always analyze PV in combination with other metrics.
To check PVs in GA4's standard reports, navigate to Reports → Engagement → Overview. Here you can see sitewide view trends and views by page title. For page-level details, go to Reports → Engagement → Pages and screens, which displays PVs per page along with average engagement time and other metrics.
For more flexible analysis, use Exploration reports. Select Explore → Blank from the left menu, then add "Page title" or "Page path" as a dimension and "Views" as a metric to create customized PV analyses. Add "Date" or "Month" dimensions to track daily or monthly trends, or add "Session source" to analyze by traffic source.
GA4's Exploration reports can be subject to sampling and have limitations on historical data lookback. For regular PV monitoring and team sharing, we recommend creating reports in Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) connected to GA4. Note that GA4's "Views" metric appears as "Views" in Looker Studio (previously labeled as "Video views" in some contexts), so be careful when searching for the metric.
Approaches to increasing PV fall into two categories: driving more external traffic and encouraging on-site navigation.
The most fundamental strategy for increasing traffic is SEO. Create high-quality, valuable content for users and aim for higher search rankings. Beyond content quality, readability, depth, and originality, technical SEO factors such as site architecture and page speed are also important.
Paid advertising delivers immediate results. Search ads, display ads, and social media ads can all drive traffic to your site. However, you need to balance the revenue from increased PVs against advertising costs.
Social media traffic is also effective for boosting PVs. Share content on social platforms and design pathways to guide interested users to your site. Combining multiple channels — email newsletters, press releases, and more — secures additional traffic sources.
To increase PVs per session, improving on-site navigation is key. One effective tactic is placing related article links. Adding links to relevant content at the end of articles or in sidebars encourages users to continue browsing.
Optimizing internal links is equally important. Placing contextually relevant links within your content naturally guides users to related pages. Additionally, structuring your site with breadcrumb navigation and category menus makes it easier for users to find what they need, ultimately increasing pages viewed.
Increasing content update frequency also encourages repeat visits. Publishing new content regularly gives users a reason to return, thinking "there might be something new to read."
While PV is a useful metric, relying on it alone can lead to incorrect conclusions. Keep these points in mind.
First, high PVs don't necessarily mean strong results. If PVs are high but conversions are low, users may be lost on the site, unable to find what they need. Always evaluate PV alongside CVR (conversion rate) and bounce rate.
GA4's event-based measurement model means page views should be understood as just one type of user action. While UA focused primarily on page-level analysis, GA4 enables comprehensive behavioral analysis combining scroll depth, clicks, video views, and other events. Checking engagement rate and average engagement time per session alongside PVs provides a more accurate site evaluation.
Bot and crawler traffic can also inflate PV counts. While GA4 automatically filters known bot traffic, not all bots are excluded. If you notice sudden, unexplained PV spikes, investigate the traffic breakdown.
Page views (PV) are a fundamental web analytics metric showing how many times pages were displayed. In GA4, they are measured as "Views" and automatically recorded as page_view events. Since sessions and UU count from different perspectives, understanding each metric's characteristics and using them appropriately is essential.
To increase PVs, combine external traffic strategies like SEO and paid advertising with on-site navigation improvements such as related article links and internal link optimization. Use GA4's standard and exploration reports to regularly monitor PV trends, and analyze them alongside conversion metrics to drive data-informed site improvements.
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