How Can I Increase my Website’s Pageviews?

This post was most recently updated on March 20th, 2024

One of the most important metrics to track is pageviews, which measures the number of times a page has been viewed by visitors. As Google Analytics is a widely used tool for tracking website traffic and user behavior, it’s essential to have a solid grasp of what pageviews are and how they work.

In this article, we’ll explore the concept of pageviews in detail, along with tips on how to increase them and improve your website’s performance.

Pageviews definition

A simple definition for a page view can relate to a user viewing a web page. A user can also browse more than one page per website visit.

Google Analytics describes a pageview as the following:

“A view of a page on your site that is being tracked by the Analytics tracking code.” Also keep in mind, when a user visits more than one page, they are counted as additional pageviews.

Why are Pageviews Important?

Pageviews are a fundamental metric for website owners, advertisers, and publishers. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Pageviews affect website traffic and engagement: Pageviews are a measure of how many times a web page is viewed or loaded by a user. Higher pageviews can indicate that a website receives more traffic and engagement from its audience. By tracking pageviews, website owners can assess the popularity of their content and how users are interacting with their site.
2. Pageviews are used to measure website performance and user behavior: In addition to traffic and engagement, pageviews can help website owners measure various performance metrics. For example, tracking pageviews can reveal which pages on a website are most popular, how long users spend on each page, and how users navigate the site. This data can inform website design and content decisions, improving user experience and driving more traffic.
3. Pageviews can impact revenue and ad earnings for publishers: For publishers who monetize their website with advertising, pageviews are directly tied to ad revenue. The more pageviews a website has, the more ad impressions it can generate. This can lead to higher ad revenue and earnings for the publisher. Additionally, some advertisers may use pageviews as a key metric when evaluating the effectiveness of their ad campaigns, making pageviews a critical factor in the success of a publisher’s website.

By monitoring pageviews and optimizing their website accordingly, website owners and publishers can improve their site’s success and achieve their goals.

What are unique pageviews?

Unique pageviews are slightly different from the normal pageviews. Google Analytics refers to them as “pageviews that are generated by the same user during the same session.” When a user visits a web page once or even multiple times during a specific session, it is counted as a unique pageview. From a Google Analytics point of view, a session usually relates to 24 hours.

Here’s an example to further illustrate the point: If a user visits page A, navigates to page B and then back to page A, each instance would be counted as a pageview. It would mean a total of 3 pageviews.

However, with unique pageviews, no matter how many times a user visits page A during a specific session, it will still be counted as 1 pageview. If the user were to follow the same pattern from page A to page B and then back to page A, it would mean a total of 2 unique page views.

How to see pageviews in Google Analytics

Finding pageviews in Google Analytics is very simple. You’ll need to set your website up for Google analytics and ensure it tracks visitors correctly. Once you’ve done that, be sure to take a look at the video below for a quick demonstration.

Important Traffic Metrics for Publishers

It’s not just about gathering data; it’s about turning that data into action! Use industry averages and your own historical data to establish performance baselines. This helps you assess improvements over time. Monitor your metrics regularly to identify trends and spot potential issues or opportunities, and always A/B test.

• Sessions (or Users): The number of unique visits to your website within a certain timeframe. This gives you a fundamental understanding of your audience size.
• Pageviews: The total count of times pages on your site are loaded. This provides insight into overall site activity.
• Pages per Session: The average number of pages viewed during a single visit. This helps you gauge how engaging your content is.
• Average Session Duration: The average amount of time visitors spend actively on your website during a single visit. Like pages per session, it’s a good signal of engagement.
• Bounce Rate: The percentage of visitors who leave your website after viewing only one page. A high bounce rate might indicate issues with content quality, loading speed, or relevance to the user’s search.
• Time on Page: The duration spent on a specific page. Helps you determine which pages are most interesting to your audience.
• Conversion Rates: The percentage of visitors who take a desired action (e.g., filling out forms, subscribing, purchasing). Your ultimate goal, and thus vital to track.
• Referral Sources: Where your traffic originates from (e.g., organic search, social media, paid ads, direct traffic). Understanding this helps you optimize marketing efforts and identify growth areas.
• Device Type: The percentage of visitors using desktops, tablets, or mobile devices. Critically important for optimizing the user experience across platforms.
• New vs. Returning Visitors: Segmenting your audience into these groups shows how well you acquire and retain visitors.
• Exit Pages: The last pages users view before leaving your site. Spotting high exit rates on specific pages helps identify potential problems that need fixing.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of people who click on your ads relative to the number of times they are shown (impressions). This measures ad performance and helps identify effective, well-targeted campaigns.
• Cost per Acquisition (CPA): The cost incurred in acquiring a new customer or achieving a specific conversion. Understanding CPA helps gauge the efficiency of your marketing and advertising investment.
• Revenue Per Mille (RPM): The estimated revenue you earn per 1,000 pageviews. It’s a composite metric that combines several factors and provides a more holistic view of your monetization performance.

What are hits, visitors, and impressions, then?

Hits usually relate to file requests on a server. Although this is a good way to measure server traffic, it’s often inaccurate regarding website visitors and actual site usage. Here’s an example: when a user visits a page with one HTML text file and three images, it can result in 4 hits while it’s only one visitor generated those hits.

An impression is when a user views an ad on a page or when an ad is displayed on a webpage. Find out more about pageviews versus ad impressions here.

A visitor is a person that visits your website. Unique visitors usually are counted over a specific period or session and like unique pageviews can view a specific page many times over but still only be counted as one unique visitor.

What is the difference between pageviews and sessions?

Pageviews and sessions are two metrics used to measure website traffic and engagement, but they have distinct meanings. Here’s a breakdown of each metric:

• Pageviews: A pageview is counted every time a web page is loaded or reloaded by a user. If a user refreshes a page or navigates to another page and then returns, it counts as an additional pageview.
• Sessions: A session is a period of time during which a user interacts with a website. A session begins when a user enters a website and ends when they leave or are inactive for a specified period of time. The exact definition of a session can vary depending on how it is calculated, but it typically lasts anywhere from a few minutes to several hours.

While pageviews and sessions are related, they provide different insights into user behavior and website performance. Here are a few key differences:

• Pageviews measure the number of times a page is loaded, while sessions measure the amount of time a user spends on a website.
• Pageviews can indicate how many pages a user has viewed, while sessions can reveal how engaged a user is with the website.
• Pageviews can be used to track the popularity of specific pages, while sessions can help identify user flow and navigation patterns.

To measure website performance effectively, it’s important to understand both pageviews and sessions and how they interact. For example, a high number of pageviews could indicate a popular website, but if those pageviews are from short sessions, it might suggest that users are not finding what they are looking for.

Conversely, a low number of pageviews could indicate a less popular website, but if those pageviews are from long sessions, it could suggest that users are highly engaged with the content. By looking at both metrics together, website owners can better understand their site’s performance and user behavior.

Best pageview tracking software and counters

Within the range of publishers working with MonetizeMore, Google Analytics is the most popular choice of pageview and traffic tracking software. What’s great about Google Analytics is that it’s free and integrates with other Google products such as Google Ad Manager and many more.

Remember that the free version of Google Analytics has limitations such as 10 million hits per month per website property. If your website generates more than 10 million hits, you must upgrade to Analytics 360. For further information on account and SDK limits read all about it here.

However, that does not mean that it’s the only option. Other software you can try out includes Clicky and Matomo. Both these tools have free and paid versions and offer a slightly different experience than Google Analytics.

How to get more pageviews?

Getting more pageviews relates to increasing your website traffic. Although this might be a simple question to ask, many methods exist, each that would merit a blog post if not a course of its own.

Here’s a quick summary of methods for you to try out and do further research on:

Social traffic: This can include building a social media following on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. Alternatively, post your latest articles in Facebook groups. You can even create videos on YouTube or build a YouTube channel.

Here are more tips and examples for driving social media traffic.

Paid traffic: This can include buying traffic through sources such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, native advertising, media buys, and many more.

Here are 5 paid traffic sources to take a look at.

Organic traffic/SEO: SEO is also known as search engine optimization and relates to optimizing website content in such a way that search engines want it, ranking high for specific keywords and generating organic traffic.

Here’s a beginners guide to SEO.

Improve website content and design: High-quality, engaging content and a well-designed website can help keep users on your site longer and encourage them to view more pages. Some ways to optimize your content and design include:

• Creating clear, easy-to-read headlines and subheadings.
• Including visually appealing images and videos.
• Breaking up text into short paragraphs and using bullet points and lists.
• Ensuring your website is mobile-friendly and easy to navigate.

Use analytics tools: Analytics tools such as Google Analytics can help you track and analyze your website’s pageviews and user behavior. By reviewing this data, you can identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions about how to optimize your website. Some metrics to track include:

• Bounce rate: The percentage of users who leave your site after viewing only one page.
• Time on site: The average amount of time users spend on your site.
• Pages per session: The average number of pages viewed per session.
• Exit pages: The pages where users are most likely to leave your site.

Also, check out this list of 25 ways to increase website traffic from WordStream.

Maximizing Profits & Adapting to Ad Rate Drops

Adopt a Focus on RPM, Not Just CPM: CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) look at individual ad rates, but RPMs give you a bigger picture. Page RPM and Session RPM consider multiple factors contributing to your overall revenue per 1,000 pageviews or 1,000 visitor sessions. This holistic view is key in volatile times.

Data-Driven Strategies: Meticulously tracking and analyzing the traffic metrics you mentioned are essential. Here’s how leveraging that data can help:

• Boost Engagement: Low bounce rates and increased time on page signal quality content, which is likely to increase RPM. Track these metrics to see which content performs best, then focus on creating more of it or improving underperforming content.
• Optimize User Experience: Analyze device types to optimize your site for all platforms. Check referral sources to prioritize valuable partnerships and refine underperforming ones.
• Identify High-Value Traffic: Deep-dive into your most profitable traffic sources, user demographics, and content. Tailor your advertising and content to that audience segment.
• Use MonetizeMore’s Page Reports: Tools like MonetizeMore’s page reports can provide an even more granular analysis of how specific pages are performing and where revenue optimization opportunities exist.

How are new users and return users defined in Google Analytics 4?

Here’s how new and returning users are defined in Google Analytics 4 (GA4):

New Users

A new user is someone who interacts with your website or app for the very first time. GA4 identifies new users by logging a ‘first_visit’ (for websites and Android apps) or ‘first_open’ (for iOS apps) event. This event fires when Google Analytics 4 does not find a pre-existing Google Analytics cookie in the user’s browser, indicating it’s a new visitor.

Returning Users

A returning user is someone who has visited your website or app at least once before within the specified date range. They don’t need to actively engage with the site. Their previous visit is enough to classify them as returning.

How to find this data in GA4

1. User Acquisition Report: Go to Reports > Acquisition > User Acquisition for a quick overview of new vs. returning users.
2. Retention Report: Navigate to Reports > Retention for more in-depth analysis of returning users and their behavior over time.

Conclusion

Pageviews play a critical role in the life of a successful online publisher. However, there are many more metrics to consider and understand such as those mentioned in our AdTech for dummies page where we define over 80 industry-related terms.

Do you have millions of pageviews but don’t know how to monetize them effectively? At MonetizeMore, we’re experts at monetization and ad optimization and can help you maximize your ad revenue! Sign up for a Starter account at MonetizeMore today!

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FAQ

How are unique pageviews and sessions defined and what is the difference between them?

Unique pageviews represent the number of times a page has been viewed at least once during a session, regardless of how many times a single user reloads the page. A session is a period of activity by a single user on your website, usually ending after half an hour of inactivity or at midnight. The main difference is that unique pageviews focus on individual page loads while sessions capture the overall user journey. For instance, if a user visits your homepage, then an article, and then the homepage again, that would count as 3 pageviews but only a single session.

In Google Analytics 4, what is the distinction between a user and a new user?

A user represents any unique individual who has visited your website or app within the selected time frame. This metric includes both new and returning visitors. - A new user is someone who is visiting your website or app for the very first time. Google Analytics 4 recognizes them based on the absence of an existing analytics cookie linked to your property.

How do I find unique pageviews in Google Analytics?

Go to Google Analytics > Behaviour > Overview

What is the difference between pageviews and unique pageviews?

When a user visits a page during a session (24 hour period), it counts as one page view and then adds up the more they view it. However, no matter how many times a user visits a specific web page during a session (24 hour period), it will only count as a unique page view.