Pageviews and Unique Pageviews in Google Analytics
You’re probably familiar with the All Pages report in Google Analytics. This report tells you basic data about all of your pages. Things such as the number of entrances (landings), exit rate, bounce rate and so on. But the two first metrics - Pageviews and Unique Pageviews - often lead to confusion. Because, what’s the difference between Pageviews and Unique Pageviews?
This is a really short post since the answer is simple. It might not even be a post. It’s almost just a tweet. But back to the difference. Just as there is a difference between Users and Sessions, Pageviews and Unique Pageviews are a world apart.
The Pageviews metric shows the total number of times a specific page is viewed. Even if your users view it multiple times by refreshing the page or by visiting it several times. So this is the total.
On the other hand, the Unique Pageviews metric is always going to be equal to or lower than the Pageviews metric. This metric only counts one per pageview of a given page per session. So even if a user views a page several times within one session, this only counts as one unique pageview.
So, Pageviews are the total - even if a user visits the same page multiple times within one session. Unique Pageviews are the total number sessions in which a page was viewed.