Pageview

Detailed explanation

A Page Impression counts one loading or viewing event of a webpage. Every time a browser requests and renders a page — whether from a new visitor, a returning one, or the same person refreshing the page twice — each instance adds another page impression. Because of this, page impressions are a raw volume metric rather than an audience-size metric.

This is what separates page impressions from metrics like unique users or visits: a single visit to a website can easily generate several page impressions as a user browses from one page to another, and a single unique user can rack up many page impressions across multiple visits over time. Reporting page impressions alone, without also tracking unique users and visits, can create a misleading picture of how many actual people engaged with a site.

In practice, page impressions are most useful as a denominator for other metrics — cost per thousand page impressions, or ad viewability rates measured against total page views — rather than as a standalone success indicator, since raising page impressions without also improving engagement or conversion quality does not necessarily mean the site is performing better.