Landing pages are often confused with the most-viewed pages. They are two different things. A landing page, in the GA4 sense, is the first page a visitor sees during a session. This report answers a precise question: where do people enter your site?
What is a landing page in GA4?
A landing page (in GA4) is the first page loaded during a session. It's the visitor's entry point, regardless of the source that brought them there.
In GA4, the corresponding dimension is landingPage. It records the path of the first page viewed at the start of a session.
Difference with the Top pages report
| Report | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Top pages | All pages viewed during sessions (including internal navigation) |
| Landing pages | Only the first page viewed at the start of a session |
An internal page like /blog/category may get many views in the Top pages report because visitors navigate to it from inside the site. But it may not appear at all in landing pages if no one arrives directly on it from outside.
What landing pages reveal
Your real acquisition pages
Landing pages are directly tied to your acquisition channels. If Google Organic sends traffic, that traffic lands on landing pages. If an ad campaign is active, landing pages show where clicks arrive.
This is the report that answers: which pages are my SEO and advertising making work?
The pages that capture and the ones that disappoint
By cross-referencing landing pages with engagement rate or session duration, you quickly identify:
- Pages that capture attention (high engagement rate)
- Pages that people enter through but immediately leave (low engagement rate)
If /services/seo is a frequent landing page with a 25% engagement rate, the content of this page probably doesn't match the intent of the visitors clicking on it.
The homepage isn't always the first page
It's a frequent surprise for clients. If your SEO works well, blog posts or specific service pages can receive more first visits than the homepage. That's a good thing: direct entry on targeted content generally converts better than entry on a generalist homepage.
How to read the landing pages report
In the NarratIQ dashboard, landing pages are shown with the number of sessions started on each page (not views, but sessions). That's the relevant metric here: how many visits started on this URL.
The pages with the most sessions as landing pages are your priority entry points. They are the ones to:
- Keep up to date with quality content
- Optimise for conversion (clear CTAs, visible value proposition)
- Watch if their traffic drops (loss of SEO position, broken link)
Landing pages and SEO
In SEO, a page that captures traffic as a landing page generally has a good ranking on relevant keywords. The logical flow is:
- Keyword searched on Google
- Your page appears in the results
- The visitor clicks and lands on your landing page
- GA4 records this page as the landing page for this session
If a page loses its SEO positions, it gradually disappears from the landing pages report before total traffic visibly drops. An early warning signal to watch.
Landing pages and advertising
In Google Ads or Meta Ads campaigns, the landing page chosen in the ad must match the ad's message. If the ad says "Download our free guide" and the landing page shows a general homepage, the engagement rate will be low and the conversion rate too.
Landing pages in GA4 let you verify, after the fact, that your campaigns send traffic to the right places and that those pages perform as expected.
How to present landing pages to a client
"Your /blog/seo-guide page became your 2nd entry page this month with 340 new sessions, just behind the homepage. This content now captures more traffic than your /services page. That's an opportunity: make sure this article links to your service offer."
If you generate monthly GA4 reports for your clients, NarratIQ includes the top landing pages with session volume in each automated PDF report.