Page views are often the first metric everyone looks at in Google Analytics. Yet they're also often misused. Here's what they actually measure, how to read the Top pages report in GA4, and what you can do with them concretely.
What is a page view in GA4?
In GA4, a page view is counted every time a page is loaded or reloaded in a visitor's browser. In the GA4 Data API, this corresponds to the screenPageViews metric (or the page_view event in the web stream).
If a user visits 3 pages in one session, that counts as 3 page views. If the same person comes back the next day and visits 2 pages, that's 2 additional page views in a new session.
Page views are therefore cumulative: they reflect the total volume of consultations, across all sessions and all users combined.
Page views vs sessions vs users
These three metrics measure different things:
| Metric | What it counts |
|---|---|
| Users | Distinct people who visited the site |
| Sessions | Visits (one user can have several) |
| Page views | Pages consulted in total (multiple per session) |
A site with 500 users may have 700 sessions (some return several times) and 2,100 page views (3 pages on average per session).
The Top pages report in GA4
The Top pages report ranks your site's pages by view count. It answers a simple question: which pages are the most viewed?
For each page, GA4 provides:
- The number of page views (
screenPageViews) - An average engagement time per view (derived from
userEngagementDuration/screenPageViews) - The number of unique users on this page
In NarratIQ, the client dashboard displays the top 8 most-viewed pages, each with the number of views and the average duration.
What top pages really reveal
The content that attracts SEO traffic
A page that generates lots of views month after month, with a high consultation duration, is generally a page that ranks well on Google. It's the content that works for you.
Concrete action: identify these pages and make sure they are up to date, well-linked to other relevant content, and have a clear call to action.
Entry pages vs explored pages
Some pages accumulate views because visitors arrive there directly (from Google, an ad or a link). Others accumulate views because visitors explore them after arriving elsewhere (internal navigation).
The difference is visible by cross-referencing the Top pages report with the Landing pages (first page seen in a session).
Orphan pages
If a page appears in your top pages but is never a landing page, it means it's only accessed from inside the site. Check whether it deserves to be highlighted better, or if internal linking over-represents it.
Average consultation duration: what it says about your pages
The duration shown next to each page in the Top pages report is the average session duration during which this page was consulted. It's not exactly "time spent on this page", but it's the best indicator natively available in GA4.
A page with many views and a short duration may mean:
- The content immediately answers the question (positive)
- The content disappoints and people leave (negative)
Context makes the difference. A FAQ page with a 25s duration is probably effective. A blog article with a 25s duration on 1,500 words signals an engagement problem.
Page views: not to use alone
Page views are a volume metric, not a quality one. A page with 10,000 views and 0 conversions is no better than a page with 200 views and 50 quote requests.
Always cross page views with:
- The consultation duration
- The engagement rate of sessions that consulted this page
- The conversions generated from this page
How to use top pages in a client report
For a client, top pages tell a story about content popularity:
"Your /services/website-creation page was viewed 1,240 times this month, up 18%. It's your 2nd most-viewed page after the homepage. Visitors stay on average 2m 30s, indicating real interest in this offer."
If you generate monthly GA4 reports for your clients, NarratIQ includes the top 8 most-viewed pages with views and duration in each automated PDF report.