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Although Google Analytics 4 tracks pageview events automatically when you set it up using Google Tag Manager, Gtag or Analytics.js, it is helpful to learn what parameters are accessible in Google Analytics 4, where you can find page views in GA4 and how to structure your data in GA4 correctly.
This article will cover all of these questions in detail. Let’s get started with the definition.
What’s a page view in GA4?
Whenever someone lands on your website, this user generates a page view event. Repeated views also count as page views.
As I mentioned above, Google Analytics 4 allows you to track website pageviews (including one-page applications based on Node.js, etc.) and mobile app screens by placing the default GA4 code. You don’t need to set up anything else to track it.
What additional parameters are available with the pageview event in GA4?
Once you implement the code, you will be able to see the following parameters along with the event:
- language
- page_location
- page_referrer
- page_title
- screen_resolution
- campaign
- term
- medium
- source
- ga_session_id
- ga_session_number
All these parameters are available in GA4; you can use them without creating custom definitions. This gives you the first insights into how users behave on your website, and you can create the funnel in the GA4 Explore report builder. Having extra parameters allows you to focus on the aspects that matter from your pageviews.
How to set up a pageview event in GA4
Before looking at GA4 data, let’s look at how we can implement it correctly on your website.
Follow the steps to create a pageview event.
How to set up a pageview event in GA4
You can read more about how to set up GA4 on your website or app in my other article, here, I will provide a quick overview of how to do it using Google Tag Manager.
- Open GA4 and go to Data Streams, Create a new one
- Copy your measurement ID
- Open Google Tag Manager and create a new tag.
- Click on Tag Configuration and select “Google Analytics: GA4 Configuration” tag type.
Provide measurement id and name the tag - Select the trigger for this tag. It will be “All Pages / Page View”. Save it.
- Publish the GTM container
Once you have completed these steps, your GA4 account will start collecting the first data, which you can check in the Real-Time report.
Remember that GA4 needs at least 24 hours to prepare your first data for all default reports. Therefore, you can’t access page views data on the same day.
You can find more information on GA4 data streams on this article.
How to set up a pageview event for one-page applications?
If your website is a one-page application, then you will need to take additional steps.
Go to GA4 and open Data Streams. Then, select Web Stream, and finally, toggle on Enhanced Measurement.
On Measurements, click the gear icon. Activate “Page changes based on browser history events” and save the changes.
After that, GA4 will track all pages successfully.
Sometimes, you can also find that you want to track a specific action on your website as a page – a virtual pageview. It’s easy to do that with GA4.
How to set up a virtual pageview event in GA4
To set up a virtual pageview for GA4, you should send an additional event “page_view” to GA4 (the same as you send other events). You can find the complete tutorial here.
So if you use Google Tag Manager, the tag setup will look the following way. Remember to add the appropriate trigger (custom event, for instance).
After we create all necessary pageview events and wait 24 hours, we can go to GA4 and find our pageview data there
How to find page view data in Google Analytics 4
There are a few ways how you can access pageview data in Google Analytics 4. We’ll go through the main ways to access this report on GA4.
Review pageview data with “Pages and screens” report
Firstly, you can access it using the GA4 default reports. To do that, open GA4 and go to Reports, then Engagement, and finally Pages and screens.
Delve deeper into pageview data with GA4 Explorations
Secondly, you can access this data using GA4 Explorations. To do that, open GA4 and go to Explore, create a new report, and add the following dimensions:
- Page location
- Page path + query string
- Page path and screen class
- Page title
- Page referrer.
Then, select the Metric “Views”. On Rows, select Page Title. Then, on Values, choose Views. This will create the following table:
If you play with parameters, you won’t find a clean page_path dimension (some of them can have query strings); you can see it with path queries or page titles. I like page titles and can match this data with my other data in Google Sheets, but if you want a clean page path in GA4, there is an option mentioned in the Bonus section of this article.
Does GA4 have unique pageviews?
Unlike Universal Analytics, Google Analytics 4 does not use the Unique Pageviews metric. Instead, GA4 focuses on an event-based model with “Views,” which refers to the number of pages a user sees on your website. It also includes repeated views. If you need to replicate the “Unique Pageviews” metric, you can configure custom reports to count distinct instances of page views per user or session. Alternatively, you can export GA4 data into BigQuery and calculate unique pageviews there.
How to use pageview data to analyze your website performance
Page views in GA4 are very helpful when analyzing performance across websites. They allow you to see which pages your visitors browse the most, the main traffic sources, if they’re coming from a campaign (paid traffic), from Google Search (organic traffic), and much more. Below are a few tips that you can use to analyze page view data.
Compare Last Month and Previous Month to Determine Traffic Loss
An easy way to use page views in Google Analytics 4 is to compare page views from last month against the previous month. This is how you can do it.
First of all, select the Engagement menu from the side. Drill down to Pages and Screens.
At the top right corner, you’ll find the time to which the report is referring. You should toggle Compare on, and then select the last month (in this case, April), and then the previous month (March). Then, simply click Apply.
Now, you can see a page view graph comparing the two months:
You can also check which pages contributed the most to the total values, and the change in percentage between those two months.
Check Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is another helpful metric you can analyze with page views. It is the percentage of users who have left the page without further interaction. A high bounce rate can mean that users are not engaging with your website, which can relate to some issues on the page.
However, it should also be noted that in some cases, a high bounce rate might just mean that the first page the user checked had all the information they were looking for. You should analyze this carefully in tandem with page views in GA4.
You can see that report on Pages and Screens, too. Simply scroll down to see the table at the lower half of the page.
Here, you can see that the average bounce rate is 23.87%, which is quite decent. Usually, any value under 40% is considered positive.
Utilize Content Grouping To Analyze Page Groups
Another popular solution to analyze pageviews is to use content grouping. I encourage you to read more about it in my other article, where I explain it in detail. Here I will provide a brief overview of what it is and how to set it up.
First, content grouping is a feature in GA4 that allows users to group similar pages. For instance, an ecommerce website can have product, listing, and checkout pages. You can group them separately for the analysis.
Or, you can run a blog about GA4, Data Studio and BigQuery, and you can split articles into groups based on the topic.
This will help you analyze your pages more efficiently; moreover, it makes a huge difference when you have 100+ pages to look after.
In order to activate content grouping in GA4, you need to use Google Tag Manager and change your GA4 configure tag. Here I’m sharing an example of how you can group pages using the regex table. You can also use a lookup table in GTM.
Connect Search Console To See Organic Traffic Performance
It is relevant to assess your organic traffic performance regarding page views in GA4. To do this, the best way is to connect your Google Search Console account to your Google Analytics property. We won’t go through the needed steps in this article, but you can read how to link your GA4 account to Google Search Console in my dedicated article.
This integration provides you with access to two extra reports that are quite helpful in analyzing organic traffic. You can find them both on the Search Console area of your GA4 property.
First, there are Queries.
These are useful for analyzing how people are looking up your website on Google Search and the search queries that are being used by your visitors. You can drill deeper into the data using other Search Console dimensions in the report but without Analytics dimensions. You can also find this report in your Search Console account.
There’s also the Google Organic Search Traffic report, which displays landing pages with associated Search Console and Analytics metrics such as clicks over time, users, engaged sessions, and more. You can drill into the data using the Country and Device dimensions.
Do you need help to set up Google Analytics 4?
GA4 offers a range of features and capabilities that enable businesses to gain valuable insights into their website and app performance. By utilizing GA4, you can effectively track and analyze data, make data-driven decisions, and optimize your online presence.
At Vakulski-Group, we specialize in providing comprehensive assistance with GA4, ensuring you can fully utilize this powerful analytics tool. Our services include GA4 implementation, customization, and data analysis. By partnering with us, you can leverage the full potential of GA4 and make informed decisions for your business. Contact us today to get started on maximizing the benefits of GA4!
Bonus: How to set up GA4 to show Page Path
As mentioned above, there is an option to get a clean page path in GA4. Let me show you how to do it in GA4 using Google Tag Manager.
The solution is to send an additional custom event parameter with every pageview event. To do that, you should modify your existing GA4 configuration tag according to the screenshot below.
Then, you should publish the GTM container and create a new dimension, “path_clean” in GA4.
After making these changes, it takes 24 hours to process the first data on GA4.
Final Thoughts
In this article, I covered every detail about pageviews in Google Analytics 4, including setting up the page view event on GA4, finding page view data in Google Analytics 4, and more.
Having access to these reports and features makes it easier to analyze your website traffic according to how many visitors and page views you had in a set period and across different sources and media. If you can’t find an answer to your question, please comment below.
Frequently Asked Questions
Whenever someone lands on your website or opens your app, this user generates a pageview event.
You can find page views data in GA4 by navigating to Reports -> Lifecycle collection -> “Pages and screens” report.
You can find page views data in GA4 by navigating to Reports -> Lifecycle collection -> “Pages and screens” report.
These are the additional parameters you can check with the GA4 pageview event:
1. language
2. page_location
3. page_referrer
4. page_title
5. screen_resolution
6. campaign
7. term
8. medium
9. source
10. ga_session_id
11. ga_session_number
To set up a virtual pageview for GA4, you should send an additional event “pageview” to GA4 (the same as you send other events.
No, It doesn’t have unique pageviews metric.
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Written By
Ihar Vakulski
With over 8 years of experience working with SaaS, iGaming, and eCommerce companies, Ihar shares expert insights on building and scaling businesses for sustainable growth and success.
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