The Importance of Tracking Page Views Per Visit

 

(Image sourced from Uploadcare, n.d.)


What is Page Views Per Visit?

    When managing a website, it is essential for businesses to track engagement metrics. When website visitors are engaged, they are more likely to stay on the site and interact with content. One important metric to use when tracking engagement is pages per visit, or pages per session. According to Databox, “Pages per session is the average number of pages a person views in a given session. This metric is calculated by dividing the number of pageviews by the total number of sessions. This metric can be helpful for gauging how sticky and engaging your website is” (Malnik, 2020). If users spend more time and view more pages during their visit, they can ultimately produce conversions and increase revenues. The average number of pages per visit in 2022 is 7.8, compared to 8.0 in 2021 (Similarweb, 2022).


Why It Matters

As visitors navigate a website, it is important to effectively guide them through various pages to accomplish a desired goal. According to Similarweb, “For most websites, the goal is to keep users engaged, nurture their interest, and encourage them to take the next step. Use the metric in conjunction with other engagement metrics to understand your visitors’ on-site activities and stickiness, and to evaluate how likely users are to complete the website goal (page views, purchases, etc.)” (n.d.). Determining what the “next step” is for users depends on the business itself and the desired goal of the site. This step could mean making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, sharing an article, or simply generating page views. 


The number of pages per visit can serve as an effective indicator of customer retention. According to Bateman, “It is a way of predicting return visits and brand loyalty for a simple reason. A high pages per visit number indicates that the people who have come to the site have  good reasons to stay with it. They are more likely to explore more pages than just the one that attracted them on search engine results” (n.d.). Not only does increasing pages per visit improve brand loyalty and customer retention, it’s cost-effective too. Having a user already on your site visit another page is significantly cheaper than attracting a new visitor to the site (QuickSprout, 2015). According to QuickSprout, “It’s more valuable too. If a visitor is checking out several pages, chances are they like you. Each post or page they read will increase brand recognition and trust, which will lead to conversions down the line” (2015). 


Case Study: The Big Mama Blog

The pages per visit metric directly impacts other engagement KPIs as well such as conversion rate, bounce rate, and average session duration. A prime example of this is WordPress Barista’s Big Mama Blog case study. Melanie Shankle, the owner of thebigmamablog.com, has accumulated a huge following on her blog, as well as over 20,000 followers on each social media account (Tibbles, 2018). WordPress Barista was able to redesign her outdated website in order to make navigation easier for visitors and improve site engagement. By implementing changes such as categories atop the post title, custom category buttons, a variety of call-to-action buttons, and a site-wide banner above the footer, Shankle’s site experienced 53% more pages per visit and an astounding bounce rate decrease from 82% to 47% (Tibbles, 2018). The success of the Big Mama Blog demonstrates the importance of pages per visit and how it can impact a website. By analyzing this metric and developing strategies to improve it, businesses can significantly increase website engagement while simultaneously improving other KPIs.  


References:

Bateman, S. (n.d.). Pages Per Visit Overlooked and Vitally Important. Promise Media. 

Malnik, J. (2020, June 23). What is ‘Pages Per Session’ in Google Analytics and How Do I Increase It? Databox. https://databox.com/what-is-pages-per-session-and-how-do-i-improve-it 

QuickSprout. (2015, July 29). 5 Ways to Increase Your Pageviews Per Visitor by 23.52%. QuickSprout. https://www.quicksprout.com/increase-pageviews-per-visitor/ 

Similarweb. (n.d.). Pages Per Visit - Similarweb Knowledge Center. Similarweb. https://support.similarweb.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000802405-Pages-Per-Visit 

Similarweb. (2022, February 23). 2022 eCommerce Benchmarks to Boost Your Strategy. Similarweb. https://www.similarweb.com/corp/blog/ecommerce/retail-insights/ecommerce-benchmarks-metrics/ 

Tibbles, C. (2018, March 30). Case Study: Increase Pages per Session by 53%. WordPress Barista. https://wpbarista.com/case-study-increase-pages-per-session-53/ 

UploadCare. (n.d.). Page Views Per Visit [Image]. UploadCare. https://uploadcare.com/blog/pages-viewed-per-shopping-session/

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