This is a “LinkedIn Content Analytics Challenge” series post. that addresses how to track Pageviews Per Visits by creating a Custom Report in Google Analytics, as well how to best analyze the data for greatest benefit.
- LinkedIn challenge question: Is it possible to measure Pageviews Per Visits (PV/V) on specific pages in {Google Analytics} GA ?
- asked by: Catherine Gray
- my answer: Yes
about custom reports
A “Custom Report” is just that – a non-standard report that you create, i.e. not “out of the box”. Custom reports work by you picking a valid combination of dimensions (City, Browser, Page Title, etc.) and metrics (Visits, Pageviews, Bounce Rate, etc.) and how they are displayed in your report.
how to create a custom report: Pageviews Per Visits
- From the “Custom Reporting” tab, click “Overview” on the left navigation bar
- Click the “+ New Custom Report” button
- Enter a name for the report
- Enter a name for the report tab
- NOTE: You can add addition tabs that allow you to add and rearrange different metrics, but will always contain the same dimensions
- For Type you choose either Explorer (clickable hierarchy of data tables) or Flat table (a single data table)
- The Type you choose affects how you visualize your data in your report, I prefer Explorer
- Enter a name for the first group of metrics
- Click “+ Add metric” to add each metric
- Select Pageviews under the Visitors category. This option will report on pages viewed for whole session, i.e., as users view other pages. If you want to know the number of people viewing a page use the Unique Pageviews metric instead
- Select Visits under the Visitors category.
- Click “+ add dimension” to add a unique page identifier dimension
- You can use Page. which displays the URL in the report, but when possible I use Page Title which is more human friendly to work with
- I also added a few other dimensions to segment on visitors for greater insights during analysis
- Filters: If you want to report on all of your pages leave this empty. If you to report on only some of your pages do the following:
- Click “+ Add a filter” button
- Select Page under the Content category
- Keep the default “Include” option
- Change Exact and select “Regex“ from the dropdown
- Insert the URLs you want to track. For multiple URLs use the pipe symbol ( | ) between the URLs with no spaces, which acts as an OR statement
- Click “Save”
Voila! You’re done.
Add this report directly to your Google Analytics account.
Click to view larger image
how to best use Pageviews Per Visits
Pageviews Per Visits is a great indicator of how compelling your content is and how it is being navigated.
about Pageviews Per Visits
- Metric name: Pageviews Per Visits
- Definition: The total number of page views divided by the total number of visits during the same time frame
- Formula: Pageviews / Visits
- Type: Number
- Applicable: Can be used at both the Site & Page levels
- Advanced reporting: As noted above I’ve included addition dimensions for more advanced segmentation of various users
where to start
What you want to look for and ask from the data is largely dependent upon on you monetize your site, i.e. online business model, and the goals of the site &/or that part of the site. There are four basic models to keep in mind.
- Ad-Based models: You make money by the Pageview, so more is obviously better
- eCommerce, Brand, & Social models: Typically Pageviews are a good thing and something you want to increase, but needs to be evaluated against users getting lost, poor navigation / search, etc.
- Self-service support models: The lower the better
insights & analysis
Begin by clearing understanding what is is that you are you trying to solve. In this case you want to know what is affecting Pageviews, either up or down. Which means you should start looking at things that can affect why a visitor would choose to click or not to click, thus creating an additional Pageview. There is an abundance material already out there on what metrics you should look at, so instead I thought I’d share several components of a site that can affect Pageviews.
1) Navigation
- High(er) Pageviews: Visitors that are having a difficult time moving around your site, most likely due to poor information architecture, are forced to click more to get what they need
- Low(er) Pageviews: If your visitors become too frustrated they may bail from your site early, thus clicking less
2) Content
- High(er) Pageviews: Professionally written, on-brand, contextual content will keep users around longer and maybe even get them to come back
- Low(er) Pageviews: If your content has none of the above traits i.e. it sucks, you can expect visitors to leave early
3) Onsite Search
- High(er) Pageviews: Sucky search means more clicks for visitors to find what they are looking for
- Low(er) Pageviews: Good search functionality will get your visitors where they want to go in less clicks
4) Marketing
- High(er) Pageviews: Targeted, contextual, & relevant content increases the chances of visitors consuming more content
- Low(er) Pageviews: Poorly targeted, out of context, & non-relevant content will have visitors exiting sooner
bonus tip
- In addition to the above, when you are trying to decide the cause of any problems with Pageviews Per Visits be sure to include Time Spent on Site and Time on Page
- While briefly touched on above your onsite (enterprise) search engine can play a VERY big part in the success of your site, especially for larger content sites
