What are the Difference between Page Views, Visits and Visitors?

Page Views:-

In Google Analytics, a page view is counted every time a page on your website loads.  So, for example, if someone comes to your site and views page A, then page B, then Page A again, and then leaves your site -- the total page views for the visit is 3.

 

Visit:-

A visit or session is a period of interaction between a web browser and a website. Closing the browser or staying inactive for more than 30 minutes ends the visit. For example, let’s say that a visitor is browsing the Google Store, a site that uses Google Analytics. He gets to the second page, and then gets a phone call. He talks on the phone for 31 minutes, during which he does not click anywhere else on the site. After his call, he continues where he left off. Google Analytics will count this as a second visit, or a new session. Note that throughout these modules, the words “visit” and “session” may be used interchangeably.

 

Visitors:-

A visitor is uniquely identified by a Google Analytics visitor cookie which assigns a random visitor ID to the user, and combines it with the timestamp of the visitor’s first visit. The combination of the random visitor ID and the timestamp establish a Unique ID for that visitor. You’ll learn more about the visitor cookie in a subsequent module.

Generally, the Visitors metric will be smaller than the Visits metric which in turn will be smaller than the Pageviews metric. For example, 1 visitor could visit a site 2 times and generate a total of 5 pageviews.