page_view Event in Google Analytics 4

The page_view Event in Google Analytics 4 is a desktop-based Enhanced Measurement Event.

It is triggered “each time the page loads or the browser history state is changed by the active site.”

It’s also that event the populates “Views” data in your GA4 dashboard.

Because it fires on every single page for a desktop user, it’s one of the most important GA4 events.

Also See: Experiment with the GA4 Demo Account

page_view Event Default Parameters

There are two default parameters included in the page_view event:

page_location: The URL of the page where the page_view event was triggered.
e.g. The page_location of this page is https://www.bradgerick.com/google-analytics-4/pageview-event-ga4/
page_referrer: The URL of the previous page that referred the user to the current page where the page_view event was triggered.
e.g. If you came to this page from the New York Times homepage, the page_referrer would be https://www.nytimes.com/

The page_view event is only for web streams aka websites. (That is, browsers like Chrome, Firefox and Safari you can access on a computer or phone.)

The mobile (app) equivalent to a page_view in GA4 is a screen_view, which is an automatically collected event.

For the sake of the event, it’s obviously page_view, with the underscore implying a space.

There are, however, cases in Google Analytics documentation of it being spelled both pageview(s) and page view(s).

The truth is that it’s not very important whether you use the space. People will understand what you’re talking about either way.

Also see: