What Are Pages and Screens in Google Analytics?

Trying to figure out what people are actually doing on your website or in your app can feel like a guessing game. Thankfully, Google Analytics 4 gives you the "Pages and screens" report, a straightforward tool designed to show you exactly which parts of your digital experience are getting the most attention. This article will break down what the Pages and screens report is, how to read it, and how to use it to make smarter decisions about your content and marketing.

What Are "Pages" and "Screens" in Google Analytics?

In Google Analytics, the distinction between "pages" and "screens" is simple and depends entirely on the platform your users are on.

Pages refer to the individual web pages on your website. Every time a user loads a page in their browser, like your homepage or a blog post, GA4 records this as a page_view event.
Screens refer to the individual screens within your mobile application. When a user navigates to a new screen in your app, like the "settings" menu or a product detail view, GA4 records this as a screen_view event.

GA4 combines both of these metrics into a single "Pages and screens" report. This is a significant change from the old Universal Analytics, which had separate reports for websites and apps. Combining them allows you to see user engagement across all your digital properties in one unified view, making it much easier to understand the complete user journey if you have both a website and a mobile app.

How to Find and Read the Pages and Screens Report

Getting to the report is easy. From your GA4 dashboard, just follow this path:

Reports > Engagement > Pages and screens

Once you're there, you'll see a table listing out your website pages and app screens, along with several columns of data. Let's break down what each of these metrics means.

Dimensions: Page Path vs. Page Title

The first column in the report is your primary dimension. By default, it's set to "Page path and screen class," but you can click the little dropdown arrow to switch it to "Page title and screen name."

Page path and screen class: For websites, the "page path" is everything in the URL that comes after your domain name. For example, if the full URL is www.mycoolsite.com/blog/article-1, the page path is /blog/article-1. For mobile apps, the "screen class" is the technical name of the screen a user is viewing (e.g., ProfileActivity).
Page title and screen name: This shows the title of the HTML page (the text in the browser tab) or the custom name you've given to a screen in your app's code. Page titles are often more descriptive and easier to read than page paths.

Key Report Metrics Explained

The other columns in the report give you valuable performance data for each page and screen:

Views: This is the total number of times a page or screen was viewed. If a user visits your homepage, goes to another page, and then comes back to the homepage, that counts as two views for the homepage. It's a simple, powerful measure of popularity.
Users: This counts the number of unique users who viewed a page or screen. Unlike views, this metric doesn't count repeat visits from the same person. It helps you understand the reach of your content.
Views per user: This is a simple calculation: Views divided by Users. A high number here can indicate that a specific page or screen is very useful, causing users to return to it frequently.
Average engagement time: This metric shows the average time that your webpage was the active tab in the user's browser, or that your app screen was in the foreground on their device. It's a much better indicator of actual engagement than Universal Analytics' "Average Time on Page," as it pauses when a user navigates away to another tab.
Event count: This shows the total number of events that were triggered on a specific page or screen. This includes standard events like scroll and click, but its real power comes from custom events you set up, like form_submission or video_play.
Conversions: If you've designated certain events as conversions (e.g., purchase or generate_lead), this column shows you how many times that conversion happened on each page or screen. This is crucial for identifying which content directly contributes to your business goals.

Actionable Ways to Use the Pages and Screens Report

Understanding the metrics is half the battle. Now, let's explore some practical ways you can use this report to get real insights and improve your website or app.

1. Identify Your Most Popular Content

This is the most common use case. By default, the report is sorted by Views, so your most popular content is right at the top. This is your A-list - the pages and screens that get the most eyeballs.

How to use this information:

Content Strategy: If you see that blog posts about a certain topic consistently rank at the top, that's a clear signal to create more content around that theme.
Internal Linking: Your most popular pages are valuable real estate. Use them to link out to other important, but less-viewed, pages (like product pages or lead magnets) to spread some of that traffic love around.
Promotion: Feature your top-performing blog posts on your homepage or pin them to your social media profiles to get even more leverage from them.

2. Pinpoint Your Most Engaging Content

Views are great, but they don't tell the whole story. A page might get a lot of clicks but have users leaving immediately. To find your truly valuable content, click the column header for Average engagement time to sort by that metric.

The content that rises to the top here is what genuinely captures your audience's attention. It might be a detailed "how-to" guide, a long-form case study, or a tool that users spend a lot of time with. These pages might not have the most views, but they are providing deep value to your audience.

How to use this information:

User Experience: Analyze the structure and content of these high-engagement pages. What makes them so sticky? Is it the format, the depth of information, a video? Apply those lessons to other pages on your site.
Content Ideas: High-engagement pages are perfect candidates for expansion. Could that popular guide be turned into a webinar, a downloadable PDF, or an email course?

3. Discover Which Pages Drive Conversions

This is where the magic happens. Click on the Conversions column to see which pages or screens are directly leading to your desired outcomes, whether that's a sale, a signed-up user trial, or a submitted contact form.

These pages are your workhorses. They are the ones successfully persuading users to take the most important actions on your site. Landing pages, product detail pages, and well-structured feature pages often appear here.

How to use this information:

Optimize Your A/B Tests: Concentrate your A/B testing efforts on these high-impact pages. Even a small improvement in the conversion rate here can have a significant impact on your business.
Prioritize Traffic: Funnel more traffic to your highest-converting pages. If a specific landing page is doing an amazing job, make it the destination for your paid ad campaigns and email marketing links.

4. Spot Underperforming Content and Technical Glitches

The report isn't just about finding winners, it's also about identifying problems. Look for pages with:

High views but low engagement time: This could signal a mismatch. Your page title might be creating expectations that the content doesn't meet. Or, the page could be loading so slowly that users give up.
Low views overall: Pages with very few views might be "orphan pages" that aren't properly linked from anywhere else on your site. Are they still relevant? If so, make sure users can find them through your main navigation or internal links.
(not set) values: Seeing a lot of page paths listed as "(not set)" can point to a technical issue with how your analytics tracking code is implemented.

Take It a Step Further with Customizations

The standard report is just the starting point. GA4 allows you to layer on additional data to get even more granular insights.

Add a Secondary Dimension: Click the blue "+" icon next to the primary dimension dropdown. You can add a secondary dimension like "Session source / medium" to see which traffic channels are bringing users to your top pages. Are people finding your best blog post through organic search or social media?
Apply Filters: Use the "Add filter" option at the top of the report to narrow your view. For example, you could filter by "Device category" to see only data from mobile users. This can help you understand if certain pages are performing better on desktop versus mobile.
Use Comparisons: The "Add comparison" feature lets you see data side-by-side. For instance, you could compare the behavior of users from the United States to that of users from Canada on the same set of pages.

Final Thoughts

The Pages and screens report is one of the most fundamental and helpful reports in Google Analytics 4. It cuts through the complexity and gives you a clear list of what content resonates with your audience, what drives your business forward, and where there are opportunities to improve. By regularly checking this report and asking the right questions, you'll be able to move beyond guessing and start making data-informed decisions for your website or app.

Of course, figuring out which pages drive the best ROI for your Facebook Ads campaigns or how your top-performing blog content impacts Shopify sales requires pulling data from different systems. That weekly chore of manually exporting CSVs and stitching them together can take hours. At Graphed, we automate that whole process. You can connect your marketing and sales data sources in just a few clicks and then use plain English to build real-time dashboards with prompts like, "Show me my top blog posts from GA4 and which ones generated the most sales in Shopify last month." It’s an easy way to connect your content performance directly to business results without getting lost in spreadsheets.