Updated June 11, 2025

While the number of expected pageviews differs based on factors like the size of your organization and your specific industry, let’s cut to the chase and explore key data that helps us understand how many pageviews a site should get.

The global average of monthly website traffic across all industries is around 5,000 website visits, with small businesses seeing an average of only 1,111 visits. Regardless of your specific industry, 5,000 pageviews is a good first milestone to aim for when getting started. But, even this typically doesn’t happen overnight. So, what kind of pageviews do high-traffic sites see?

In an independent study of more than 7,000 top-performing company websites across 22 different industries, education and training websites saw the most traffic volume, with 230,075 organic monthly visits. Public and local services came next, with 216,861 organic monthly visits.

The ideal number of pageviews involves numerous considerations, so we’ve broken these down for you. Below, we’ll look at ten of the most important factors affecting pageview expectations.

We’ll also provide a few tips to set you in the right direction and tell you how you can track your site’s traffic to monitor your optimization progress.

TL;DR

How many pageviews your site gets depends on ten key factors, ranging from business size (small businesses averaging as low as 1,111 to enterprise sites getting as many as 10 million views) to the frequency of new content published. Understanding average website pageviews in your industry helps you set realistic goals.

With proper SEO optimization for organic and AI searches, website publishers who focus on relevant, quality content are more likely to see their website pageviews increase over time than those with poorly optimized sites.

10 Factors That Affect How Many Pageviews Your Site Should Get

You’ve ticked all the “marketing” boxes for your new business—you’ve created a Facebook page, signed up for a Google Business Profile, started keyword research, and designed a shiny new website. Now what?

How do you know if your efforts are successful?

When new businesses begin their digital marketing efforts, one of the most frequently asked questions is how many pageviews your site should get.

The average pageview varies widely by industry and specific business type, making it hard to nail down a precise target for what’s “healthy” when it comes to website visits. What we do have are anecdotal examples and data to help pinpoint what factors most directly impact your site’s pageviews.

1. The Size of Your Business

The first factor that might affect your site’s traffic is the size of your business. A HubSpot study surveyed 400 web traffic analysts to see what traffic trends they could find. Companies with over 1,000 employees received an average of 250,001–10 million monthly visitors, but so did 8% of small businesses with less than 10 employees.

This tells us larger companies usually have an advantage in capturing the most monthly visitors, but hard work and world-class SEO can have a huge impact on what SMBs can accomplish.

2. How “Online” Your Industry Is

The next thing that might affect your site views is how “online” your industry is. If you have an eCommerce site or any industry primarily driven by online sales, your website will likely have a lot more traffic than industries that follow a more traditional, in-person business model, like car sales.

The role digital marketing plays in your industry helps determine how many pageviews your site should get. A highly competitive niche may require a more aggressive digital marketing strategy to increase website visitors, including paid ads, landing page optimization, and new blog content tailored to what your target audience is searching for.

3. The Purpose of Your Site

Is your site purely informational to help potential customers learn more about you? Is it an eCommerce site where customers complete their purchases? Is it a landing page where customers sign up for a consultation? How many hits a site gets varies dramatically depending on your site’s function.

A site designed specifically for lead generation is going to experience different traffic than a news site; even if they’re both in the same industry, form and function make a difference in overall pageviews.

According to HubSpot, 22.5% of B2C sites get around 40,001–100,000 unique visitors per month, while 16% of B2B sites get that same number of visitors.

4. How Often You Publish

HubSpot’s data also shows that the more frequently you publish, the more visitors you get per month. Sites publishing new content multiple times a day can get over 50,000 visitors a month. Meanwhile, sites that post new content every few months may only get 1,000–15,000 visitors per month.

In fact, sites that publish new content multiple times a day are the only sites that get 10 million visitors. Content marketingmay take time and effort—but it’s worth it.

5. Your SEO Rankings

To get website traffic, you need to be discoverable. That’s where SEO comes in. When done right, SEO can get your website listed among the first results when someone searches for specific topics in a search engine, like Google. On average, organic search accounts for a 53.3% share of site traffic across all industries!

One key to effective SEO is creating great content and optimizing your landing pages. Search engines care about websites that are engaging, informative, and on-topic. Being on topic includes factoring in location-specific details for different website locations.

Of course, it takes work to reach the top result, though it could happen faster with the right help (wink, wink).

6. Visibility in Google AI Overviews (AIO) and AI Searches

Google’s AI Overviews (AIOs) are AI-generated results that appear at the top of SERPs (search engine results pages). These results are pulled from multiple website sources that are optimized to answer direct user questions with clarity and authority.

Google AIOs are now a permanent element of search. Google has also made AI Mode a continuous feature available in Search Labs, which provides an interactive AI search experience similar to AI platforms like ChatGPT.

If your website’s content is optimized for AI and SEO, it can increase visibility in search results. This visibility may lead to more clicks and, over time, establish your site as a trusted source for future searches. But, there’s more to the equation with AI searches.

The Rise of Conversational AI

According to Big Leap’s VP of Product Development, James Straatman, only 1–2% of our client search traffic currently comes from AI platforms like ChatGPT. But the positive impact stemming from these searches is already apparent and will continue to trend upwards. 63% of websites receive traffic from an AI engine, and nearly all of them came from ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s Gemini. As AI adoption continues to scale, so does the need to optimize for it.

The Drop In Organic CTRs and Rise of Direct Clicks

With Google’s AIO presenting a permanent fixture as an aggregate of results, this means a majority of AIO-triggered searches end in zero clicks to websites. These click-throughs have been a long-standing vanity metric to help gauge site visibility and performance.

While the goal is to continue optimizing your content to get seen in featured snippets and AIO results, organic CTRs will continue to drop despite a high-ranking presence. Meanwhile, those search results in ChatGPT and other AI platforms are leading to a rise in direct traffic.

People converse with AI, and well-optimized websites appear as part of the results provided in these conversations, leading users to copy/paste the website address directly in their browser to visit your site.

The use of AI platforms also impacts the best way to view your sales funnel and the buyer’s journey. Search may play a greater role in discovery, meaning fewer clicks in this stage, but it helps you gain more brand exposure at the important consideration and decision stages of the journey.

As this form of conversational AI continues to blend with traditional search, it is just as likely that AI-optimized sites will continue to gain even more new direct traffic as a result.

Search will continue to evolve toward conversational AI, making it vital for your marketing team to understand how to optimize your brand’s presence, implementing a broader use of KPIs and metrics to gauge what is most effective in connecting with your target audience.

Be sure to partner with a digital marketing expert who is knowledgeable about generative engine optimization (GEO). You need a partner who understands the impact that AI has on search results and how to tailor your content so that it gains the most visibility in traditional search and new forms of AI-based results.

7. Age of Site

The age of your site can play a role in how much traffic it earns. Quality sites that have been online for years are seen as having higher authority by search engines and therefore are more likely to show up higher in SERPs and get more clicks. In the same HubSpot study, sites over 10 years old represented the majority of sites that received 250,001–10 million monthly visitors.

Don’t despair if your site isn’t getting as many visitors as your competitor’s older site. While the age of a site plays a role in the number of pageviews you receive, it’s not directly ranked as part of Google’s algorithm.

The reason an older website with high-quality content tends to get ranked higher than comparable, newer sites is that it takes time for truly valuable online proof of authority to be achieved.

Earning high-authority backlinks from others, developing trust, receiving numerous positive reviews, and receiving shares from people on social media are all valuable signals that require authentic online reputation-building that are nearly impossible to fake in the short term. So yes, age matters, but not due to the date you first registered your site’s domain.

8. Site Speed

User experience is crucial to increasing web traffic. Slow page loading times will cause people to bounce off your site in search of faster sites with quicker load times.

High bounce rates are a sign that people aren’t finding what they were searching for, or they were frustrated by your site’s loading time. One study found that 57% of survey respondents reported leaving a site before accomplishing what they intended because of slow load times.

9. User Experience

Every page on your website must be optimized with the customer in mind. If your site is difficult to navigate, potential customers will abandon your site for a competitor—and they won’t return: “88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience.”

You also need to ensure your website is mobile-friendly. 62.54% of global website traffic now comes from mobile devices (excluding tablets).

10. Domain Security

An unsecured website won’t receive as many site visits as a secure one, simply because people unfamiliar with your brand won’t want to risk having their sensitive data stolen.

An unsecured site uses HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which sends data between your browser and the website in plain text. If that data is sensitive, it isn’t being encrypted, which means if someone were to intercept that data, they would know precisely what it says. Secure sites have an “S” in their address—HTTPS—meaning any data transferred is encrypted and unreadable to others.

Some search engines penalize unsecured websites, which could cause your ranking to fall in SERPs. Even if your site visitors are willing to take the risk, search engines may not be.

How to Start Tracking Your Pageviews Using Google Analytics (GA4)

There are many tools, both paid and free, that can help you monitor your site traffic. We recommend using Google Analytics (GA4), a free web app that allows you to see how many hits your site is receiving while delivering website analytics metrics like:

  • Real-time reporting
  • Event reports (user actions, system events, and errors)
  • Knowledge of which pages people are most engaged with
  • Reports on revenue from eCommerce, subscriptions, or ads
  • New and predictive info from Google’s machine learning
  • Easier connection to other Google tools
  • More customization options for data reports

Another vital function of Google Analytics is the ability to see—in real time—how your visitors are finding you. This is what GA4’s Acquisition tool is used for. Using the Traffic acquisition report, you can see exactly which channels bring in the highest number of visitors, down to the specific email campaign, PPC ad, or URL.

You can also filter your acquisition sources by paid versus organic. This helps you better tell how well your advertising dollars are being spent and where adjustments need to be made.

You’ll know exactly which pieces of organic content attract the most viewers.

When you know these things, you can better tailor your site to the customers you actually have, rather than the ones you think you have, enabling you to address issues that cause users to leave your site.

Setting Up Google Analytics (GA4) for Pageviews

Assuming you already have a Google account, you need to set up a Google Analytics account. The current version of Google Analytics is called GA4. On the Analytics page, there’s a blue button that says “Start measuring.” Click it and you’ll go to an account setup page. You’ll have to fill out information for three sections:

  • Account setup
  • Property setup
  • About your business

Next, you’ll sign a terms of service agreement.

If you already have an account, pick which one you’re adding the property to.

Then add a data stream to your account to get a Google tag. Google recommends using its Tag Manager for implementation.

Repeat this process for every page that you want to track. To see pageviews in GA4, navigate to Reports → Engagement → Pages and screens.

Do More with Your Website Analytics

Now that you’re tracking your site traffic and know exactly where your customers are coming from and what they’re doing when they arrive, you can better tailor your site to meet your customers’ needs.

Keep in mind, you won’t be getting the traffic numbers you want right away—effective digital marketing takes a lot of time and effort. Sites typically need time to mature before rising in Google ranking.

Feeling overwhelmed with running your business, figuring out how to increase pageviews, and monitoring your site traffic all at once? We’re here to help you with the juggling act! We’ll even help you think about what kind of marketing budget you might be looking at.

Big Leap’s digital marketing experts love helping our clients optimize content, analyze website data, and drive more traffic through intelligent marketing and consistent support.

Talk to our SEO experts today!

Case Studies

The Honest Company

522 – Increase in Keywords in Top 3 Rankings

402.7% – Increase in Homepage Sessions

99.8% – Increase in Orders

Now Tech

2,220 – Increase in Organic Pageviews

789 – Increase in Page Rankings

496 – New Users

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good number of pageviews for a small business website?

The global average for monthly website visits for SMBs (small-to-medium-sized businesses) is around 1,111 visits. Pageviews may be higher than how many website visitors come to your site, since each visitor may click on multiple pages. Aiming for the overall global average of 5,000 visits is a good first milestone to aim for.

How can I get more traffic from people using ChatGPT and other AI programs?

AI searches are tailored to provide exact matches for direct questions. Optimizing your site means building authority and providing valuable, direct answers to questions that are related to your industry. People are also likely to discuss what they are looking for and interact with AI searches more like a conversation, so think about the exact kinds of questions people are wondering about when creating your content.

How are Google AI Overviews different from ChatGPT?

Google’s AIO is unique because it appears directly inside the Google search engine. People who use Google as their main search engine will also receive AI-generated responses at the top of the SERP.

These AI results are typically drawn from multiple sites that, when combined, theoretically provide the most concise and accurate answer to a query—at least, that’s Google’s thought. Other AI platforms like ChatGPT include searches as a feature, but are primarily designed as a conversational source of general knowledge that the program has already been trained on.

How do I increase my pageviews with Google Analytics 4 (GA4)?

You can use GA4 to improve your website’s pageviews by identifying your best-performing pages and studying user behavior patterns. This helps point you in the right direction about what kind of content visitors value the most. The best way to improve your website traffic is to create quality content that touches on the most important details regarding your products and services that people are searching for.

Why are my pageviews so low?

This could be the case for multiple reasons, but if you find they are low compared to others in your industry, consider the factors we outlined above.

  • Well-established sites tend to perform better than newer sites.
  • Sites that are poorly designed and hard to navigate make people frustrated, which limits returning traffic.
  • A slow-loading site will send people away before they fully load a page.
  • You might not have optimized your site to match what your audience is searching for.