Last Updated: September 5, 2023

This article is in conjunction with the article Event Tracking in Google Analytics – Complete Guide where I explained event tracking in Google Analytics in great detail.

What are Google Analytics virtual pageviews?

A virtual pageview is a hit which Google Analytics tracks as a ‘pageview’, even when no new web page has actually been loaded into a web browser.

Follow is the syntax for tracking virtual pageviews in Google Analytics:

ga(‘send’, {
‘hitType’: ‘pageview’,
‘page’: ‘name of your virtual page’,
});

The code above can also be written without field names as:

ga(‘send’, ‘pageview’, ‘name of your virtual page’);

Example #1:

<a href=”https://www.abc.com/gu/dw/seo-beginners-guide.pdf” onClick=”ga(‘send’, ‘pageview’, ‘/virtual/guides/download/seo-beginners-guide.pdf’);“> Download SEO Beginners Guide</a>

Here, when a user clicks on the link ‘Download SEO Beginners Guide’, GA will generate a virtual pageview called ‘/virtual/guides/download/seo-beginners-guide.pdf’.

Example #2:

<a href=”https://www.abc.com/gu/dw/social-media-guide.pdf” onClick=”ga(‘send’, ‘pageview’, ‘/virtual/guides/download/social-media-guide.pdf’);“> Download Social Media Guide</a>

Here, when a user clicks on the link ‘Download Social Media Guide’, GA will generate a virtual pageview called ‘/virtual/guides/download/social-media-guide.pdf’.

You can see the virtual pageviews in ‘All Pages’ and ‘Content Drilldown’ reports (under Behavior > Site Content) in your Google Analytics account along with the real page views.

Note: If you are heavily using virtual pageviews then create a separate view, just to track them.

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When to use virtual pageviews

Track those types of users’ interactions as virtual pageviews which are equivalent of a page being viewed.

For example, following users’ interactions are equivalent of a page being viewed and could be tracked via virtual pageviews:

• Downloading a file
• Loading of ajax contents
• Loading of popups/lightboxes
• Loading of a dynamically generated web page
• Scrolling down a page

” Virtual pageviews are ideal for tracking goals or funnel pages hosted on a different website.”

One of the disadvantages of event tracking is that you can not use tracked events as funnel steps while setting up a goal in GA. However, you can use virtual pageview as a funnel step, while setting up a goal in GA. In this way, you can track funnel steps hosted on a different website.

For example, if you are using a third-party solution for checkout or if you are an affiliate, then it is quite common that the final part of the checkout process takes place on a different website. So if your third party checkout sends virtual pageviews (some, in fact, do that) on each page load, you can then track the checkout pages as funnel pages via virtual pageviews:

To learn more about setting up goals and funnel steps in Google Analytics, check out this article: The Geek Guide to Understanding Funnels in Google Analytics

Naming conventions for virtual pageviews

1. Use descriptive names for virtual pageviews. So that just by looking at the name, a person can understand what type of data is being collected.
2. Use consistent names for virtual pageviews.
3. Use the word ‘virtual’ somewhere in the virtual pageview name so that you can easily differentiate them from regular pageviews in your Google Analytics reports. ‘virtual page views’ are not highlighted as ‘virtual’ in the Google Analytics reports. So if you do not include the word ‘virtual’ somewhere in the virtual pageview name then you will have a hard time identifying them in GA reports.
4. Determine in advance, all of the users’ interactions for which you want to trigger virtual pageviews.
5. Use an Excel Spreadsheet to decide the names of all your virtual pageviews in advance. Create a hierarchy of virtual pageviews that is scalable. So that you don’t need to change the names of virtual pageviews often.

You can create a hierarchy of virtual pageviews by grouping all virtual pageviews into categories and by making them a part of a virtual directories:

Note: work with your report users, to make sure that your hierarchy is understandable.

Tying virtual pageviews to web page elements via event handlers

Just like events, you can also tie virtual pageviews to web page elements via event handlers (mouse, keyboard, frame and form event handlers).For example:

<a href=”https://www.abc.com/gu/dw/seo-beginners-guide.pdf” onClick=”ga(‘send’, ‘pageview’, ‘/virtual/guides/download/seo-beginners-guide.pdf’);“> Download SEO Beginners Guide</a>

Note: You can create a virtual pageview wherever you can call a JavaScript method.

Debugging virtual pageviews tracking

There are two ways in which you can make sure that virtual pageviews is working as intended:

#1 By looking at the real-time content report:

#2 The second way to see the real-time firing of virtual pageviews is through ‘Google Developers Console’:

Note: The biggest disadvantage of using virtual page views is that it can inflate your overall pageviews metric.

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Scaling and automating virtual pageviews tracking via Google Tag Manager

Just like events, you can also scale and automate virtual pageviews tracking by using Google Tag Manager.

Setting up virtual pageviews as a goal

Just like events, you can also set virtual pageviews as a goal in your Google Analytics account and assign a monetary value to it:

Other articles on specialized tracking in Google Analytics

1. How to see Organic Search Keywords in GA4 (Google Analytics 4)
2. Google Analytics Ecommerce Tracking Tutorial
3. Google Tag Manager Event Tracking Tutorial
4. Google Analytics Event Tracking Tutorial
5. Google Analytics Store Visits Tracking Tutorial
6. Offline Conversion Tracking in Google Analytics – Tutorial
7. Ecommerce Tracking Google Tag Manager (GTM) – Tutorial
8. Tracking Virtual Pageviews in Google Tag Manager – Tutorial
9. Google Tag Manager YouTube Video Tracking
10. Google Analytics Virtual Pageviews Tutorial
11. Google Analytics YouTube Integration & Analysis Tutorial
12. Google Analytics for Facebook Tutorial
13. Cross Domain Tracking in Google Analytics – Complete Guide
14. How to use two Google Analytics codes on one page
15. How to correctly use referral exclusion list in Google Analytics
16. Google Analytics Calculated Metrics – Tutorial
17. Creating your own Google Analytics Tag Auditing System
18. Google Tag Manager Search Tracking without Query Parameter
19. Tracking Google Analytics Paypal Referral and other payment gateways
20. How to Track Phone Calls in Google Analytics 4 – Call Tracking Tutorial
21. How to track leads in Google Analytics via CRM
22. Postbacks in Google Analytics Explained
23. Subscription & Recurring Revenue Analytics in Google Analytics
24. Track the Impact of Google Analytics Cookie Consent on Website Traffic
25. Tracking Offline Conversions in Google Ads
26. Implementing Scroll Tracking via Google Tag Manager
27. Scroll Depth Tracking in Google Tag Manager – Tutorial
28. Site Search Tracking In Google Analytics Without Query Parameters
29. Google Tag Manager Youtube Video Tracking via YouTube Video Trigger
30. How to Correctly Measure Conversion Date & Time in Google Analytics
31. Google Analytics Social Tracking – Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus and LinkedIn
32. Cross Domain Tracking in Google Analytics – Complete Guide
33. Google Analytics Linkedin & Twitter Tracking
34. Creating Content Group in Google Analytics via tracking code using gtag.js
35. Google Analytics Site Search Tracking via Query Parameters
36. Google Analytics Site Search Tracking Tutorial
37. Creating and Using Site Search Funnel in Google Analytics
38. How to add Facebook Pixel to Google Tag Manager
39. AMP Google Analytics Tracking – Learn to track AMP pages
40. Setting up Sales Funnel across websites in Google Analytics
41. Google Analytics 4 Regex (Regular Expressions) Tutorial

Frequently Asked Questions About Google Analytics Virtual pageviews Tutorial