Hits and page views are not the same thing.
Hits
A hit is a request for a file from the server.
This can include:
- The web page itself
- Images
- CSS files
- JavaScript files
- Audio files
- Video files
- Other files loaded by the page
Page Views
A page view is counted when a page is viewed.
This usually means a page such as:
- .html
- .htm
- .php
Example
If a web page contains 20 images and someone visits that page, the visit may create:
- 1 page view
- 21 hits
That is one request for the page itself, plus one request for each image.
Why the Difference Matters
Hits can be much higher than page views because one page can load many separate files.
When checking website traffic, page views are usually more useful than hits.