For veteran webmasters, these three metrics should be very familiar, but some new webmasters still don’t quite understand them. In traffic statistics, what do PV, UV, and IP mean?
PV (Page View)
PV stands for Page View — the number of page views. Every time a page on your site is refreshed, it counts as one PV. So the larger your PV, the more page impressions your site gets.
UV (Unique Visitor)
UV stands for Unique Visitor — unique visitors, counted by device. No matter how the visitor’s IP changes, or how many pages they browse, the same computer or phone counts only once per calendar day.
IP (Internet Protocol)
IP stands for Internet Protocol; each IP counts as one.
Which best reflects the number of people on a site?
I’d say UV. Some users are on a LAN — for example, in a company, everyone shares one public IP, but each person still has their own computer. What about ordinary users? They disconnect and reconnect, and their IP changes, because we use dynamic IP assignment. But the computer stays the same, so UV reflects the number of people.
Which best reflects site quality?
I’d say PV, along with time on site and bounce rate. When a user finds content they’re interested in, they stay and browse — PV goes up, time on site goes up, bounce rate goes down. If these metrics are high, it proves your site’s quality and structure are solid: users can easily find what they want and stick around.