Understanding Events, Views, and Visitors
Learn the core concepts that power Narrowbeam analytics and how they differ from traditional analytics platforms.
Events
An event is any action that happens on your website. There are two types of events in Narrowbeam:
Page View Events
Automatically tracked whenever someone visits a page on your website. Each page view creates a unique pageview_id that tracks everything that happens during that specific page visit.
Action Events
Custom events you track yourself, like button clicks, form submissions, or video plays. Actions are linked to the page view they occurred on via the pageview_id.
Views (Pageviews)
A view represents a single page view. In Narrowbeam, "views" and "pageviews" are the same thing - they count the number of unique page views on your website.
Each view gets a unique pageview_id that groups together all the actions that happen on that specific page.
Example
Visitors (Sessions)
A visitor represents a unique browsing session. In Narrowbeam, visitors are privacy-preserving sessions generated server-side.
Unlike traditional analytics that use cookies to identify users, Narrowbeam generates session IDs using a privacy-first algorithm which does not require cookies or local storage.
How Sessions Work
- Time buckets: Sessions are grouped into 4-hour time windows (00:00-04:00, 04:00-08:00, etc.)
- Deterministic: The same person within a 4-hour window gets the same session ID
- Privacy-preserving: Sessions reset every 4 hours, and IP addresses are never stored
- No cookies: Everything is calculated server-side
Views vs Visitors
Understanding the difference is crucial for interpreting your data:
| Metric | What It Measures | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Views | Total page views | Someone views your homepage 3 times = 3 views |
| Visitors | Unique sessions (4-hour windows) | Same person viewing 3 pages in one session = 1 visitor |
Practical Examples
Example 1: Blog Post
Scenario: 100 people read your blog post
- ✓ 100 views (100 pageviews)
- ✓ 100 visitors (100 unique sessions)
Example 2: Multi-Page Journey
Scenario: 1 person visits: Home → Features → Pricing → Sign Up
- ✓ 4 views (4 pageviews)
- ✓ 1 visitor (1 unique session)
Example 3: Button Click Tracking
Scenario: 50 people view your pricing page, 10 click the "Sign Up" button
- ✓ 50 views to pricing page
- ✓ 50 visitors viewed the page
- ✓ 10 action events (sign-up button clicks)
Which Metric Should You Use?
Use Views When:
- Measuring content popularity
- Tracking page performance
- Counting total impressions
- Analyzing traffic sources
Use Visitors When:
- Measuring unique reach
- Tracking user journeys
- Calculating conversion rates
- Understanding audience size
Learn More
Now that you understand the core concepts, explore these topics:
- How Sessions Work - Deep dive into session generation
- Custom Event Tracking - Track actions and conversions
- Privacy-First Architecture - How Narrowbeam protects user privacy