What is PLS by session pageviews
PLS by session pageviews shows how Perceived Load Speed (PLS) varies depending on how many pages a user visits during a single session. It reveals whether slower perceived load times are causing users to exit early — or whether fast-loading pages are helping users continue deeper into the site.
Since PLS measures how fast the page feels to load, tracking it across sessions of different lengths helps you correlate perceived speed with user intent and engagement.
Healthy PLS by session pageviews sample
Should you worry
Sessions with more pageviews tend to indicate engaged users — and ideally, their PLS should remain fast or improve with each step. If users are viewing multiple pages but still experience high PLS, it can lead to drop-off before conversion.
On the flip side, if most 1-pageview sessions show slow PLS, that’s a red flag: users are perceiving the page as sluggish and bouncing before they explore further.
Unhealthy PLS by session pageviews sample
When users in short sessions (1 or 2 pageviews) experience slow PLS, it’s often a sign that the first impression feels heavy or frustrating. This delay can prevent deeper engagement or discovery.
And if longer sessions (3+ pages) also show poor PLS, it suggests your site may not be optimizing repeat navigation performance — whether due to lack of caching, unnecessary layout shifts, or missing optimizations like Navigation AI.
Resolving unhealthy PLS by session pageviews
Go-to action plan to resolve an unhealthy PLS by session pageviews:
Ask Uxi to analyze your PLS by session pageviews and suggest improvements.
Use Filters to isolate sessions with 1 or 2 pageviews, then investigate shared PLS issues.
Simulate LCP of the suspected lens to see if fixing it will resolve the PLS by session pageviews. If yes, this is where the resolution focus should be.
Use an automated optimization tool like Navigation AI to improve your PLS by session pageviews.
Once you’ve improved PLS, set an alert to be the first to know if it starts worsening again.
Try it yourself
Discover how your website performs with real user data.