How Are the Privacy Controls and Cookie Solution Pageviews Calculated?

To operate properly, the iubenda Privacy Controls and Cookie Solution counts the number of pageviews generated by the website. This is also done to provide the user with useful information regarding the collection of the consent, such as the percentage of consent on the total visits, the manner in which the consent was collected and so on.

The count of the pageviews is carried on by counting the number of executions of the Privacy Controls and Cookie Solution script. Whenever the Privacy Controls and Cookie Solution code runs, our software records a pageview.

Why does the amount of pageviews calculated by iubenda not coincide with the pageviews calculated with Google Analytics?

The number of pageviews calculated by our software may differ from those calculated using other statistical software such as Google Analytics, ShinyStat or Matomo/Piwik. This difference is due to the fact that the Privacy Controls and Cookie Solution automatically excludes from the counting, the pageviews generated by bots.

Are the pageviews calculated only at the first visit of each user?

Once the consent has been collected, the banner will disappear and the scripts/cookies that were subjected to the prior consent are immediately released. This is possible because the Privacy Controls and Cookie Solution script continues working behind the scenes, recognizing the users who have already given their consent.

For this reason the pageview is not recorded only at the first visit of each user, but also during all subsequent visits. The Privacy Controls and Cookie Solution script, in fact, runs continuously – even if the banner is not displayed and the blocking of scripts not executed.

How We Exclude Bots from Pageview Counting?

Many users ask if bot traffic is counted in pageviews. The answer is no — our system is designed to exclude bots so your statistics reflect real user activity.

What Happens When a Bot Visits Your Site

1. The script loads
   The Privacy Controls and Cookie Solution script always loads, whether the visitor is a person or a bot.
2. The system checks the visitor
   The script looks at the visitor’s User Agent (the identifier browsers and crawlers use).
3. The system identifies bots
   • If the User Agent contains the word “bot” or matches our known bot list, the visitor is flagged as a bot.
   • If it doesn’t, the visitor is treated as a normal user.
4. The system excludes the bot
   • The system accepts the preferences automatically and unlocks any blocked scripts.
   • The banner is not shown.
   • No pageview is recorded.
   • Other functions, like event tracking, still work as normal.

This process ensures that bot traffic never inflates your pageview numbers.

Which Bots We Exclude

We exclude:

• Any User Agent with “bot” in its name.
• A long list of known crawlers and testing tools, such as:

We also block bots from major search engines like GoogleBot, Bing, and DuckDuckGo. This way, we make sure your pageview count reflects only real user activity.

See also

• Pricing FAQs
• What iubenda Does and Does Not Track
• Privacy Controls and Cookie Solution: Analytics and Stats
• How to Configure Your Privacy Controls and Cookie Solution (Advanced Guide)