Getting started-with-similar web-api

Learn about SimilarWeb API

1. Getting Started with
SimilarWeb API

2. If you’re reading this, it is safe to assume you
are some kind of data geek. It doesn’t matter
whether you’re a code guru or don’t know
how to write a single line of code – by the
end of this short guide you’ll know how to
make the most of SimilarWeb’s data via API.
The purpose of the guide is to walk you
through the process of getting started.
We will review the following issues:
Signing up for a free trial account
Making a request to the API
Monitoring your usage
Our Data
Don’t Panic!

3. To be on the safe side, let’s go over the steps:
This is very straightforward and if you already have an account, feel free to
proceed to the next chapter.
1. Go to http://developer.similarweb.com (Our API site)
2. Click on “Si gn Up”
3. Fill the form and hit “Get Started”
Signing up for a trial account
1
4. You will receive a confirmation email in your inbox. If you don’t find it
immediately, check your spam folder or search for “SimilarWeb” in your inbox.
If all else fails, try again, or contact us.
5. Click on the confirmation link.

4. 6. You’ll be directed to the login page. Please enter your user name
and password.
7. You are now ready to make your first API call.
We recommend starting in “Our APIs” section to learn more about all
the available data and documentation.
If you’re looking for some inspiration and use cases, check out our
“Use Cases” page.

5. All requests are HTTP requests with a programmatic structure of 3 required
parameters (Domain, Endpoint, Key) and a few optional parameters, depending on
the specific data you’ll try to retrieve.
Browsers can make these requests directly, and most programming languages
have libraries for making these calls. Please check out our documentation for an
updated view of client libraries and wrappers.
API call format:
Example for the Categorization API:
All calls requires the domain / subdomain you wish to receive data for. If you want
to get only the data relevant to the main domain not including all the subdomains,
please include the parameter “md=true" (default is true). Do not add http:// before the
domain.
Domain Parameter (Required):
You must include an endpoint code for every call you make, based on the specific data
you’re trying to retrieve.
The following table provides an overview of all the available APIs with their endpoints,
as well as the relevant parameters.
Endpoint Parameter (Required):
Making a request to the API
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http://api.similarweb.com/Site/DOMAIN/v1/[ENDPOINT]?[PARAMETER]
&Format=[FORMAT]&UserKey=[SECRETKEY]
http://api.similarweb.com/Site/yahoo.com/v2/category?
Format=JSON&UserKey=2f34dd98dd72349a827s2s34

6. API FAMILY API DESCRIPTION HISTORICAL
DATA
REQUIRE
DATE R ANGE
GRANULARITY PAGINATION ENDPOINT
Web Traf f ic
Traffic
Estimated Number of
Visits for the domain
12 Months Yes
Monthly /
Weekly / Daily
Yes visits
Rank & Reach
SimilarWeb’s Global
Rank
1 Month No - - traffic
Country Rank - Ranking
in the most popular
country
1 Months No - - traffic
Traffic Reach - Estimated
percentage of the
internet users, out of the
entire internet traffic,
who visited the domain
over the last 6 months,
week by week
6 Months No Weekly - traffic
Traffic Sources
Distribution - relative
share of each traffic
source over the last 3
months."
3 Months No - - traffic
Average Page
views per
Visit (Website
Engagement)
Average Page views
per Visit for the given
domain
12 months Yes
Monthly /
Weekly / Daily
Yes pageviews
Average Visit
Duration
(Website
Engagement)
Average Visit
Duration in the
given domain
12 months Yes
Monthly /
Weekly / Daily
Yes
visitdura-
tion
Bounce Rate
(Website
Engagement)
Bounce Rate for any of
the pages in the given
domain
12 months Yes
Monthly /
Weekly / Daily
Yes bouncerate
Web Content
Similar
Websites
returns 20 similar
websites and their
similarity score for a
given domain
1 Month No - - similarsites
Also Visited
receive a list of
additional websites that
were frequently visited
by the same visitors
1 Month No - - alsovisited
Website Tags
Returns the 10 top
Tags to any and their
relevance score for a
given domain
1 Month No - - tags
Website
Categorization
returns a given domain’s
category based on our
content analysis and
machine learning
1 Month No - - category
Category Rank
return a given domain’s
category and its global
rank within its given
category
1 Month No - -
Catego-
ryRank
Adult Websites
detect the presence of
adult content for a given
domain
1 Month No - - Category

7. API FAMILY API DESCRIPTION HISTORICAL
DATA
REQUIRE
DATE R ANGE
GRANULARITY PAGINATION ENDPOINT
Web Traffic
Sources
Social Referrals
Receive the leading
social networks sending
traffic to the domain
3 months no - -
socialrefer-
ringsites
Organic Search
Keywords Get access to all the
Organic and Paid Search
keywords leading to
given domain up to 12
months back. Output
is paginated (10 results
per page).
12 months Yes
Monthly /
Weekly / Daily
Yes
orgsearch
Paid Search
Keywords
paidsearch
Destinations
receive the 10 leading
sites that receive direct
clicks from the domain
3 months No - -
leadingdes-
tination-
sites
Referrals
all the referring websites
to a given domain up to
12 months back. Output
is paginated (10 results
per page).
12 months Yes
Monthly /
Weekly / Daily
Yes referrals
Organic
Keyword
Competitors
provides streamlined
access to all the
domains that are
competing against the
chosen domain for the
same Organic or Paid
keywords.
12 months Yes
Monthly /
Weekly / Daily
Yes
orgkwcom-
petitor
Paid Keyword
Competitors
paidkw-
competitor
Mobile
App Details
receive the Title, Image,
Publisher, Price, Main
Category, Main Category
ID, and Rating for a
requested app
1 month No - -
GetAppDe-
tails
Google App
Installs
Get estimated range
of installs for a given
app (Available only for
Google Play Store).
1 month No - -
GetAppIn-
stalls
Site Related
Apps
Receive a list of all
mobile apps (App Store
/ Play Store) related to a
given domain.
1 month No - -
Get-
RelatedSi-
teApps

8. Domain - google.com
Endpoint – Visits
Granularity – gr=weekly
Start Date - start=5-2014
End Date – end=6-2014
Main Domain – md=false
Format=JSON
UserKey=2f34dd98dd72349a827s2s34
Final Example:
Well, you don’t really need an explanation to that, right?
User Key (Required):
Time granularity (not all APIs):
Some data points require specification of the time granularity of the data
being returned.
gr = daily / monthly / weekly
Date range (not all APIs):
Some data points require specification of the date range of the data being returned in
M-YYYY structure.
start = M-YYYY / end = M-YYYY
You can choose if you want to receive the data as JSON or XML.
Format (Not mandatory)
Format = XML / JSON
http://api.similarweb.com/Site/google.com/v1/visits? gr=weekly& start=5-
2014&end=6-2014& md=false& Format=JSONUserKey=2f34dd98dd72349a827s2s34

9. Time granularity (not all APIs):
<Values>
<Metric>
<Date>2014-05-01T00:00:00</ Date>
<Value>19422317108</ Value>
</Metric>
<Metric>
<Date>2014-06-01T00:00:00</ Date>
<Value>18918609379</ Value>
</Metric>
</Values>
Date – Time Stamp
Value – Number of visits for the given domain.

10. We highly recommend you check your usage from time to time in order to
understand better your usage habits and see if your quota may be on the
wrong side of full.
1. Click on your username on the top right corner of the page:
2. Click on “API Usage”
Monitoring Usage
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11. 3. Here you can see how many hits you already used in the specified timeframe:
4. Clicking on “Methods” will help you understand the breakdown among the
specific endpoints.

12. Our Data
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Diverse Sources
We have more than a hundred different data sources, which helps us assess and
compare the quality of our data and eliminate biases.
We combine clickstream data from our industry-leading panel with data from our
crawler, VPNs, and SDK, to analyze over a billion pages every single month and get an
even better snapshot of web and app activity.
Unlike some providers, who focus on a specific region or user type, our collection is done
on a global scale, with a statistically representative cross-section of all types of consumers.
This allows us to reach an unbiased and full understanding of a website's traffic.

13. Size matters
Data Treatment
When it comes to data, the bigger the panel is, the more statistically accurate the
insights will be.
Once we have collected volumes of raw data, we use statistical analysis and
machine learning techniques to turn it into actionable knowledge.
We have panel data for tens of millions of users across the world, making our panel
the biggest in the industry.
We implement big data technologies on our data center consisting of dozens of high-end
servers that analyze tens of terabytes of data every week and more than a billion data
points every single day. The volume of data we manage and process makes our insights
highly accurate and reliable.
Our raw data is treated with in-house algorithms to remove biases, filter out noisy
information, and transform it into meaningful insights. The data from our diversified
sources is intelligently combined, normalized, and projected to represent the entire
Internet population.

14. From Data To Insights
Our expertise in web traffic, marketing analytics, and Internet behavior is what
brings our data to life.
We work hard to filter our processed data and present it to users in a way that allows
them to quickly find the insights they need.
We work hard so that you don't have to. Instead of being overloaded with irrelevant data,
we give users focused access to the most relevant intelligence to help them achieve faster
and better research.
Questions?
Contact us at: [email protected]