Getting Started with
SimilarWeb API
Dont Panic!
If youre reading this, it is safe to assume you
are some kind of data geek. It doesnt matter
whether youre a code guru or dont know
how to write a single line of code by the
end of this short guide youll know how to
make the most of SimilarWebs 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
1
Signing up for a trial account
This is very straightforward and if you already have an account, feel free to
proceed to the next chapter.
To be on the safe side, lets go over the steps:
1. Go to http://developer.similarweb.com (Our API site)
2. Click on Sign Up
3. Fill the form and hit Get Started
4. You will receive a confirmation email in your inbox. If you dont 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.
6. Youll 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 youre looking for some inspiration and use cases, check out our
Use Cases page.
2
Making a request to the API
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 youll 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:
http://api.similarweb.com/Site/DOMAIN/v1/[ENDPOINT]?[PARAMETER]
&Format=[FORMAT]&UserKey=[SECRETKEY]
Example for the Categorization API:
http://api.similarweb.com/Site/yahoo.com/v2/category?
Format=JSON&UserKey=2f34dd98dd72349a827s2s34
Domain Parameter (Required):
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.
Endpoint Parameter (Required):
You must include an endpoint code for every call you make, based on the specific data
youre trying to retrieve.
The following table provides an overview of all the available APIs with their endpoints,
as well as the relevant parameters.
API FAMILY
API
Traffic
Rank & Reach
DESCRIPTION
Estimated Number of
Visits for the domain
SimilarWebs Global
Rank
HISTORICAL
REQUIRE
DATA
DATE RANGE
12 Months
Yes
1 Month
No
1 Months
GRANULARITY
PAGINATION
ENDPOINT
Yes
visits
traffic
No
traffic
6 Months
No
Weekly
traffic
3 Months
No
traffic
12 months
Yes
Yes
pageviews
12 months
Yes
12 months
Yes
1 Month
No
1 Month
Monthly /
Weekly / Daily
Country Rank - Ranking
in the most popular
country
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
Web Traffic
Traffic Sources
Distribution - relative
share of each traffic
source over the last 3
months."
Average Page
views per
Visit (Website
Engagement)
Average Visit
Duration
(Website
Engagement)
Average Page views
per Visit for the given
domain
Average Visit
Duration in the
given domain
Bounce Rate
Bounce Rate for any of
(Website
the pages in the given
Engagement)
domain
Monthly /
Weekly / Daily
Monthly /
Weekly / Daily
Monthly /
Yes
visitduration
Yes
bouncerate
similarsites
No
alsovisited
1 Month
No
tags
1 Month
No
category
1 Month
No
1 Month
No
Weekly / Daily
returns 20 similar
Similar
websites and their
Websites
similarity score for a
given domain
receive a list of
Also Visited
additional websites that
were frequently visited
by the same visitors
Returns the 10 top
Website Tags
Tags to any and their
relevance score for a
given domain
Web Content
returns a given domains
Website
category based on our
Categorization
content analysis and
machine learning
return a given domains
Category Rank
category and its global
rank within its given
CategoryRank
category
detect the presence of
Adult Websites
adult content for a given
domain
Category
API FAMILY
API
DESCRIPTION
HISTORICAL
REQUIRE
DATA
DATE RANGE
3 months
no
GRANULARITY
PAGINATION
Receive the leading
Social Referrals
social networks sending
traffic to the domain
Organic Search
Keywords
ENDPOINT
socialreferringsites
orgsearch
Get access to all the
Organic and Paid Search
keywords leading to
given domain up to 12
12 months
Yes
months back. Output
Monthly /
Weekly / Daily
Yes
is paginated (10 results
Paid Search
per page).
paidsearch
Keywords
Web Traffic
Sources
receive the 10 leading
Destinations
sites that receive direct
leadingdes3 months
No
clicks from the domain
tinationsites
all the referring websites
to a given domain up to
Referrals
12 months back. Output
12 months
Yes
is paginated (10 results
Monthly /
Weekly / Daily
Yes
referrals
per page).
Organic
Keyword
Competitors
orgkwcomprovides streamlined
petitor
access to all the
domains that are
competing against the
12 months
Yes
chosen domain for the
Monthly /
Weekly / Daily
Yes
same Organic or Paid
Paid Keyword
paidkw-
keywords.
Competitors
competitor
receive the Title, Image,
Publisher, Price, Main
App Details
Category, Main Category
1 month
No
1 month
No
1 month
No
ID, and Rating for a
GetAppDetails
requested app
Get estimated range
Mobile
Google App
of installs for a given
Installs
app (Available only for
GetAppInstalls
Google Play Store).
Receive a list of all
Site Related
mobile apps (App Store
Apps
/ Play Store) related to a
given domain.
GetRelatedSiteApps
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
Format (Not mandatory)
You can choose if you want to receive the data as JSON or XML.
Format = XML / JSON
User Key (Required):
Well, you dont really need an explanation to that, right?
Final Example:
http://api.similarweb.com/Site/google.com/v1/visits?gr=weekly&start=52014&end=6-2014&md=false&Format=JSONUserKey=2f34dd98dd72349a827s2s34
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
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.
3
Monitoring Usage
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
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.
4
Our Data
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.
Size matters
When it comes to data, the bigger the panel is, the more statistically accurate the
insights will be.
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.
Data Treatment
Once we have collected volumes of raw data, we use statistical analysis and
machine learning techniques to turn it into actionable knowledge.
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.
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: api@similarweb.com
