NEXUS SimilarWeb

Technical summary

NEXUS plugin for market intelligence and web traffic analysis via the SimilarWeb API V5: total visits, engagement (bounce rate, pages/visit, time on site), traffic sources, rankings and affinity-based competitors — with a keyless free/estimate mode, 7-day local caching, API Key setup in the UI and domain enrichment signals in the Intelligence Hub.

Executed scope

• backend.php backend (489 lines): SIMILARWEB_CACHE_TTL = 604800 (7 days); similarweb_get_api_key() reads similarweb_settings.api_key with fallback to the SIMILARWEB_API_KEY constant.
• Tables (created by similarweb_install() on load): similarweb_cache (id, kind, query_key VARCHAR(255), status, http_code, data LONGTEXT, error, task_id, updated_at; UNIQUE uk_kind_key (kind, query_key), idx_updated_at) and similarweb_history (id, query_type, query_val VARCHAR(255), status, task_id, created_at; idx_created_at).
• Cache: similarweb_cache_get/put — upsert per kind+key (lowercase key) with 7-day TTL; every query is logged to history; the force parameter bypasses cache.
• HTTP: similarweb_http_get(endpoint, params, timeout) — base https://api.similarweb.com/; api_key appended to query params when configured; 4s connect / 10s timeout (default); Accept: application/json.
• Two operation modes: without an API Key → FREE response with structured estimates (mode: ESTIMATED — simulated visits, engagement, rankings and sample competitors, cached for testing); with an API Key → real SimilarWeb V5 data.
• similarweb_traffic — GET v1/website/{domain}/total-traffic-and-engagement/visits (monthly granularity, main_domain_only=false); visits per month, bounce rate, page_views, time_on_site, monthly_change, global/country/category rank and category.
• similarweb_sources — GET v1/website/{domain}/traffic-sources/overview; direct/organic/social/referrals/paid search/email distribution + top organic keywords.
• similarweb_ranking — GET v1/website/{domain}/global-rank/global-rank; global, country and category (available via API; in the UI the ranks appear in the Traffic tab cards).
• similarweb_similar — GET v1/website/{domain}/similar-sites/similarsites; competitors with affinity score and category.
• similarweb_status — without a key: FREE mode (services.similarweb_api online, explanatory message); with a key: GET v1/capabilities + online/http_code per service.
• similarweb_history — page and limit ≤ 50, ordered by id DESC (query_type, query_val, status, task_id, created_at).
• similarweb_settings_save — real action (not a placeholder): saves the API Key via DB::setConfig('similarweb_settings', ['api_key' => ...]), falling back to the constant.
• API: 7 actions via PluginManager::registerApiAction (similarweb_status, similarweb_traffic, similarweb_sources, similarweb_ranking, similarweb_similar, similarweb_history, similarweb_settings_save).
• Intelligence Hub: similarweb enricher (priority 60, types domain/url) — URLs are reduced to the host (parse_url) and deduplicated by domain:value; queries similarweb_traffic and, when engagement exists, emits a signal with severity: 'info', status: 'analyzed', summary SimilarWeb: ~{visits} visits/month, Bounce: {bounce}%, with cached when served from cache.
• Alpine.js UI (tab.php, 468 lines): indigo theme; mode badge (green "API Active" / amber "Free / Estimate Mode") + ⚙️ Configure Key button (password modal → similarweb_settings_save); Traffic tab (analysis fires traffic + sources + competitors in parallel; KPI cards — Total Visits (B/M/K), Bounce Rate, Pages/Visit, Avg Time (m/s) — plus Global/Country/Category Rank cards and category badge), Sources (per-channel bars), Competitors (domain/category/affinity table + "Analyze" button that re-runs the competitor analysis) and History (type/domain/status/date); raw JSON toggle.
• Fastr: 3 commands — /similarweb <domain> (domain), /similarweb-sources <domain> (domain), /similarweb-similar <domain> (domain); all arg_required=true.
• No cronjob.json — on-demand plugin with 7-day cache.

Stack and tools

• PHP 8 (no framework)
• MySQL 8 (similarweb_cache + similarweb_history)
• Alpine.js + Tailwind CSS (premium light, indigo ring)
• NEXUS plugin system (PluginManager)
• cURL → SimilarWeb API V5 (api.similarweb.com)

Operational tags

• Market Intelligence
• SimilarWeb
• SEO
• Web Traffic
• Competitive Intelligence
• Analytics
• Plugin NEXUS

Operational outcome

• One-click analysis of any domain: visits volume, engagement, rankings and category shown in readable cards without leaving the terminal.
• Acquisition channel overview with per-source bars (direct, organic, social, referrals, paid, email) to assess the target's traffic strategy.
• Competitive benchmark: competitors ranked by audience affinity, each re-analyzable with a single click.
• Automatic enrichment: domains mentioned in tasks/comments become informative signals (visits/month and bounce rate) in the Intelligence Hub.
• Keyless free mode for testing and previews; optional API Key configured right in the UI.
• 7-day cache: repeated lookups do not burn paid API credits and the query history stays auditable.