Analysis of The Original Muck Boot Company's website on popularity and traffic. Compared to Hunter Boots' website.

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Abbie Cook
Intro. To Web Publishing
September 14, 2017
The Original Muck Boot Company Analysis
WEB SITE OVERVIEW
 General Company Information:
Starting in 1999, The Original Muck Boot Company began their story with the
sole purpose of building a boot with the most comfortable, high-performance footwear on
the market. The Original Muck Boot Company is striving to make each of their products
deliver the same quality that inspired their footwear originally. Developing over the past
20 years, The Original Muck Boot Company has over 60 styles of rubber and leather
footwear all marketed to lasting through the toughest of conditions. Their loyal fan base
has allowed the company to become one of the fasted growing waterproof footwear in the
industry.
The general product lines of the Original Muck Boot Company targets three
specific customers; women, men, and kids. There is a header at the top of the Muck Boot
website that has areas for the viewer to select which category they are looking for. The
category labeled “Women” is split under two sections. The viewer can either look under
“Collections” or “Best For” to find what they are looking for. The “Collections” category
has the different type of women boots and the “Best For” category has examples like
“Cold & Snow”, “Outdoor”, and “Gardening”. The other sections for men and kids have
the same easy navigation that the women section had. If a viewer of the Original Muck

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Boot Company website wanted to quickly look at a boot with a specific purpose for it in
mind, there is a section for this labeled, “Best For”. Under this section, there are
categories to click like “Cold Weather”, “Casual”, and “Work” to name a few. This
section is in the same header as the women, men, and kids sections. The fifth section in
the header is labeled, “Our Story”. This section contains the background and history
information on the Original Muck Boot Company as was mentioned in the first
paragraph.
The Original Muck Boot Company news is mostly concerning new videos being
posted to their YouTube account. The majority of these YouTube videos are
advertisements and promo for their new collections. This could mean that the company is
in high demand to make new products and want to showcase their products, visually, to
their viewers. The Original Muck Boot Company news also has a few press releases in
the earlier years. The press releases were similar to the YouTube videos in the way that
they are all announcing a new collection being launched. Along with announcing the new
collections, some of the press releases also contained information when The Original
Muck Boot Company expanded their product lines in new stores around the world.
 Content Analysis:
MuckBootCompany.com features pictures and links to three of their new arrivals
of products on their homepage. These four pictures feature two women’s products, one
men’s, and one kid’s (figure 1). The Original Muck Boot Company has these featured

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photos as one of the main attractions on the website to let the viewers see those specific
products first.
When the
viewer clicks
on the
women’s new
products that
were featured,
it takes them
to a page of seven boots that ranged in price from $139.99 to $180.00. Under each picture
of the boot there is a description and price along with a “Compare” link. This feature lets
the viewer compare that boot to any other boot from The Original Muck Boot Company.
Once again, this feature helps potential buyers easily compare and make a decision on
which boot they would like to buy. In comparison to MuckBootCompany.com one of
their competitors, HunterBoots.com, also has a new products page for their women’s
selection. To find this on their website, you have to scroll down farther than what the
viewer had to on MuckBootCompany.com and go to the section “New Selection”. Under
“New Selection”, there is a link titled “Shop Women” that displays their new products.
Unlike MuckBootCompany.com, HunterBoots.com has several products including
backpacks, socks, and coats in addition to their boots. HunterBoots.com, under their new
arrivals section, had their boots ranged in price from $175 to $425. The women’s new
products on HunterBoots.com were more expensive and had more listed on their website
than MuckBootCompany.com. The Original Muck Boot Company’s highest priced boot
Figure 1

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under their new arrivals was priced $5 more than the lowest priced boot for Hunter Boots.
This shows that Hunter Boots puts a higher value on their women’s new arrival products
than The Original Muck Boot Company does.
When looking at the men’s and kid’s new arrivals on MuckBootCompany.com,
they both had a significantly smaller selection to look when compared to their women’s
section. The men’s section featured three boots and their kid’s selection featured only two
boots, while their women’s selection featured seven. This could show that The Original
Muck Boot Company wants to put more emphasis on their women’s boots over
everything else. The men’s section had boots ranged from $150 to $200 while the kid’s
section had their two boots ranged from $69 to $80.
When comparing the men’s and kids new products from MuckBootCompany.com
to HunterBoots.com, there were some differences on how to find them. Like stated
before, MuckBootCompany.com had all their different new arrivals on a big feature on
the homepage. HunterBoots.com only had their women’s and kids new arrivals featured
on the homepage, but more towards the bottom on a smaller feature. When the viewer
clicks on the kid’s new arrival products, there are 88 results that load on the next page.
The kid’s boots for Hunter Boots range in price from $80 to $85, which again, is a higher
range than the kid’s boots for The Original Muck Boot Company. Also like
HunterBoots.com women’s section, their kids section also had more products than just
boots to choose from.
When looking at the men’s new arrivals, there was no feature for them on
HunterBoots.com homepage like there was on MuckBootCompany.com. To find Hunter
Boots new arrivals for men, the viewer would have to go under “New” on the top of the

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page and go down to “Men”. The new arrivals for men also feature more accessories than
just boots, but still have 14 results for just their shoes. The men’s shoes range in price
from $115 to $275. This range is the most similar when compared back to
MuckBootCompany.com.
This information gathered from MuckBootCompany.com shows that their main
target audience for their company are men, kids, and more importantly, women. All of
these products are showcased on the homepage of their website and had quite a large
feature that the viewer’s eye would immediately go to. Another big feature on The
Original Muck Boot Company’s website is their different categories of boots that they
have for different outdoor activities. The viewer of this website has different options to
navigate their way to these specific kind of boots. It is very easy for a viewer of
MuckBootCompany.com to find and navigate what they are looking for because of the
many options.
The first option is to look at the top header on their homepage (figure 2). Like
mentioned before, the first half of this section has three separate links that are titled
“Men”, “Women”, and “Kids”. Under each of these sections the viewer can go to “Best
For” and click a section they are looking for. This might be the best option for the viewer
if they are looking for a very specific shoe. A second option would be to go the other half
of the header and go straight to “Best For”. This option would be best for a customer who
has a specific purpose of a boot in mind first and then wants to further specify if they
want a men’s, women’s, or kid’s boot.
Figure 2

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The third option to find the different categories of outdoor boots is for the viewer
to scroll down to the middle of the homepage. This section of the homepage features six
large boxes that the viewer can click on for each category featured. These categories look
to be the most popular and frequently visited categories for boots. The boxes are visually
pleasing to the viewer, while also keeping it simple and easy to them to quickly find what
they want. When the viewer scrolls further down on the homepage, there is a block of
information where a text reads “A Boot For Every Occasion” which helps reinforce that
The Original Muck Boot Company specializes in their ability to fit the need of every
customer.
MuckBootCompany.com also offers a section on the bottom of their homepage
that lets the viewer find the answer to any of the questions that they have about the
company (figure 3). The very left of this section is specifically for questions about their
products and website with categories to click on like “Contact Us”, “FAQ”, “Shipping &
Returns”,
“Warranty”,
“Military Discount”,
and “Bulk Order
Discount”. These
features let the
viewer understand the website policies better and cut back on confusion.
MuckBootCompany.com also provides a lot of content for their social media in this
section including a link to their Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube
accounts. Beside their social media is a link titled “#MuckLife”. The “#MuckLife” link
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brings you to the official blog of The Original Muck Boot Company. This blog gives
readers insight on customers who have had positive experiences with their boots and
want to share their stories. This lets potential customers of the website see how the boots
perform with real people using them for each boot’s specific purpose. The blog also
features stories and tips on various outdoor activities. This is a good addition to
MuckBootCompany.com because it provides content that the demographic of their
website would be interested in. This blog portion of The Original Muck Boot website
also takes the user to a new tab which will help their bounce rate go down and number of
pages visited go up.
When a user clicks on an individual product, they get sent to a second page. This
new page features a large picture of the product they clicked on with six other photos to
look at as well. These six photos all feature photos of the product at different angles. This
photos of different angles allow the user to easily get a better understand of the product
they are interested in. There is also a magnifying glass symbol in the top right corner of
each of these photos that let the user look at the photos at a closer view. When the viewer
clicks the magnifying glass, the link takes you to a different page to view these products.
Instead of the viewer staying on one page to use the tool, the viewer gets taken to a new
page which, in turn, makes the bounce rate go further down.

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To the right of the photos of the product is the product
name, product code, the price, and then a link to review the
product. All of these details are essential for the website to have
and help engage the user with the website more. Below the listed
price of the products are the color options for the product (figure
4). When the user toggles their mouse over each of the listed
colors, a larger photo of the color pops up along with the color name. If a user clicks a
certain color, the product will change to the corresponding color that was clicked. This is
helpful to potential customers because they will get to see exactly what the product will
look like. Under the color tools is a spot for the user to select the size they would like.
This size option is right next to a link that takes the user to a size guide. When clicked
upon, the size guide pops up on the page and has a conversion chart for the United States,
United Kingdom, and Europe shoe sizes. This size guide is placed conveniently next to
the shoe size selection tool to cut down on confusion for the user. A little farther down
the page is a section for descriptions, reviews, and shipping information on the product.
When looking at these sections, the user can get a better understanding of the product
because of the large amount of information. Each section is detailed, even going into
specifics about the temperatures that the product can hold up in. All of these features are
there for each product on MuckBootCompany.com and would keep customers engaged,
increasing each user’s duration on the website.
 Competing Site:
As mentioned before, HunterBoots.com is one of MuckBootCompany.com’s
leading competitors because of their similarities in the products they sell. To properly
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compare and contrast HunterBoots.com to MuckBootCompany.com, there needs to be a
better understanding of Hunter Boot’s history. As a user, it was harder to find the link to
HunterBoots.com’s “About Us” section. The link was hidden at the bottom of the page
under a link titled, “More”. Right off the bat it shows that The Original Muck Boot
Company’s website had a bigger emphasis on their background because of their easily
found history information. HunterBoots.com’s “About Us” section reports that their
company was founded in 1856 and had a British heritage. They are known for their
innovative ideas to improve their boots throughout the years. One of the biggest
differences in The Original Muck Boot Company and Hunter Boots is that The Original
Muck Boot Company focuses more on making their boots for rigorous outdoor activities
in more rural environments while Hunter Boots’ “About Us” page states that their boots
are designed for both rural and urban environments. The overall appearance of Hunter
Boots’ website and from their “About Us” section lets the user know that they are more
focused on the design and look of their boots than The Original Muck Boot Company is.
Like mentioned before, HunterBoots.com and MuckBootCompany.com have very
similar products that both target women, men, and kids. Hunter Boots differs when it
comes to the type of boot that they offer. The Original Muck Boot Company specializes
in many different types of boots for various outside work, but the majority of Hunter
Boots’ boots have the title of rain boots. As a viewer of the Hunter Boots webpage,
seeing a title of rain boot might give them the assumption that the boot is not meant for
more intense outdoor work. With this in mind, HunterBoots.com is, on average, more
expensive than MuckBootCompany.com’s products. Hunter Boots’ women’s boots range
from $140 to $495 offering 222 results, the men’s boots range from $90 to $545 offering

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52 results, and the kid’s boots range from $75 to $85 offering 37 results. The Original
Muck Boot Company’s women’s boots range from $69 to $184 offering 46 results, the
men’s boots range from $109 to $264 offering 56 results, and the kid’s boots range from
$29 to $99 offering 15 results. HunterBoots.com may offer higher prices, but they also
offer more products which gives the customer more options and keep them on their
website for a longer duration, increasing their rates.
Another tool that HunterBoots.com has that is comparable to
MuckBootCompany.com is their individual product page. When a user finds a product
that they are interested in, they can click the product and they will be taken to a new
page. Like MuckBootCompany.com, HunterBoots.com has a large photo of the featured
product plus five additional photos to look at of the product at different angles. A useful
photo for the user on HunterBoots.com is the photos of a person actually wearing the
boots so that the user can see what
they look like on. HunterBoots.com
does not offer an option for the user
to magnify the images which does
not increase the user’s engagement.
A tool this page features which
would increase user engagement is
the color options on the side of the product photo (figure 5). There are a totally of sixteen
colors choices for the user to choose from. When the user clicks on a color, the product
automatically changes to that corresponding color so that the user can see what the color
looks like on product. HunterBoots.com offers a lot more color options for their products
Figure 5

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than MuckBootCompany.com does. This reiterates the fact that HunterBoots.com is more
about the design and look of their products rather than the usability.
To the right of the product photos and color toolbar is the products name, price,
shoe size selection, and size guide. Like The Original Muck Boot Company, Hunter
Boots’ size guide has shoe sizes for the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe.
Unlike The Original Muck Boot Company, Hunter Boots also features the insole length,
calf area, and leg height
measurements in their
size guide. This offers
customers to ability to
get a shoe that will be
guaranteed to fit them.
Under the size guide
button is the product
code, care information, reviews, and more general information about their product. Under
these descriptions was another example of how HunterBoots.com likes to emphasize their
knowledge about design and fashion for their users. There is a feature titled “You May
Also Like” that shows photos of their other products that the user would probably be
interested in because of the product they are currently looking at. Not only does it feature
these products, but it also has all of the products in the same color as the current product
that the user has selected (figure 6). HunterBoots.com has taken information of the user
to get their interests and used the information to market their other products that would
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also interest the user. This is something the MuckBootCompany.com does not feature,
but probably should to increase engagement on their website.
POPULARITY ANALYSIS
 Link Analysis:
Total Backlinks
No. of Referring
Domains Average ofLinks/Site
MuckBootCompany.com 70.0k 588 119
HunterBoots.com 70.7k 1.5k 47
o Analysis of Link Quantity:
Though the metrics were close, the website with the highest total
backlinks is HunterBoots.com. Backlinks are links to a website from other
websites and make a website appear more credible. The more backlinks a website
has increases the amount of popularity for that website. Popularity is the number
of sites that link to a website and the quality of those sites, this is measured in
quantity and quality. MuckBootsCompany.com was not far behind in quantity of
backlinks, but would need to increase to become as credible as HunterBoots.com.
o Analysis of Link Quality:
HunterBoots.com also had a significantly larger number of referring
domains with their website having 1.5k and MuckBootCompany.com having only
588. The number of referring domains is the name, web address, or website

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associated with the website that the backlinks are coming from. Ideally, there
should be a good ratio between a website’s backlinks and referring domains. If a
website has a good quantity of backlinks but not very many referring domains,
their backlink profile could be viewed as weak. Both HunterBoots.com and
MuckBootCompany.com need to increase their number for referring domains to
appear as a more credible website. Referring to the chart above,
MuckBootCompany.com looks weaker compared to HunerBoots.com because of
their lower number of referring links.
The top five referring domains for MuckBootCompany.com are
honeywellsafety.com, sperian.com, xtratufboots.com, sperianprotection.com, and
cheapuggbootonline.com. The top referring domain, honeywellsafety.com is a
well-recognized
brand with 65k
backlinks. This
makes
honeywellsafety.com
an incredibly
credible website that
makes MuckBootCompany.com look good because of the connection. Honeywell
Safety Products is a global manufacturer that provides safe and trusted brands on
their website for users to reference when needed. The connection between
Honeywell and The Original Muck Boot Company appears after searching for
Muck Boots in the search bar on honeywellsafety.com. From there a link to
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MuckBootCompany.com appears along with The Original Muck Boot Company
logo (figure 7). Below this is a short description of the company and a little about
the specific products they have. This feature for The Original Muck Boot
Company will help them gain more visitors on their website. The second and
fourth top referring domains are sperian.com and sperianprotection.com. These
websites also link back to Honeywellsafety.com, therefore referring to
MuckBootComapany.com
in the same way. The third
referring domain is
xtratufboots.com. Xtratuf
Boots is an Alaskan based brand that sells waterproof shoes. Under “Our Story”
on their website, they share they value authenticity, performance, and hard work.
At the very bottom of their homepage, xtratufboots.com has The Original Muck
Boot Company logo under text that states, “Check out All of Our Brands” (figure
8). Xtratufboots.com prides their website based on their boots that will hold up in
extremely tough conditions and it is a good reference for The Original Muck Boot
Company to be a part of. The fifth referring domain is cheapuggbootonline.com.
Nothing pertaining to The Original Muck Boot Company was on the homepage of
this website, but when searched, numerous blog articles about the company came
up. Each featured article on the page took the user to an article about a different
product (figure 9). This webpage is not professional looking and is not easy to
navigate. This link could be considered a bad link because it is not a quality
source. All of the top five referred domains did not have a restricted domain. A
Figure 8

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restricted domain
has either .edu,
.gov, or .mil at the
end of their
website address
and is highly
trusted and valued.
One way for The
Original Boot Company to have higher page scores and become more credible as
a site is to get a referred domain from a restricted domain.
The top five referring domains for HunterBoots.com is hunter-boot.com,
royalwarrant.org, thecoolhunter.net, fashionhauler.com, and spamdex.org. The top
referring domain, hunter-boot.com has 27k backlinks, but surprisingly the link
never worked. The second referring domain was royalwarrant.org. Formed in
1840, the Royal Warrant Holders Association’s main objective is to ensure that
the existence of the Royal Warrant continues to be a treasured and respected
Figure 9
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institution. Hunterboots.com is connected to this website because of their British
heritage brand. When Hunter Boots is searched on royalwarrant.org,
HunterBoots.com’s logo and description of their brand is shown (figure 10). It
also shows more of Hunter
Boots’ connection with the
association as well as
information on how to contact
HunterBoots.com. This referring
domain is an example of a good
link. They are a recognized
organization that highlights
Hunterboots.com and would create a lot of credibility for their website. The third
referring domain for HunterBoots.com is thecoolhunter.net. Thecoolhunter.net is
one of the world’s most widely read pop-culture websites. HunterBoots.com is
featured on this website through a short blog post (figure 11). This link provides a
positive article on HunterBoots.com and can help their popularity. The fourth
referring domain is fashionhauler.com. This website allows its users to create a
personalized feed of email newsletters, blog content, and Fashion Hauler features.
HunterBoots.com is one of Fashion Hauler’s featured brands. This is a great
connection to HunterBoots.com because it promotes their brand and website
while also letting people know when a newsletter or email comes out from Hunter
Boots. The last referring domain is spamdex.org which refers to themselves as the
spam archive for the internet. HunterBoots.com is referenced many times on this
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website when
searched (figure
12). This is an
example of a bad
link because Hunter
Boots would not
want to be
connected to this site or referred to as spam. Despite the fifth referring link, the
top five referring links for HunterBoots.com were a good source to have because
they were quality sources with higher trust.
TRAFFIC ANALYSIS
 Visit Analysis:
MuckBootCompany.com HunterBoots.com
Avg. Monthly Visits
[SimilarWeb.com]
286.17k 791.89k
Avg. Monthly Unique Visitors
[Quantcast]
24,284 44,075
o Overview:
The chart above is showing the number of monthly visits and monthly
unique visitors over the past year. These numbers largely relate to viewers coming
to both MuckBootCompany.com and HunterBoots.com. According to
Figure 12

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similarweb.com, MuckBootCompany.com has an average of 286.17k visits each
month and HunterBoots.com has 791.89k. Visits can be defined as the number of
times users have visited to a website during a specific time frame. Visits and
traffic tend to go up during the holiday and spring months. This is an example of a
traffic trend.
o MuckBootCompany.com Traffic & Trends:
The chart above (figure 13) is from SimilarWeb.com and shows the
monthly visits and overall traffic for MuckBootCompany.com from July to
August 2017. There was a sharp increase from July to August that could be
Figure 13
Figure 14

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because the ending of the summer months and the beginning of fall. Figure 14
refers to Quantcast.com which gives a second set of numbers regarding
MuckBootCompany.com’s traffic. This chart shows a larger range by showing the
months February to April in 2017. There is a large increase during the winter
months. This is probably because of the increase of the need to buy boots for
winter. The chart goes down a little bit, but then picks right up during the spring
time. This could be explained because of the large amount of rain there is in the
spring and the desire to buy boots increases again.
o HunterBoots.com Traffic & Trends:
Figure 15, shown above, shows the monthly visits for the months of
January to August in 2017 based off of SimilarWeb.com. Compared to MuckBootCompany.com,
HunterBoots.com has a lot more frequent changes. There is still a similar overall increase in the
traffic for the end of July and beginning of August. Again, this proves that users have a bigger
desire to shop for boots during the seasons where it starts to cool off.
Figure 15

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The chart above, figure 16, is from Quantcast.com and displays the
months February to April in 2017. There was not as frequent of changes on this chart but there is
still a visible increase in the winter months. Because of the rougher weather during these months,
more people would be visiting the websites. HunterBoots.com metrics are a lot larger than
MuckBootCompany.com’s. Consistently over the past few months, Hunter Boots has been more
popular and generates more traffic.
o Google Shopping Insights Trends:
According to Google Shopping Insight, the interest in both boot
companies increased the most during the winter months. This data aligns with
both Quantcast.com and SimilarWeb.com. With the winter months brings the
holiday season and, generally, harsher weather. These boots can be given as gifts
for the holidays or might be needed for work outside.
o Visit Data Analysis: Similarities and Differences:
Figure 16

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Overall there were more similarities in both websites’ data than
differences. The traffic analysis for both HunterBoots.com and
MuckBootCompany.com match up pretty well because their traffic increases with
the holiday season. There was a slight difference in data when Google Shopping
Insights was compared to the sites’ traffic. Google Shopping Insights did not
show that big of an increase during the spring seasons like the websites’ traffic
metrics did. When comparing the overall visit analysis with the link analysis,
everything seemed to line up. HunterBoots.com had more backlinks and referring
domains in the link analysis and also generated more traffic in the visit analysis.
The reason for this is most likely because Hunter Boots targets more of the
fashion demographic along with the practical use of the boots.
MuckBootCompany.com seems to target just the demographic who wants boots
for work. HunterBoots.com also has a British heritage and, because of that,
probably has a bigger international audience than MuckBootCompany.com has.
Another reasoning for the differences in the number of visitors could be because
the number of visits is not the same as the number of people who visit the
website. There could be a lot of people viewing MuckBootCompany.com, but
only using one device to view the website. This would result in less traffic and
official visits for MuckBootCompany.com.
 ENGAGEMENT ANALYSIS
MuckBootCompany.com HunterBoots.com Averages
Bounce Rate % 29.49% 33.37% 45%
Page ViewsPerVisit 3.15 5.93 4.6
Average VisitDuration 1:18 4:17 3:1

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o Overview:
MuckBootCompany.com had the lower bounce rate percentage when
compared to HunterBoots.com. Bounce rate is when only one page is visited
before the user leaves and, for most websites, it is desired to have a low bounce
rate. This means that MuckBootCompany.com does a good job of keeping their
users engaged in the content they have on their webpage.
MuckBootCompany.com also has a lower page views per visit metric, but in this
case, that is not the better metric to have. HunterBoots.com is averaging about
five page views per user before they leave. When a user visits multiple pages per
session that means they are engaged and wanting to learn more information about
the website. Average visit duration measures how long a user was on a site before
they leave. Again, with this metric the higher number the better. HunterBoots.com
is the better one in this category.
o MuckBootCompany.com Engagement Data:
When compared to HunterBoots.com, The Original Muck Boot Company
was lower in metrics in page views per visit and average visit duration. This could
be because The Original Muck Boot Company does not have as many tools and
widgets as Hunter Boots does, therefore using engagement and interest in their
users. In today’s generation, users want answers and access to things fast, if
MuckBootCompany.com does not meet this standard, users could get mad and
leave the website. The Original Muck Boot Company did have a better bounce
rate than Hunter Boots. This means that The Original Muck Boot Company can

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keep their users interested in going to more than one page on their site, but need
to work on keeping their users on the website for a longer duration.
o HunterBoots.com Engagement Data:
HunterBoots.com did fairly well with their engagement comparted to
MuckBootComapany.com. They had a higher page views per visit and average visit
duration metrics. This is probably because of their use of tools and widgets on their
site that keep the user engaged and entertained. The one aspect they do need to work
on is their bounce rates. To increase this percentage, HunterBoots.com needs to add
more links on their page that take the user to a new page instead of keeping them on
the original. This tactic would also help them increase their page views per visit and
visit duration.
o Web Averages:
The web average for page views per visit is 4.6 pages. HunterBoots.com
was higher than the average and MuckBootCompany.com was lower. This means
that MuckBootCompany.com is below the average of page views per visit and
need to increase it by making their website more navigational. The average
session duration is about 3.1 minutes. Again, MuckBootCompany.com was lower
than average and HunterBoots.com was above average. The average bounce rate
on the web is around 40%-50% and both websites were under this statistic.
o Engagement Analysis: Similarities and Differences:
Seeing how HunterBoots.com is doing mostly better than
MuckBootCompany.com when comparing engagement metrics, Hunter Boots was

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looked at first when looking for their engagement techniques. One of techniques they
have is their use of social
media. On every individual
product page there is a spot
where they feature their
social media and encourage
their users to do the same. In
figure 17 shown to the right,
there is a hashtag show.
Under this hashtag is encouragement from the website to give their users a chance to
be featured on Hunter Boots’ social media. Not only are they asking users to post a
picture featuring their boots, but they are also encouraging their users to make each
product their own. Another great engagement tool on HunterBoots.com is their
newsletter promotion
(Figure 18). This
newsletter promotion is visible to the user on every single page they go to on the
website. It gives the user a chance to save money and get a discount, while also
helping Hunter Boots attain the users’ email addresses to increase visits on their site.
An additional engagement technique that HunterBoots.com offers is there virtual
shopping bag. When a user adds something to the bag, the screen show in figure 19
automatically pops up. The screen that pops up shows the user how many items they
have in the bag, with photos included. It also features a subtotal of the price and an
option for the user to enter in a promo code to lower the price. Many of the details of
Figure 17
Figure 18

25. Cook 25
the product the
user put in the
bag is also
displayed on this
screen letting
the user spend
their time
looking over all
the details and
increasing their duration on the page. There is also an option for the user to buy the
product at that moment if they wished to.
In comparison to HunterBoots.com, MuckBootCompany.com had a similar
feature when it came to their promotions for their social media. On each of their
individual
product’s page,
there is also a
hashtag found
to promote their
products,
“#MuckBoots”.
Below that is an option for the user to add their own photo to the site or view the
gallery of photos other users have posted (figure 20). A second feature that is similar
to HunterBoots.com is there feature for users to add their email for newsletters. On
Figure 19
Figure 20

26. Cook 26
MuckBootCompany.com, theirs is featured on the very bottom of every page on their
website (figure 21). On
HunterBoots, their signup is at the
very top. Not every user scrolls to
the bottom of a webpage, but every
user does see the top of it. This is
why HunterBoots.com may get more
engagement on this feature because they have more users viewing theirs. The virtual
shopping bag feature was also another tool that had similarities and differences on
both websites. On
MuckBootCompany.com, once a user
adds an item to their bag, nothing
happens. To see everything a user has
in their shopping bag they have to
scroll to the top of the page and click
the shopping bag icon (figure 22).
Once the user clicks on the shopping
bag, they get a small description of the product, but not near as much as
HunterBoots.com did. Hunter Boots’ website has the advantage on this one because
they have a shopping bag that automatically pops up. The user would be more
engaged with a pop-up than a shopping bag that they have to look for and could
potentially forget about.
o Recommendation:
Figure 21
Figure 22

27. Cook 27
One of the biggest recommendations that
could be given to MuckBootCompany.com is to
work on their return visit engagement. When a user
returns to a site after leaving it, they should be
greeted with a welcome back message like the
example from Madewell.com in figure 23. A
reminder message to the user lets them know that
they were interested in a product and did not buy it,
but now have the option to look at the item again is
a great engagement tool. Sometimes, users come
back specifically for an item that they left in their
shopping bag, and having a message like this one helps the user. An email could also be
sent to a user telling them they left an item in their shopping bag and then have a link
back to that item on their website. This could
get the user back on the website instead of
forgetting about it. Another great option for
returning engagement is to have recently
viewed items under each new product a user
looks at. Shown in figure 24,
MuckBootCompany.com could have their
users’ recently viewed boots under each new product they look at. This gives the user an
easy link back to what product they were considering before. Similar to this idea, there
could also be a “similar products” feature on the side of the users’ webpage. An example
Figure 23
Figure 24

28. Cook 28
of this is shown in figure 6 from HunterBoots.com. When a user looks at an item, they
can be suggested another one that is similar to what they are already looking at. This
would increase engagement by taking the user to a different page to view a different
product. All three of these suggestions mentioned before would help
MuckBootCompany.com’s engagement rates. The Original Muck Boot Company needs
users to stay on their website longer and visit more pages. These suggestions can add on a
longer duration for each of the users, while also increasing the number of page views per
session.