My first paper for Introduction to Web Publishing. -Sun Basket Popularity & Traffic Analysis-

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September 18, 2018
Sun Basket Popularity & Traffic Analysis
WEB SITE OVERVIEW
General Industry & Company Information
Overview
The meal kit industry in my own words would be a way for individuals, couples, and
families to have prepped food for breakfast, lunch or dinner. These meal kits make the whole
idea of preparing food for yourself or others a whole lot simpler, due to the fact there is no need
to go to the grocery store. Everything the individual may need to make the meal will be included
in the kit, even spices.
The company being analyzed is Sun Basket. According to “7 Organic & Healthy Meal
Kit Delivery Services Breaking Up Boring Dinner Routines”, Sun Basket was listed number one.
Sun Basket is a meal kit company that emphasizes, “Organic produce, clean ingredients and
delicious recipes delivered weekly” ("Clean, Sustainable & Always Delicious | Sun Basket Meal
Kit Delivery"). “7 Organic & Healthy Meal Kit Delivery Services Breaking Up Boring Dinner
Routines”, explains that the organic meal kits help the individual to prepare a meal with little to
no food waste. The 30-minute recipes are directly created for people on the go, and the meal kits
are even delivered to one’s doorstep. The box that is delivered to one’s door is recyclable, and
the company is a certified organic handler ("Clean, Sustainable & Always Delicious | Sun Basket
Meal Kit Delivery"). “Sun Basket also gives back to their local food banks, and supports giving
back through Employee Programs.” ("7 Organic & Healthy Meal Kit Delivery Services Breaking
Up Boring Dinner Routines"). Sun Basket solely exists because they want to help individuals and

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families save time, save money, and enjoy clean eating ("Clean, Sustainable & Always Delicious
| Sun Basket Meal Kit Delivery").
The products and services offered through Sun Basket are impeccable because they offer
several different types of meal plans. The meal plans include, “Chef’s Choice, Paleo, Lean &
Clean, Gluten-Free, Vegetarian, Mediterranean, Vegan, Pescatarian, Quick & Easy, and
Diabetes-Friendly” ("Clean, Sustainable & Always Delicious | Sun Basket Meal Kit Delivery").
Within the meal plans, Sun Basket truly strives to provide “organic produce, antibiotic- and
hormone-free meats, and sustainably sourced seafood” that they trust ("Clean, Sustainable &
Always Delicious | Sun Basket Meal Kit Delivery").
Sun Basket is different from Home Chef because they focus specifically on keeping their
food clean, and creating quick healthy cooking ("Clean, Sustainable & Always Delicious | Sun
Basket Meal Kit Delivery"). Home Chef focuses on the idea of, “bringing incredible meals and
moments to ones’ table” ("Home Chef Meal Delivery Service, Fresh Ingredients to Cook at
Home").
Price varies for Sun Basket by a dollar (per serving price), between the classic menu and
the family menu ("Clean, Sustainable & Always Delicious | Sun Basket Meal Kit Delivery").
The classic menu includes three different recipes per week, two or four servings per recipe,
eighteen recipes to choose from, and cost is $11.99 per serving. The family menu includes
two/three/four recipes per week, four servings per recipe, six recipes to choose from, and cost is
$10.99 per serving. The general scope offerings include the ability to skip or cancel at any time
and the offering of if it is not completely satisfying Sun Basket will refund the individual
("Clean, Sustainable & Always Delicious | Sun Basket Meal Kit Delivery"). Other fees needing
to be noted are the shipping fees. For each plan the shipping cost is $6.99, excluding the first

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week delivery ("Clean, Sustainable & Always Delicious | Sun Basket Meal Kit Delivery").The
first week delivery is always free with the classic menu or family menu plan. Home Chef meal
kits are around $9.95 per serving and there are thirteen different meal options each week ("7
Organic & Healthy Meal Kit Delivery Services Breaking Up Boring Dinner Routines”).
Trust
When evaluating the authority of Sun Basket, my first instinct was to click Press located
at the bottom of the home page under “Contact Us”. The Press area of SunBasket.com lists 10
articles from January 2018 to July 2018 ("Clean, Sustainable & Always Delicious | Sun Basket
Meal Kit Delivery"). The most prominent are Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNBC, and Reader’s
Digest. These articles tend to focus on stating that Sun Basket is a health-conscious meal kit
company, which leads me to believe that this website is trustworthy. Another thing noticed while
analyzing the company was that Sun Basket is USDA- certified organic handler ("Clean,
Sustainable & Always Delicious | Sun Basket Meal Kit Delivery"). Being certified by the United
States Department of Agriculture leads me to believe SunBasket.com is an authority on its topic.
Sun Basket’s Executive Chef and Founder, Justine Kelly, has over two decades of experience in
professional kitchen experience ("Clean, Sustainable & Always Delicious | Sun Basket Meal Kit
Delivery"). Having over twenty years of professional experience makes me to believe that this is
another reason in which Sun Basket is an authority on its topic.
Quality Content Assessment
Credibility
Looking at the results from SEOchat.com, there was a lot of information found, but
knowingly I searched deeper. Out of the 100 pages searched, only 80 of them were directly from

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Sun Basket. Out of those 80 pages from Sun Basket, there were 358 possible misspellings
("Search Engine Optimization News and Talk"). Now to me that number was alarming because it
seems like there should not be that many misspellings. Therefore, I decided to take a deeper look
at the information. When checking just the home page alone on SEOchat.com, there were 10
possible misspellings. Those possible misspelled words were, “compostable, fraiche, mealswith,
apos, sustainably, rsaquo, sunbasket, fandangonow, and romesco” ("Search Engine Optimization
News and Talk"). When I did my own search on the Sun Basket homepage using CTRL-F to find
those nine words, I only found one of the words, which was “sustainably”. Even though the typo
checker displayed ten possible misspellings, from my findings of the homepage I would like to
conclude the website is credible because the word I found is spelled correctly.
“Unique” content is content that is literally found nowhere else. When looking at the
content of Sun Basket, I used the tool Siteliner to look for duplicate content. The results showed
there was 17% duplicate content. When I researched more deeply, the “duplicate content”
specifically was all from recipe websites ("Siteliner - Find Duplicate Content on your site").
From this analysis, I understand why there is duplicate content, and let us not forget there is 83%
unduplicated content, which is “unique” content since it is not found anywhere else.
Value
“Value” content is content that will help the target audience of Sun Basket spend time on
the site and stay engaged. For the products at Sun Basket, there are several different meal plans
that are offered. Within each meal plan, there is a general sentence explaining it, and then there is
a link to “Learn more”. The target audience will be more engaged depending on what their meal
plan preference is in this page of the website. Another way in which the web site tries to increase
engagement is by putting the chef, Justine Kelly, on the homepage because there is a link

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underneath her name, “More on Justine”, which leads an individual to a video of her. Anyway a
website can include visuals is a great way to increase engagement, because if it were just words
on the website not as many people would be interested. If individuals want to read many words,
there are blogs specifically underneath the tab, “Explore”. The blogs included on Sun Basket
help to increase engagement, which makes it another “value” content on the website.
Competing Site
The competing site to SunBasket.com is HomeChef.com. Home Chef is a competing site
to Sun Basket because according to “7 Organic & Healthy Meal Kit Delivery Services Breaking
Up Boring Dinner Routines” it offers, “ten dinner options, breakfasts, a fruit basket, and a fresh
smoothie every week, all of which come in recyclable and environmentally-conscious
packaging.” The generic reason Home Chef is the competing site is because it is another
company in which produces meal kits. Between the two are several differences and I have
displayed that in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Numeral comparison between Sun Basket & Home Chef
Sun Basket Home Chef
Number of Meal Plans Offered: 10 0
Number of Meal Options Per Week: 18 15
Cost Per Meal/Serving: $11.99 $9.95
Family Cost Per Meal/Serving: $10.99 $9.95
Cost of Shipping: $6.99* $10*
*Free shipping for one’s first order from Sun Basket.
*Orders over $45 have free shipping; orders less than $45 have a $10 shipping fee for Home Chef.
*Note: All information listed in Figure 1 was found through SunBasket.com and HomeChef.com.
From Figure 1, one can see that Sun Basket is more expensive when it comes to cost per
meal/serving. In addition, one can see that there are ten specific meal plans mentioned on
SunBasket.com, but zero listed on HomeChef.com. The meal kit companies are similar on the

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number of meal options per week and on family cost per meal. Another comparison is that Home
Chef states, “We provide you with fresh ingredients from our community of trusted suppliers,
source locally when possible, and choose partners with sustainability practices we believe in,”
("Home Chef Meal Delivery Service, Fresh Ingredients to Cook at Home"). Sun Basket is
certified by USDA Organic and states, “Sun Basket is committed to providing the best organic
produce, antibiotic-and hormone-free meats, and sustainably sourced seafood from suppliers we
trust,” ("Clean, Sustainable & Always Delicious | Sun Basket Meal Kit Delivery"). Both meal kit
companies have great quotes to prove they provide, “fresh ingredients”, but Sun Basket proves it
by being USDA Organic certified.
POPULARITY ANALYSIS
Definitions
SunBasket.com and HomeChef.com are two completely different websites, yet
share similarities. For me, it helps to better analyze SunBasket.com because I can compare the
two. The data displayed in Figure 2 shows the total number of backlinks, number of referring
domains, and the average number of backlinks per domain. Backlinks are defined as links to our
website and referring domain is the domain that the backlinks are pointing to. It is important to
calculate the average number of backlinks per domain because the lower the average number the
better. For example, let’s say there are 9,000 backlinks to one referring domain, which would
mean there was an average of 9,000. That is an alarming number to someone analyzing the
website because that means the website is trying to cheat the system, which is a huge red flag.

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Figure 2: Popularity Analysis between Sun Basket & Home Chef
SunBasket.com HomeChef.com
Total Backlinks 24.8K 31.3K
No. of Referring Domains 916 894
Average No. of Backlinks per Domain 27 35
*All information found on SEMRush.com
Comparison
When looking at Figure 2, one can see that SunBasket.com has a lower average than
HomeChef.com; this means that they have 27 links per site where Home Chef has an average of
35 links per site. Figure 3 shows a screenshot from SunBasket.com’s popularity analysis. From
August 06, 2018 to September 03, 2018, there was an increase in total backlinks. The figure
shows a good trend from June 25, 2018 to September 10, 2018, for Sun Basket.
Figure 3: Sun Basket Popularity Analysis
Figure 4 shows the popularity analysis of HomeChef.com. Through Figure 4, one can
analyze that the Total Backlinks over 3 months has stayed consistent. From June 25, 2018 to
September 10, 2018, one can conclude the trend of Home Chef has stayed steady.

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Figure 4: Home Chef Popularity Analysis
Analysis of Link Quality
Sun Basket
 Prnewswire.com: This is a high-quality link because it is a news source and has some
credibility due to that.
 Buzzfeed.com: This is a high-quality link because it is a well-known website where
journalists write blog posts.
 TechCrunch.com: This is a high-quality link because it is a credible news source.
 Self.com: This is a high-quality link because it is a website with blogs that are written by
journalists.
 Nytimes.com: This is a high-quality link because it is a credible news source.
Restricted Domains
Restricted domains can only be secured by approved entities. High quality domains are
those ending in: .edu, .gov, and .mil. These website have a level of scrutiny, cannot have fake
websites if they are a high quality domain like the ones listed above, and not anyone can build
this type of website. For these reasons, this is why restricted domains are important. From what I

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viewed, there are zero restricted domains linked to SunBasket.com, but the sites only allow us to
view ten domains.
Authority
The authority score for Sun Basket is 52, while the score for Home Chef is 55. The
authority score is a, “compound metric that measures the strength and popularity of the domain.
It is calculated based on Page Score, Domain Score, and Trust Score,” ("All-in-one Marketing
Toolkit"). Home Chef’s score is higher than Sun Basket’s score because its average of page
score, domain score, and trust score is higher than Sun Basket’s average.
TRAFFIC ANALYSIS
Visit Analysis
Figure 5: Visit Analysis of Sun Basket & Home Chef
SunBasket.com HomeChef.com
Avg. Monthly Visits 760,452 1.813 M
Unique Visitors 351,296 1.057 M
Visits Per Unique Visitor 2.16 1.72
*All information found on SimilarWeb.com
Definitions
The data above shown in Figure 5, displays the traffic analysis of SunBasket.com and
HomeChef.com. These numbers have been recorded between the times of June 2018 to August
2018. The term “visits” means, “…the total number of visitors to a site. It includes new and
returning visitors and is an indication of the success or failure of an SEO strategy or marketing
campaign” (Miller, 2014, p. 259). While a “unique visitor” is, “…are visitors visiting a site for

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the very first time,” (Miller, 2014, p. 259). The last definition is “visits per unique visitor” which
is the calculation of the average monthly visits divided by the number of unique visitors.
Comparison
The traffic analysis numbers displayed in Figure 5 show the comparison between
SunBasket.com and HomeChef.com. Home Chef’s average monthly visitors more than double
Sun Basket’s average. Throughout the three months, June 2018 was their lowest month putting
Sun Basket at 690,380 and Home Chef at 1.679 million ("Digital World Market Intelligence
Platform"). In July 2018, both companies were at their highest with Sun Basket being at 864,354
and Home Chef at 1.885 million. Then in August 2018, both companies decreased in traffic from
July. Sun Basket was at 726,621 and Home Chef was at 1.876 million ("Digital World Market
Intelligence Platform"). I believe there is a difference in numbers because just from analyzing
those three months SunBasket.com has 409,156 returning visitors while HomeChef.com has
756,000 returning visitors. From Figure 5, HomeChef.com has had incredible traffic from unique
visitors and returning visitors.
Engagement Analysis
Figure 6: Engagement Analysis of Sun Basket, Home Chef, & the Web Average
SunBasket.com HomeChef.com Web Averages
Bounce Rate % 38.56% 51.89% 20-40%
Pages Per Visit 4.46 3.89 4.6
Average Visit Duration 4:02 minutes 2:39 minutes 3.1 minutes
*All information found on SimilarWeb.com
Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is, “usually given as a percentage and indicates the percentage of people who
left a site after visiting only a single page landing (Miller, 2014, p. 262). The bounce rate

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percentage for SunBasket.com is 38.56%, as shown in Figure 6. The bounce rate for
HomeChef.com is 51.89%. For those who do not know, the lower the bounce rate percentage, the
better. From these percentages recorded over the course of three months, June 2018 – August
2018, one can see that more people visit one page and leave on HomeChef.com more than they
do on SunBasket.com.
One of the biggest things that I found while looking at SunBasket.com is what is “above
the fold” on the home page. As shown in Figure 7, it states “Organic produce, clean ingredients,
and delicious recipes delivered weekly. Paleo, Lean & Clean, Gluten-Free, Vegan, and more”.
Well, if in an individual does not have those restricted diets then they might feel the need to try
another meal kit website, because they already feel unwelcomed at the homepage.
Figure 7: Sun Basket’s home page
Pageviews Per Visit & Average Duration
As for the pages per visit and average visit duration, I believe that Sun Basket’s numbers
are comparable to the web average. Pages per visit is, “the number of pages viewed by visitors to
a site” (Miller, 2014, p.262). While average visit duration is, “the average length of time users
spend on a site” (Miller, 2014, p. 263).
Figure 6 displays the number of pages per visit and average visit duration. Through
Figure 6, one can see that SunBasket.com is 0.57 pages higher than HomeChef.com and has an
average 1:23 minute longer duration than HomeChef.com. SunBasket.com also has a higher

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duration time than the web average, which is a fantastic source of feedback when looking at the
website. The reason I think the average duration per visit is longer is because there are videos on
the website highlighting their chef, their packaging, and how to cook different meals as shown in
Figure 8.
Figure 8: Sun Basket’s video variety
Last but not least, I believe the pages per visit is at a 4.46 according to Figure 6,
because there are tabs right when you get into the home page that say, “Menu”, “Meal Plans”,
“Values”, and “Pricing” ("Clean, Sustainable & Always Delicious | Sun Basket Meal Kit
Delivery"). Through these tabs, one might click on four different web pages within the span of a
couple minutes just to figure out what exactly they are having for dinner and how much it is
going to cost. To conclude, when comparing SunBasket.com to the web averages, I believe Sun
Basket is doing a good job with their engagement on the website.
Engagement Improvement Recommendation
I have done the analysis of SunBasket.com and compared it to HomeChef.com. I have
looked through the metrics and realized that SunBasket.com has some areas of improvement. I
have recommendations of incorporating social media engagement more thoroughly within the
homepage and the website itself. As displayed in Figure 9, I will show how HelloFresh.com,
another meal kit company, has incorporated their social media on their home page in a simple
way ("HelloFresh: Get Cooking | Meal Kit Delivery | Order Food").

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As shown in Figure 9, I have strategically pointed to the area on the HelloFresh page (left
screenshot) where there Instagram pictures are showcased. I believe if SunBasket.com did
something similar it would receive increased engagement due to the fact of the use of hashtags,
tying in their Instagram pictures on their website, tying in customers’ experiences shown through
Instagram, and having individuals flow from SunBasket.com to Instagram smoothly.
Figure 9: HelloFresh.com (Pictured on the Left) & SunBasket.com (Pictured on the Right)

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In addition, if you look at each of the home page screen shots shown in Figure 9, one can
see that there are similarities and differences between the two. I believe if Sun Basket put the
Instagram section in the place that is in the right picture, in the red square, it would let people
scroll for a little while before engaging into Sun Basket’s Instagram page.
See, the thing is people would probably believe that if one were engaged in the social
media page then the engagement on the website would decrease. I believe in the opposite. See, I
think that if the social media is in the middle on Sun Basket’s home page, one might go on the
home page, click on Instagram, go back to the website, and then be more likely to engage
thoroughly on the website because they had the opportunity of seeing Sun Basket more
personably through Instagram. In addition, using a hashtag as HelloFresh did and include, “Use
the hashtag #SunBasketSnapshots” on the home page next to the Instagram photos, would most
likely increase engagement on social media as well as on SunBasket.com.
To conclude, the analysis of SunBasket.com has been an interesting experience. I have
learned a lot about content, popularity, and traffic. The recommendation section was a plus
because I was able to include my own opinion as to what I thought would make Sun Basket’s
engagement increase on their website. Researching, analyzing, and writing about SunBasket.com
has made me realize how much more actually goes into creating, maintaining, and analyzing a
website.

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Bibliography
All-in-one Marketing Toolkit. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.semrush.com/
Clean, Sustainable & Always Delicious | Sun Basket Meal Kit Delivery. (n.d.).
Retrieved from https://sunbasket.com/
Digital World Market Intelligence Platform. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.similarweb.com/
HelloFresh: Get Cooking | Meal Kit Delivery | Order Food. (n.d.).
Retrieved from https://www.hellofresh.com/
Home Chef Meal Delivery Service, Fresh Ingredients to Cook at Home. (n.d.).
Retrieved from http://homechef.com/
Miller, B. D. (2014). Above The Fold: Understanding the Principles of Successful Web Site
Design (2nd ed.). Blue Ash, Ohio: HOW Books.
Search Engine Optimization News and Talk. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.seochat.com/
7 Organic & Healthy Meal Kit Delivery Services Breaking Up Boring Dinner Routines. (n.d.).
Retrieved from http://www.thegoodtrade.com/features/5-organic-and-healthy-food-
delivery-options-for-the-conscious-consumer
Siteliner - Find Duplicate Content on your site. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://siteliner.com/

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