Content, Popularity and Traffic analysis of SunBasket.com.

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303 – Introduction to Web Publishing Jocelyn Contreras
Analysis of Web Site: Content, Popularity & Traffic September 9, 2018
Sun Basket Popularity & Traffic Analysis
WEB SITE OVERVIEW
 General Industry & Company Information
Overview: In the crazy, fast-paced society we live in, many of the choices we make every day
are based on how much time we have. Even when it comes to the most important part of
everyone’s day, nutrition, consumers are starting to look at faster and easier options. A rising
trend helps those that want the ability to eat home-cooked meals without having to put so much
time into finding a recipe, hunting down the ingredients, measuring them and portioning out
servings, etc. Meal kit services are popping up everywhere as people see the benefits of pre-
proportioned, fresh and healthy meals delivered right to your door. These sites offer you menus
filled with recipes ranging from categories like “Gluten Free” to “Vegan”, different meal plans
depending on how many people it serves, and pricing according to all of the above. It takes all
the guesswork out of cooking dinner and it even has its perks, such as no waste due to the perfect
pre-portioned ingredients.
One company stepping into the spotlight is Sun Basket. SunBasket.com is a meal kit
delivery service that offers its customers the perfect ingredients for healthy, organic, 30-minute
home cooked meals right to their door every week. There two main things that set Sun Basket
apart from other meal kit delivery services. First, is how diverse and creative their recipe and
meal plans are, including Chef’s Choice, Paleo, Lean and Clean, Gluten Free, Mediterranean,
Vegetarian, Vegan, Pescatarian, Quick and Easy, and the newest, Diabetes-Friendly. The second
reason being the attention to detail to ensure the customers in the market for these types of meals

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get the freshest, responsibly sourced and unique, high quality product out there. Sun Basket
prides itself in their carefully picked, organic, non-GMO ingredients, 100% recyclable packaging
and the approximate 1,000 pounds of food donated to local food banks. These services usually
run between $10.99 and $11.99, depending on the recipes per week, servings per recipe and
recipe choices you would receive. All you have to do is sign up, customize the plan to your
liking and the subscription begins with no commitments.
Trust: SunBasket.com is one of the many authorities in this rising market. This particular
company has a face and her name is Executive Chef Justine Kelly. According to the Sun Basket
website, Chef Kelly is known for her role as chef de cuisine at the award winning Slanted Door
restaurant in San Francisco. She also has been a contestant on the culinary game show, Iron Chef
America, and is mentioned by Gourmet Magazine. She designs the meals every week to cater the
people that want those mouthwatering home cooked meals but don’t want the hassle of actually
creating them. As an added bonus, every meal is also dietician approved to provide even more
nutritional value.
Another display of authority is the “Press” section of the website. It features 55 different
articles from many reputable sources, including the Wall Street Journal, NPR, WholeFoods
Magazine, and Vogue. The articles highlight some of the best press coverage from noteworthy
sources that make Sun Basket a legitimate site when you’re looking for meal kits to order. Sun
Basket is also a USDA-certified organic handler, which is a very complex certification to obtain.
They promote this partnership with the USDA on the main page, above the fold, showing
customers that they’re trustworthy and backed by some of the most significant players in the
food industry.

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 Quality Content Assessment
Credibility: It is very important that a leading authority in this new and growing market is not
only trustworthy in terms of the products but also that the content you’re looking at is credible
and unique. Websites with misspelling, plagiarism and other types of errors can easily turn away
a potential customer so it’s necessary for a successful website to be as professional as possible.
After running SunBasket.com through SEOchat.com, an online spellchecker, it detected 10
possible misspelling out of 823 words on the website. Some of the words were actually spelled
right or needed a space in between but others were either names or brands of something that that
spellchecker detected as misspelled, such as “FandangoNOW” or the dish “Romesco”. Other
errors were random words that made no sense, like “rsaquo”. This would lead anyone to believe
that SunBasket.com is credible and the few spelling errors that came up didn’t deem it unfit to
order from.
The next part is making sure the content is unique. In this case, “unique” means that the
content cannot be found anywhere else on the web. In other words, making sure that Sun Basket
is using its own words, photos, videos and so much more. After running SunBasket.com through
a SEO duplicate content checker, the results were impressive. The only duplicate content it found
was 153 results from other parts of their own website. The conclusion is that after examining
spelling errors and uniqueness factors, Sun Basket has very high quality content on their official
website and is a credible, trustworthy place to shop for meal kits.
Value: In the online meal kit industry, there’s a big roadblock that these companies have to find
solutions for; the fact that you can’t see the food until it’s right at your doorstep. Sun Basket is
making it easy for its customers to engage by offering them added value across their site. They
include detailed instructions with ways to get your children involved in the cooking process,

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delicious looking pictures to help you envision that meal on your dinner table, and How To
videos and articles with tips and techniques for guidance and ideas. The customer service is top
notch, with the ability to cancel or a skip a meal whenever you want, allergy information, free
shipping on occasions, and ways to easily manage your account and meal plans. Lastly, they
have the human interaction aspect where you can chat with an expert during the week and get
advice on what plan to order. Once again, Sun Basket does a good job at adding value to a
seemingly standard service and keeping people on their site.
Competing Site: One of Sun Basket’s competitors is Home Chef, which also sells very similar
meal kits through a subscription and delivery service. Selling the same type of a meal plans to
the same people that want fast, healthy meals delivered to their door is what makes them big
competitors in this industry. Home Chef offers a couple of different items like 15 different more
traditional recipes and add ons such as breakfasts, fruit baskets and smoothies. Some of the meal
profiles are the same like gluten free and vegetarian ones but Home Chef offers soy and nut free
meals as well. The website gives you the ability to rate your meal and a short questionnaire to
create a taste profile and accommodate you better. Home Chef has a lot less exciting recipes but
most are basic, easy, recognizable dinners. Their starting price point is $7.99 per serving, making
it less than Sun Basket that starts at $10.99. In terms of similarities, their meal kits are obviously
set up the same way with pre-portioned meals, fresh ingredients and many resources on how to
cook them. The ordering process flows the same way, their packaging is also eco-friendly, they
source from businesses they believe in, and they give back when their facilities have a surplus of
ingredients as well.

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POPULARITY ANALYSIS
Total Backlinks No. of Referring
Domains
Average No. of
Backlinks per
Domain
Sun Basket 24,800 916 27.07 = 27
Home Chef 31,300 894 35.01 = 35
Definitions: After using the tool, SEMrush.com, the data showed who had the most backlinks
and referring domains. To put it in simpler terms, backlinks are the links to our site coming from
other sites, known as referring domains or web addresses, talking about Sun Basket. In this case,
Sun Basket had 24,800 links to their site coming from 916 referring domains bringing the
average number of backlinks per domain to 27 backlinks. When it came to Home Chef, they had
31,300 backlinks from 894 referring domains, putting their average number at 35 backlinks. It’s
important to know both sets of data because it gives you a good idea of how to begin comparing.
You need a reference point to know if a company is successful or not and the best way is to see
how everyone else doing.
Comparison: After analyzing the data above, the conclusion is that Sun Basket had the better
average number of backlinks per domain, despite having less total backlinks than Home Chef. A
successful website wants a lot of buzz surrounding its brand so the idea behind these backlinks is
to have a large number of sites linking to it a few times rather than a few sites linking to it many
times. For example, the data shows Home Chef had the most backlinks all together, which is
great for them but what truly matters is where those backlinks come from. A small amount of
domains with a ton of backlinks could look a lot like cheating the system to analytics software so
it’s important to look at the average for a more accurate overview. Sun Basket made it into 916
referring domains while Home Chef only had 894, meaning Sun Basket did better in terms of

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having more sites talking about them than Home Chef. This is why the average number of
backlinks per domain are in favor of Sun Basket at 27. When it comes to backlinks, it’s
important to think of it this way; one link from the New York Times is better than 500 links from
a mommy blog that just started out.
A possible reason for this difference could be the price points of the two services. Home
Chef does have the cheapest option per serving so it’s a good reason for it to be mentioned a lot.
It is also one the first brands you think of when you hear of meal kit delivery services along with
ones like HelloFresh so that gives it a leg up. Some of Sun Basket’s competitors also tend to
utilize sponsors or influencers on social media so there’s no doubt people flood to Home Chef or
Blue Apron to check things out at first glance. On the bright side as previously stated, Sun
Basket has more diverse recipe and meal plan options so there could be a lot of buzz from blogs
and sites like that, trying the variety. With Sun Basket’s very specialized menu, there could be a
lot more niche websites that feel the need to talk about them, putting them above the
competition.
 Analysis of Link Quality
Note: When it came down to the top backlinks to Sun Basket, the tool SEMrush.com actually
restricted the viewing of more than ten referring domains. Unfortunately, there was only three
different referring domains that linked to Sun Basket out of those ten instances so only three will
be reviewed.
Domain Name: The first referring domain is www.perezhiltonpodcast.com. In terms of quality
sources, a podcast from a celebrity blogger fits the best under the high trust score and the brand
site category. According to SEMrush.com, this site has a trust score of 83 on a 100-point system
making it a high quality source for Sun Basket. Perez Hilton also seems to be partnered or

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affiliated with Sun Basket because the link leads to a discount for his podcast listeners. These are
always biased to Sun Basket because they get something out of it but they do get credit for being
honest reviews.
Domain Name: The second referring domain is www.itunes.apple.com, in which Sun Basket is
linked three times in two active sites and one lost site. It’s a high quality source because it’s a
recognized brand name, Apple, and it’s a page where you can download the Sun Basket app.
This could also mean that they are business partners. It’s impossible to not trust a company like
Apple so this source is seen as high quality.
Domain Name: Lastly is www.paleogrubs.com, which would also fall under the high trust score
site category. It’s score of 72 makes it a high quality source where people can go find
information on paleo type food and conveniently find information on Sun Basket as well. This
could also be part of those affiliated sites because blog style sites like this often give their
customers the chance to get discounts, for example, if they use their codes.
Restricted Domains: The best type of high quality source is a restricted domain. A restricted
domain is a site that can only be secured by approved entities such as websites ending with .gov
or .edu. This is especially important because it takes clearance to be able to post, let alone link a
brand. It adds a level of scrutiny that gives the site even more credibility and trustworthiness.
These types of sites are usually fact based and official sites so you know their source quality is
high, compared to a personal blog. From what I am allowed access to on SEMrush.com, there are
no restricted domains in the top 10 referring domains. I proceeded to run the website through
Majestic.com, used for restricted external
link data, and the results showed that Sun

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Basket was linked by five educational domains with nine backlinks from those sites.
Authority: The authority scores of Sun Basket and Home Chef are actually pretty similar. Home
Chef received a score of 55, while Sun Basket received a 52. According to SEMrush.com, this
score is based on a few components like the domain and trust scores, which can be broken down
even more into backlinks, referring domains, monthly visits and keywords. In Sun Basket’s
report, the domain score was 26, compared to Home Chef’s score of 25, and the trust score was
35, once again leading Home Chef by one point. The numbers fall more in favor of Home Chef
when it comes to the backlinks where we established that Home Chef had more backlinks to their
site than Sun Basket. What keeps Sun Basket close behind on the scale of authority is that they
have more referring domains, which we also know matter a lot more. SEMrush.com also does its
own calculations of monthly visits and keywords that play into the score but they will be defined
in the next section using a different tool. Overall, these numbers do fall in favor of Home Chef,
as seen below, making their score higher.
Sun Basket Authority Score Home Chef Authority Score

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TRAFFIC ANALYSIS
 Visit Analysis
Definitions: Every company needs a way to measure their success and when it comes to
websites, that way comes in forms of metrics, or the numbers used in those metrics. For Sun
Basket, we will be looking at the metrics; unique visitors, visits, and visits per unique visitor. A
unique visitor, also known as a user, is seen as every device visiting the website, regardless of
whether there is one person using one device or one person using multiple devices. A visit is
considered the number of times unique visitors visited the site in a timeframe, usually calculated
in a month’s span. When looking at the data, Sun Basket falls behind in both of these categories
with 760,452 visits and 351,296 unique visitors, compared to the impressive 1,813,000 visits and
1,057,000 unique visitors that Home Chef received in a month. When the monthly visits are
divided by the unique visitors, the results actually match up equally for both sites. The number of
visits per unique visitor is 2 and that’s interesting given the difference in the other metrics.
Comparison: As previously stated, Sun Basket came up with less monthly visits and unique
visitors then Home Chef. When looking back at the backlinks, we already knew that sites were
linking to Home Chef a lot more so that explains where the traffic comes from. Another
observation is that these numbers were close enough to the data in the authority score section that
plays a role in the authority it has when it comes to search engines. One reason the numbers
could be in favor of Home Chef is, once again, the price point being cheaper and traditional
SunBasket.com HomeChef.com
Avg. Monthly Visits 760,452 1,813,000
Unique Visitors 351,296 1,057,000
Visits Per Unique
Visitor
2.16 = 2 1.71 = 2

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meals they offer. It is a lot harder to attract people when the recipes are little more exotic or
foreign for the typical family. The traditional meals appeal to a lot more people that are trying
meal kits for the first time, driving the traffic right back to Home Chef. It is interesting to note
that regardless of the number differences, the visitor will come back to the site twice per month
on average. This could be because of the nature of the site; for example, after you set up the
subscription, everything should be set until you want to skip, cancel or change something.
ENGAGEMENT ANALYSIS
SunBasket.com HomeChef.com Web Averages
Bounce Rate % 38.56% = 39% 51.89% = 52% 20-40%
Pages Per Visit 4.46 = 4 pages 3.89 = 4 pages 4.6 = 5 pages
Average Visit
Duration
4:02 minutes 2:39 minutes 3.1 minutes
Bounce Rate: The bounce rate in terms of websites is the rate in which visitors only visited one
single page before exiting out of it. The idea is to keep the consumer on your website so the more
they browse and check out the website, the better. The goal is to have a low percentage and be in
the range or lower than the web wide bounce rate average. Looking at the data, Sun Basket
received a 39% bounce rate while Home Chef got 52%. The web wide average is 20-40% so
anything more than that is more bouncing than you want. There could be many reasons for why
people bounce out of pages, like finding what you need on the page visited, or not finding what
you need.
After analyzing the data, it is clear that Sun Basket had better numbers than Home Chef
and this could mean many things. Because lower is better in this case, a bounce rate of 39% is
good next to the competition’s bounce rate of 52%, which shows a lot more people are clicking

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out of Home Chef. As previously mentioned, the average across all retail websites is 20-40%
bounce rate so Sun Basket is right on track with the average but Home Chef has an even higher
percentage than the average. Some content that could create bounces on the Sun Basket website
is the fact you cannot find the prices on the home page if that is where you are entering the site.
Some people want the information quickly when comparing products so if it is not upfront, they
will click out immediately. Others simply click in to check it out and find out they are not that
interested anymore. Another reason someone may click out after one page is if you only need
one thing, for example, to skip, cancel or change an order. It is not necessarily a bad thing if
people bounce out of a page because usually, after people have set up an account and
subscription, they do not really need to browse around unless they are looking for something
specific. If you are looking for a specific recipe, that page may be the only one you need. On the
other hand, there is also content that make people want to stay and explore. For example, if a
recipe has a video for how to do something or an article on tips, then there is a reason to visit
more than one page. Sun Basket does a good job of making you want to explore, like the “Get
Started Today!” button front and center that is very tempting.
Pageviews per Visit & Average Visit Duration: More important metrics when it comes to
measuring a website’s success is the pageviews and the average visit duration. Both are self-
explanatory but Pageviews are the total of pages viewed during a visit and the visit duration just
means how much time they spent on the site. At a glance, you can tell that both Sun Basket and
Home Chef got roughly four pageviews per visit. When it came to time on the site, Sun Basket
visitors stayed for about 4 minutes and 2 seconds and Home Chef visitors stayed for 2 minutes
and 39 seconds. The average for duration is 3.1 minutes and the average for pageviews is 5 pages
so the idea with these two metrics is to have more than the competitors. The more people are on

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the site, the more likely they are to order and keep coming back. It is possible by adding valuable
content that keeps the consumers attention on the brand/product at hand.
In the online meal kit industry, it is hard to convince and prove to people that these meals
are as good as they look and as easy to cook as they say. Creating engaging content is what
captures the consumer and sets meal kit companies aside from each other. When analyzing the
data, Sun Basket beat out Home Chef in one of these categories but tied in another. With
pageviews, both had roughly 4 pageviews and because of the nature of the sites, it makes sense
that the customer goes through about 4 pages to pick a plan, enter billing information, etc. The
average for pageviews across the web is 5 pageviews so it’s still close enough to other sites.
With the visit duration, Sun Basket visitors preferred to look around for an average of 4 minutes
and 2 second, clearly longer than Home Chef that only kept customers around for 2 minutes and
39 seconds. Home Chef also fell short of making up to the average visit duration of 3 minutes
and 10 seconds, while Sun Basket surpassed it. Value is very important in regards to engagement
because the more value there is to the customer, the more they’ll engage. Some of the most
valuable content comes in form of pictures or graphics because it does a good job of showing
you as best as it can what you can’t see in person. Sun Basket does a good job of adding high
quality, large and appetizing pictures on a slideshow right on their homepage, which makes you
want to explore the recipes. It also features pictures from farms, fisherman, etc, right on their
home page as well, so you feel connected to the sources that grow and rise the food you’ll
receive and stay educated on the organic side of the industry. Lastly on their homepage, they
have the friendly face of Chef Kelly who prepares your food and how you can learn more about
her on another page. Who wouldn’t like to see how their food will look like, where it comes form
and who’s preparing it? Furthermore, a few more things that keep customers looking are the

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videos and tips and techniques pages. They offer great supplemental information and assistance
for those that want and need more visuals or are looking for more information in text form.
Engagement Improvement Recommendation: Going along with the idea that online meal kit
services really have to sell their food, their recipes and their service as a whole, it should be a
priority to have user-generated media content so it can vouch for all of the above. Some sites add
reviews on specific products or the site itself, usually on the homepage to brag about good buzz.
Other websites have photo
galleries of customer
submitted content for an even
more digital and visual way to
form a decision on the site
based on what others’ did with
Sun Basket. My

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recommendation would be go the social media route and add a feed of social media posts
pertaining to Sun Basket, whether that be pictures on Instagram or tweets tagging Sun Basket.
Featuring these kinds of photos shows potential customers what real people are doing with their
meal, what their finished products look like and ultimately, reviewing the company in doing so.
The direct competitor, Home Chef, actually does a good job of this by doing something very
similar on their homepage. They offer the hashtag #realhomechef and let people connect through
that and feature a few photos submitted that way, with the captions or reviews underneath. Sun
Basket could have the feeds in real time so you can see up to date pictures, posts and tweet from
people making dinner across the web. It would also motivate others to want to be featured on the
website. It’s an interactive way to get the people involved and almost give them a sense of
importance because they’re helping push their message along. That could the little push someone
needs to feel compelled to order from Sun Basket.
It’s always good to have people talking about your brand, especially on social media.
Having that social media presence on Sun Basket’s website would add that value that’s so
important for the engagement on the site. Having it on the homepage like Home Chef does gives
the customer that immediate confirmation that people do buy from Sun Basket and at the very
least, like it enough to post about it. Overall, word of mouth is the best and most basic way to
promote things so not only will this little incentive make people want to post about to be
featured, but those posts will also serve another purpose of reaching people out on the web.