SEO analysis for Muckbootcompany.com

1. SEO Analysis & Recommendations for
MuckBootCompany.com
SUJUNG YUN
I. Keyword Research – Recommended Keywords (Cr)
1. The 2 keywords / phrases 1 think will drive the most traffic:
1. “Rubber hunting boots”
2. “Waterproof work boots”
2. Current rankings of my 2 keywords
“ R u b b e r h u n t i n g b o o t s” “ W a t e r p r o o f w o r k b o o t s ”
Go o g l e B i n g Y a h o o Go o g l e B i n g Y a h o o
Muckbootcompany.com 16 “No” “No” “No” “No” “No”
LacrosseFootwear.com 3 4 2 “No” “No” “No”
BassPro.com 4 21 “No” 26 “No” “No”

2. 2
3. Explanation of my keyword choices:
Figure 1. Google trends
Figure 2. Keyword "rubber hunting boots"
1. “Rubber hunting boots”:
This is the keyword focus given to me by the client. My research on this keyword
phrase leads me to believe drive more traffic in terms of Google trends and
monthly volume. According to Google trends and Google AdWords, keywords
“Rubber hunting boots” is increasing constantly from 2004 to present and there
are average 1,000 – 10,000 monthly searches of “Rubber hunting boots.

3. 3
Muckbootcompany.com appears the second page of SERP (search engine result
page), CTR (click through rate) is too low to drive traffic to the site. Therefore,
there is room for improvement to rank higher with the keyword.
2. “Waterproof work boots”:
From studying the website and Google trends, I determined “Waterproof work
boots” would be an alternative keyword. Since Muck boot company describes
their products as waterproof quality and comfort boots on “our story” page and
there are various results about work boots. As result, I combined two keywords
“waterproof work boots” Also, Google trends See Figure 1
indicates the keyword
“Waterproof work boots” is increasing rapidly. Also, data from Mikes-Marketing-
Tools shows that other competing sites ranked pretty low with the keyword.
Muckbootcompany.com doesn’t appear with the keyword yet, but there is high
potential to rank on SERPs.
keyword
Avg.
Monthly
search
No. of
additional
visits
Current
traffic
Avg.
potential
traffic
Maximum
potential
traffic
“Rubber hunting boots” 501-850 461
156,158
561 706
“Waterproof working boots” 2,900-4,300 2,378 2,952 3,526
Figure 3. Keyword "waterproof work boots"

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II. Current Traffic
Figure 4. Visits over time (Last 3 months)
MuckBootCompany.com Avg. Monthly Total Visitors: 156,158
LaCrosseFootwear.com Avg. Monthly Total Visitors: 113,701
BassPro.com Avg. Monthly Total Visitors: 7,000,000
Analysis:
Overall, basspro.com has the most traffic over last 3 month and muckbootcompany.com
has slightly more traffic than lacrossefootwear.com. I was surprised that
muckbootcompany.com has more traffic than lascrossefootwear.com which ranked
much higher than the muck boot company site. Also, all three sites have similar pattern
than August to September all three websites traffic declined and started incline
September to October. Therefore, there is a higher possibility to drive more traffic to
muckbootcompany.com from other sites.
III. Content Analysis & Authority (Cq, Vt, Ta)

5. 5
MuckBootCompany.com Score:
LaCrosseFootwear.com Score:
BassPro.com Score:
Explanation of Topic:
Content is one of the success factors of SEO. Since the Hummingbird algorithm, Google
finds websites have a good content that answers users. Therefore, Quality content leads
to rank higher on SERPs and drive more traffic to the websites.
Analysis of Quality Content / Thin Content:
 Credibility
I analyzed men hunting boot category, work boot category and rain boot category
page. Overall, Muckbootcompany.com has a well written content. All the pages had
relevant words, images and social pages. I also checked typos on the pages, the
content on the pages was free of typos. Spell checker found possible misspelling on
description pages See Figure 5
, outsole and breathability.
Figure 5. Misspelling

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In addition, the content appears other pages. Since Muckbootcompany.com is E-
commerce site, the content overlaps a lot on other pages. According to Siteliner, the
site has 13% of duplicate content, 77% common content and 10% of unique content
See Figure 6
.
Figure 6. Duplicate Content
 Value
The site content goes beyond being a simple brochure with the same information
that can be found on the sites. When I searched words on the site, I could find
several other websites selling same product with similar information. However,

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muckbootcompany.com offers more information, for example, they describe the
products and present graphics to illustrate the products See Figure 7, 8
.
Figure 7. Livelifeoutdorrs.com description
Figure 8. Muckbootcompany.com description

8. 8
The site provides a reason for people to spend more than a few seconds, but I wish they have
more contents on the page. Muckbootcompany.com need a good customer service. They
don’t have enough reviews and rating from customers, demos, videos or virtual “try-on”. If
they can develop more contents in terms of “good customer service”,users would stay longer
on the site to discover the contents.
 Thin Content
Thin content is including low value, low engagement duplicate content and inflated
internal links. The content of men hunting boot, work boot, and rain boot category
page is not a thin content. Although the content includes duplicate content, but E-
commerce sites in common have a high range of duplicate content. When I take a
look on the pages, the pages serve contents according to purpose of the site.
Analysis of Trust / Authority:
 General Trust Topics
The site is an authority on the topics I
am researching. I also found the article
about Muck boot company from
American Hunter See Figure 9
, the article
makes customers to trust the
information more. Also, customers
would expect to see the content in
hunting and other related magazines.
As the website organized well and
articles introduced the company and
product, I would personally feel
Figure 9. News

9. 9
comfortable providing my credit card information to the site. According to WHOIS
database, the Muck boot company registered their domain in 2000. They updated
their domain one time in 2017 to 2019. Therefore, their domain expiration date is
2019, they have less than 2 years to secure their site domain. As Muck boot
company secured their domain more than 17 years, they probably have a fair trust
rate.
 Authority
Figure 10. Muckbootcompany.com Authority
“ P a g e A u t h o r i t y ” “ D o m a i n A u t h o r i t y ”
Muckbootcompany.com 28 53
LacrosseFootwear.com 23 50
BassPro.com 34 77

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Links and Engagement are two big factors in Authority. According to Moz data, Muck boot
company has higher value but overall similar numeric value to Lacrossefootwear.com. On the
other hand, Basspro.com has the highest value. Basspro.com tends to have more physical store,
products and links.
Recommendation for improvements:
I would recommend to improve Value and Authority. The site could add more value to
the content. For example, offering more value to the reviews and videos helps for
improvements on the site. Most online consumers read online reviews, reviews affect
customers and content. Muck boot company doesn’t have enough reviews to make
customers to stay longer. If Muck boot company can develop a marketing plan for
reviews and has more reviews, it would improve SEO and customer service. In terms of
Authority, muck boot company has slightly higher authority value than
Lacrossefootwear.com but it is still pretty low compare to Basspro.com. Developing
Links and Engagement would help to improve Authority value. Adding more content can
be one of the options to improve Engagement. Providing video See Figure 11
description
makes customers to stay longer on the pages.
Figure 11. Video Description – Amazon

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IV. Architecture (As, Au, Am)
1. Speed (As)
Page Load Speed Muck Boot Company LaCrosse Bass Pro
Home Page 25.755s 5.608s 0.291
Category Page 13.263s 6.404s 0.301s
Product Page 16.635s 13.830s 0.272s
Analysis:
According to SEO Clarity, “In 2010, Google announced that page speed would be
included as one of the ranking factors for their search index. Also, in 2017, Google
announced they will give page speed even more consideration.” Why is Google
important? 66.7% of users use Google to search and about 50% of site traffic comes
from search. Lower load speed cause higher bounce rate. To rank higher to drive
more traffic on SERP and reduce bounce rate speed is important on the site.
I tested page load speed with home Wi-Fi. The result was different when I tested on
campus. Muckbootcompany.com has the lowest page load. The interesting fact was
that the other two sites show similar load time, but Muckbootcompany.com tends to
slow down at home. First, Muckster-II See Figure 13
image on the homepage tends to
slow down the page. Also, there are 16 images on the home page can be optimized
to reduce their size by 4.7Mib (71% reduction).
Figure 12. Muckbootcompany.com Load Time

12. 12
Figure 13. Muckster-II
Also, category page images
need optimization to load faster. The biggest image See Figure 15
takes approximately 9 seconds
to load. Optimizing “Best for” images and other images reduce their size by 1.1 MiB (66%
reduction). Minify HTML and JavaScript reduce 75.2 KiB total.
Figure 14. Waterfall Chart - home page
Figure 15. Best For Image

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Lastly, Product page seems to have similar problems with other pages. Compressing
resources,optimizing images and minifying HTML and JavaScript would reduce page load
time.
2. URLs (Au)
Current URLs:
MuckBootCompany.com URL for Category Page: /men/best-for/hunting.html
LaCrosseFootwear.com URL for Category Page:
/men/hunt/boots/?sortId=product-family
BassPro.com URL for Category Page: /shop/en/mens-hunting-
boots#facet:&productBeginIndex:0&facetLimit:&orderBy:&pageView:grid&min
Price:&maxPrice:&pageSize:&
Recommended new URL:
/men/best-for/rubber-hunting-boots.html
Explanation:
SEO site checkup analyzed that muckbootcompany.com URL is not an SEO friendly
URL. LaCrosseFootwear.com passed SEO URL checkup. Muckbootcompany.com
has lots of underscores in their URLs. Google suggested using hyphens instead of
underscores. Also, simple URL structure is better. I added descriptive keywords on
URL. /men/best-for/rubber-hunting-boots.html Adding words “rubber” and “boots”,
URL is more descriptive but still simple structure. LaCrosseFootwear.com and
BassPro.com both have a word “boots” on their URL, I realized that

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Muckbootcompany.com doesn’t include a word “boots”. Also, putting the word
“rubber” should describe the product characteristic.
3. Mobile (Am)
MuckBootCompany.com Score: 8
LaCrosseFootwear.com Score: 10
BassPro.com Score: 7
Explanation:
Mobile is important to SEO, because of nearly 60% of
searches now from mobile devices. Muckbootcompany.com
used responsive to use on a mobile device. I checked
mobile version URL, it was the same URL as desktop
version website. Responsive site adjusts to the size of the
screen, but it could load slower. Also, Mobile-Friendly Test
Tool said the category page is mobile-friendly but there
were a page loading issues. Not all page resources could
be loaded, there are 16 page resources couldn’t load. The
mobile version has exactly same contents, it was pretty
easy to navigate and adjusts to the size well.
Figure 16. Mobile Version

15. 15
Figure 17. Desktop Version Navigation
Muckbootcompany.com uses hamburger
navigation menu on mobile version See Figure
18
. The navigation items are same but
different order. Desktop version starts with
“Women” category page, but mobile
version starts with “Men” category.
“Hunting” category page shows products by
adjusting to mobile screen size See Figure 19
.
Figure 19. "Hunting" Category Page
V. HTML:Current Keyword Location Analysis (Ht, Hd)
1. Title Tags
Current Tags:
MuckBootCompany.com Title Tag for Category Page:
<title>Men's Hunting Boots | The Original Muck Boot CompanyⓇ </title>
Figure 18. Mobile Version Navigation

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LaCrosseFootwear.com Title Tag for Category Page:
<title>LaCrosse Footwear - Hunting Boots</title>
BassPro.com Title Tag for Category Page:
<title>Men&#039;s Hunting Boots | Bass Pro Shops</title>
Figure 20. Title Tags in SERPs
Explanation:
A title tag is the title of a page. As title tag is displayed on SERPs See Figure 20
, writing
clickable titles is important to users and SEO. Also, clickable title tag leads to make
new customers in search engine result pages. Muckbootcompany.com has a good
title tag compare to competing sites. However, all three sites have similar title tags.
Therefore, Muckbootcompany.com should have a unique title to drive more traffic to
the site.

17. 17
Recommended New Title Tag for MuckBootCompany.com:
Figure 21. Clickable Title Tag
When I searched “Hunting boots”, almost all title tag only includes keywords “Men”,
“Hunting” and “Boots”. Therefore, “Lightweight Hunting Boots” stands out in the
SERPs. Instead of “Men's Hunting Boots | The Original Muck Boot CompanyⓇ”,
“Men’s Comfort Hunting Boots | The Original Muck Boot Company” would stand out
more in SERPs. According to Google’s starter guide, creating unique and accurate
page title is important. The recommendation tells both users and search engines
what the product is and adding keyword “comfort” create unique title tags. Also, the
recommendation is brief but still descriptive.

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2. Description Meta Tag
Current Meta Tags:
MuckBootCompany.com Meta Tag for Category Page:
<meta name="description" content="Men's hunting
boots for made to perform. Comfortable fit &amp;
long-lasting durability helps make these the best
boots around! Free Shipping &amp; Free Returns" />
LaCrosseFootwear.com Meta Tag for Category Page:
<meta name="description" content="If hunting is in
your blood, then our boots should be on your feet.
They're built for absolute durability &amp; comfort
in the harshest conditions &amp; terrains." />
BassPro.com Meta Tag for Category Page:
<meta name="description" content="Get camo hunting
boots for men at Bass Pro Shops. Shop hundreds of
styles of five star rated insulated, non-insulated
&amp; snakeproof men’s hunting boots. Discover great deals
from Redhead here! " />
Figure 22. Description Meta Tags in SERPs

19. 19
Explanation:
Meta tags appear in SERPs See Figure 20
, this also gives a summary of the page to
search engine and users. The title tag is usually short and brief but meta tag is a
sentence or a paragraph. Writing a description meta tag relating to the content of the
page is the most important. Muckbootcompany.com has a formal description meta
tag, but it is not unique to stand out in SERPs. I enjoyed reading competing sites
description meta tag, but Muckbootcompany.com description was boring.
Recommended New Meta Tag for MuckBootCompany.com:
<meta name="description" content=" Discover the best hunting boots
for men at Muck Boot Company shop. Comfortable fit & long-lasting
helps make these the best boots. Free Shipping & Returns! " />
According to Moz, the meta description should be 150 – 160 characters. I tried to
keep the length 150 – 160 characters. I also include keywords “Hunting” “boots”
“Muck boot company” to describe the page contents. Each page needs unique
descriptions, therefore “Work” category would have a different description tag.
3. IMG names and ALT text
MuckBootCompany.com Image Tag Details:
Alt text = “Woody Sport”

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LaCroseeFootwear.com Image Tag Details:
No Alt text
BassPro.com Image Tag Details:
Alt text = “RedHead Bayou Waterproof Snake Hunting
Boots for Men”
Recommended to Improve Muck Boot Company ALT Text:
Alt text = “Woody Sport Rubber Hunting Boots for Men”

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Explanation:
Alt tags are important to SEO because the google bot can’t read images but code.
Using brief but descriptive file names and alt text improve SEO. Muck boot company
supply Alt tag, but it is not descriptive. Muckbootcompany.com uses products names
as alt tags, but the search engine is looking for more information. BassPro.com has a
good Alt tag for images, the Alt tag tells product names and information. To improve
Alt tags on the category page, Muck boot company should put the content
descriptions. For example, Alt tag “woody sport” could enhance “Woody Sport
Rubber Hunting Boots for Men”. New Alt tag describes the contents to search
engines and users who can see images.
VI. Priority Recommendation
Speed is the most important for the Muck Boot Company to begin working on first. Speed (As +2
)
is second important element Search Engine Land's Periodic Table. When I checked page load
speed, it was much slower than an average speed of E-commerce site. As I stated above, there
are too large image on home, category and product pages. If they can optimize images, it could
reduce page load speed and improve SEO.

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