Jan 26 2008
Sponsored Review of StylishWebdesign.us Print
Saturday, 26 January 2008
This is a sponsored review from errr .. SponsoredReviews.com. I've never done one of these before, but I'm up early on a Saturday morning, in the U.S. and waiting for English football games to start on Irish TV (!) and doing a review seems like fun. There are several requests waiting so it only seemed fair to tackle the first one in the list ... stylishwebdesign.us.

What I Like About the Design

  • The flexible design is smoothly done. Lots of variable-width websites look like a complete mess on really wide or really narrow screens.
  • The color scheme works well. The colors are warm and well-chosen.

What I Don't Like About the Design

  • The header is much too big. Theres a lot of wasted real estate above the menu. I suspect this is a result of using a variable-width design.
  • The menu almost works. The flap that appears next to the active menu item is a nice trick, but it just doesn't feel natural. It confused me more than it impressed me.

SEO on the Site

  • Poor Page Titles. Search Google for stylishwebdesign.us and you'll see that the page titles are often just one or two undescriptive words. The custom design and design directory pages are meant to be the site anchors but neither the page titles or text on the page will help them rank well.
  • A directory and webdesign service. I'm not sure that these two aims fit well together from an SEO or business point of view. Why would you link to rival companies from your own website, even for a small fee?

A Couple of Issues With the Site

  • They use .us but are they really from the U.S.? The slightly substandard English and registration in Sweden makes the choice of .us slightly odd. Why not be honest about who you are.
  • What's unique? Having gone through so SEO reviews of so many sites, the key question I'm often left with is: "what's special about this site? Why would anyone remember this site  and prefer it over rivals?" At the moment there isn't much special about stylishwebdesign.us. I'd advise them to let their real personality show. Big companies are often actively looking for help from other countries and a site that openly admits to being Swedish is much more memorable than one that attempts to be a bland U.S. site.
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Comments (6)Add Comment
You missed the joke
written by brian teeman, January 27, 2008
I think you missed the joke (pun) with the domain name.

Its supposed to be pronounced as stylishwebdesignERS
Similar review
written by Lars Koudal, January 27, 2008
I did not look up where they were registered, but had a similar sponsored review at another of my sites, http://tutorialvine.com/stylishwebdesignus-review . Looking around to see if there has been other reviews that had different experiences.. Guess not :-)
...
written by Steve Burge, January 28, 2008
Hi Brian - I've been trying to say that a few times but don't get the pun smilies/sad.gif

Hey Lars - I think if we're doing these sites its fair to give our honest opinion. Constructive feedback smilies/smiley.gif
...
written by Hummerbie, January 28, 2008
@Steve, nice review, not on the same level as those in your Joomla SEO club but then again, those are much more focused on the Joomla aspects of SEO.

What I am missing is a simple sitemap? now I go back and forth seeing all kinds of similar page ideas...
And of course the contact information of where they are really located.
More about Sponsored Reviews
written by Matt Joswick, January 29, 2008
Just back on the site after a while. I like your review. Where do we learn more about participating in the Sponsored reviews for our sites?
...
written by Steve Burge, January 29, 2008
Hi Matt

Just head over to SponsoredReviews.com or you can sign up at our club. Its about the same price but you get 6 months access to the club and book as well as the review.

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