Friday Happy Hour: Study Ranks Top Factors Contributing To Your Site’s SEO

What are the most important factors in ranking your website on Google? SEO and marketing gurus Moz recently released their 2013 survey and study, and results are clearly bent toward social signals. See what else helps your site climb the ranks in this week’s Happy Hour.

Moz studies the 2013 search engine ranking factors

Every two years, Moz (formerly SEOmoz, known for its clout in the SEO world) runs a study to determine which SEO factors have the strongest associate with your site’s ranking on Google. It’s important to remember that the study presents correlations, so there’s no hard and fast rule for what will get you ranked higher in search engine results, but these are the factors that will likely help:

• Page Authority: how well your site is likely to reach in Google’s search, based off various factors like linkbacks, domain authority, etc.
• Social signals: how much your content is shared on social media platforms, especially Google +1s and Facebook shares
• Anchor text: the specific text that other web pages use when linking to your site

If you’re unsure what some of these terms mean or how you can get started improving your site’s SEO, check out our free guide SEO for Photographers. You can also see the full study here.

Jim Jordan’s headshots, portraits & photo workshop, August 24th

Celebrity and commercial photographer Jim Jordan is holding another one of his top-notch photography workshops on August 24th in Los Angeles, California. In this day-long workshop, Jim will teach you how to pose and direct your model, how to communicate and evoke emotion to connect with your subjects, how to find, pitch and update potential clients, and more. You’ll also get the opportunity to test and shoot with specialty Leica and Sony equipment. Check out all the details and register here.

Photos of Jersey Shore’s summer after Sandy

Eight months after Hurricane Sandy ravaged much of the Northeast, the Jersey Shore is clambering to bring its beautiful beaches and tourism back to life. PhotoShelter member and Prime Collective member Melanie Burford recently shot a series for The Washington Post documenting the area after it suffered nearly $37 billion worth of damages. See all the images in a slideshow here.

The Flying Series exhibits at ClampArt

Photographer Rachel Hulin‘s The Flying Series featuring her 6-month-old son Henry has been meet with much enthusiasm since its inception. Rachel and her husband took turns elevating their son Henry in various locations, and then Rachel digitally eliminated the adults to form the resulting image. She’s since pitched a children’s book and her prints are now on display at ClampArt gallery in New York City.

Covertimes.com displays daily newspaper covers from around the world

There’s an easy to way to see newspaper covers from around the world, and it’s Covertimes.com. Check out Argentina, England, and Egypt, for example, to see what’s making headlines today.

“Reflections” portrays the elderly as they once were

Lifestyle advertising photographer Tom Hussey‘s series “Reflections” magically shows elders standing in front of a mirror with their younger selves looking back. The expressions on both sides are emotional and all say something different about their lives then and now.