SearchCap: Search Engine Land awards, Facebook gets serious about local & more

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• The 2018 Search Engine Land Award winners: The full roster of this year’s search rock stars & superheroes
  Jun 13, 2018 by Amy Gesenhues
  The SEO and SEM community recognized the industry’s top performers last night during the SMX Advanced Conference in Seattle.
• The Rise of Voice — What the increase in voice assistants and AI means for business
  Jun 13, 2018 by Digital Marketing Depot
  AI-enabled voice recognition is becoming a normal part of how we interact with technology. What humans say is becoming valuable data that businesses can use to sell products and create personalized consumer experiences.
• Reducing the time it takes to write meta descriptions for large websites
  Jun 13, 2018 by Paul Shapiro
  The process of writing meta descriptions will likely be improved using machine learning techniques, but in the meantime, contributor Paul Shapiro shares ways to semi-automate writing meta descriptions.
• Finally! The 800 million ways Facebook gets serious about local business
  Jun 13, 2018 by Adam Dorfman
  Contributor Adam Dorfman explains how to capitalize on the one-two punch of Facebook advertising and organic engagement through Marketplace, your own page and Facebook’s own advertising products.
• Google adds college search knowledge panel
  Jun 13, 2018 by Barry Schwartz
  Thinking of getting your college degree? Google aims to make the decision easier by tailoring the search results for college-related queries.

Recent Headlines From MarTech, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

• Twitter announces changes to improve users’ experiences
  Jun 13, 2018 by Robin Kurzer
  The company says it’s responding to user feedback with changes to its Explore, Search, Notifications and Moments features.
• Facebook updates Custom Audience list requirements to create more ad transparency
  Jun 13, 2018 by Amy Gesenhues
  Starting July 2, advertisers will have to specify the origin of the audience’s information when uploading a Custom Audience list.
• 7 personalization strategies to convert more callers to customers
  Jun 13, 2018 by Digital Marketing Depot
  Digital advertising has gone mobile. And when consumers engage with a company’s digital ads and website on their smartphones, they often convert in the most convenient and immediate way: by calling. Thanks to smartphones, the volume of call conversions from digital advertising has exploded.
• Security breaches, no longer aberrations, need their own customer journeys
  Jun 13, 2018 by Barry Levine
  Especially with the tight turnarounds mandated by GDPR and others, brands need to plan the steps for communicating with, and retaining, their customers.
• IAB Study: Podcast ad revenues are shooting through the roof — $314M in 2017
  Jun 13, 2018 by Robin Kurzer
  With self-reported ad revenues a whopping 275 percent higher than in 2015, marketers and podcasters continue to see a bright future for podcasting.
• Report: Google and Facebook top advertisers’ list of fears that could impact their businesses in 2018
  Jun 13, 2018 by Robin Kurzer
  Regardless, advertisers will give a larger portion of their budgets to Google properties than to any other entity.
• How to understand searcher intent and use it to boost SEO rankings
  Jun 12, 2018 by Marcus Miller
  Understanding the intent behind the keywords you target simplifies the entire SEO process, says contributor Marcus Miller. Here is a look at how to understand and categorize keywords based on intent.
• Priorities for diagnosing JavaScript-powered websites
  Jun 12, 2018 by Maria Cieslak
  Contributor Maria Cieslak digs into JavaScript and some of the chaos associated with it and compiles a detailed checklist you can use as a starting point for deeper analysis.

Search News From Around The Web:

• 10 Actionable Things You Can Do With Ahrefs (That You May Have Overlooked), Ahrefs
• How to Find Demographic and Interest Reports in Google Analytics, Monster Insights
• How to get 50% more website visitors, SEO Profiler
• How to Organize Your Site’s Navigation Based on Audience Insights, Seer Interactive
• New innovations remove friction from discovering products in store and online, Google Inside Adwords
• The ultimate guide to the meta robots tag, Yoast
• Why PPC People Need Google Tag Manager, Adstage
• Is Bing Really Rendering & Indexing JavaScript?, Screaming Frog