Our weekly digest of what’s happening/trending in the digital world provided by Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and Search Engine Roundtable.

From Search Engine Land

What do Google and a toddler have in common? Both need to learn good listening skills.
A recently-presented paper that suggests Google is grouping entities and using their relationships to listen for better answers to multipart questions. Read more

7 personalization strategies to convert more callers to customers
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. Read more

Google launches AdWords add-on for Google Sheets
The add-on to download AdWords account data into Google Sheets is now in beta. Read more

Mobile SERP survival: Technical SEO checklist
A responsive website is not enough to survive in the mobile-first indexing era. Read more

Google Posts testing different design and functional treatments in the search results
Have you seen a new look for Google Posts in Google search results? Well, you are not alone. Read more

Google My Business Agency Dashboard launches today
This new dashboard, announced a month ago, is now live and available for use. Read more

Bing Merchant Center launches Google Merchant Center Import tool
Product feed imports can be scheduled to easily keep them current for Bing Shopping campaigns. Read more

Say hello to Voice Interface Optimization
Voice interfaces are not simply front-ends for search engines or apps. They are a whole new thing. Read more

Google Posts adds products and offers
Now you can not only highlight what’s new or upcoming events in Google Posts, you can also highlight new products and offers. Read more

From Marketing Land

I’m a customer. Please get to know me.
Getting to know your customers pays dividends in lots of overlooked ways. Read more

Have we reached peak smartphone, and what does that mean for marketers?
There’s no reason to change course; everyone must still optimize for mobile. Read more

Facebook faces more scrutiny, this time for sharing user data with device makers
According to a New York Times report, Facebook shared user data with at least 60 device makers, including Apple and Samsung. Read more

Facebook expanding Marketplace ads to more countries & campaign objectives
The company reports advertisers running ads in Marketplace are seeing positive returns. Read more

Apple and Google try to help you curb your smartphone compulsions
Apple introduces new tools that are similar to Google’s in a new effort to limit smartphone overload. Read more

Taking aim at Facebook & others: Apple says it is ‘shutting down’ tracking from Like & Share buttons and conversation platforms
Apple shores up its pro-privacy, anti-tracking positioning. Read more

The Ultimate Agency Guide to Video Marketing
As people are presented with more and more content, it gets harder to cut through all the noise. The key is to know what types of content work best and how to get that content front-and-center for your audience. Video content is one of the best ways to boost engagement. Read more

How to use Pinterest to drive high-volume traffic on auto-pilot
Though Pinterest is mostly ignored by SEOs and content marketers. Read more

3 tips for overcoming content production obstacles
The biggest roadblocks in the way of content marketing success are process-related. Read more

Building a brand strategy: Essentials for long-term success
Slapping together a couple ideas and a logo is not a brand strategy. Read more

From Search Engine Roundtable

Search Buzz Video Recap: Google Mobile First Index, GDPR, TLS PCI, Speed & Honoring
This week was a tad slower in the search and SEO news front. We had a fourth batch of notices about the Google mobile first indexing. Read more

Google Search Supports TLS 1.1 & 1.2 With Upcoming PCI Compliance Requirements
On June 30, 2018, the PCI Council is suggesting that all web sites migrate from TLS 1.0 to TLS 1.1 or higher. Read more

Upcoming Google Speed Update Will Look More Closely At Page Speed Variations
So John Mueller of Google spoke a bit about page speed in this mornings Google webmaster video hangout at the 1:58 mark. Read more

Google Tests Gray Review Stars In Search Results
Google is once again testing gray colored stars in the search results, where you would typically see orange stars for the rich results review snippets. Read more

Google Search Console Crawl Stats Stopped Updating On May 23rd
If you try to check your Google Search Console report for crawl stats. Read more

The Yoast Plugin To Blame For Google Large Scale Ranking Drop? Probably Not.
Remember the Google update I reported in early March? One thing I left out of that story, intentionally, was some chatter that the those noticing a ranking decline around then may have had a bug with the popular Yoast plugin. Read more

Google Search Shows “Get Latest” Results Refresh Button
Imagine you do a search in Google, get pulled away from it because of more important matters. Read more

April 2018 Google Webmaster Report
The past month in the Google webmaster and SEO sphere, relatively, was a slow month in terms of big changes. Read more

New Google AdWords Add-On For Google Sheets
Google quietly announced on Twitter a new tool for AdWords that lets you quickly import your Google AdWords data into Google Sheets. Read more

Google: Regular Crawling Not Required For Ranking In Google
There is this SEO myth that more GoogleBot crawler activity translates to more Google organic traffic. Read more

Google: Algorithm Updates Impact Sites Quickly, Technical Changes Take A While To Impact A Site
Google’s John Mueller said in a hangout with webmasters at the 47:47 minute mark that if a site sees a big drop in a day or so in their Google rankings and others are complaining about a Google update then that is probably related to a change on Google’s end to their search ranking algorithm. Read more

Google Local Edits May Ask If You Are An Employee Or Customer
Sergey Alakov spotted something, I honestly thought I’ve seen before but I can’t find that I covered it, that when you make an edit as a normal user to a local panel on Google, Google is asking if you are a customer or employee of that business that you are editing. Read more

Google Search Console Meta Descriptions HTML Improvements May Go Away
With all the debate around the changes to how Google displays snippets in the search results in May. Read more

Google My Business Agency Dashboard Now Live
As I reported at Search Engine Land, the expected new Google My Business Agency Dashboard is now live for those marketing agencies that need to manage their client’s local listings. Read more

Google: Sometimes We Pick Up Wrong Dates & Display Them Wrong In The Snippets
Google’s John Mueller addressed the ongoing issues and complaints about how Google displays dates in the search results snippets and how sometimes, maybe more often than anyone wants, the dates in the snippets are wrong. Read more

Google Tests Video Carousels In Desktop Search Results Again
Once again, Google is testing video carousels in desktop search – we saw it a bit over a year ago. Read more