Here is today’s roundup of news related to local marketing and advertising, local media, technology, local commerce, consumer behavior and more.

Global Small Business IT Spending to Top $186 Billion in 2018 (February 19, 2018)
LSA Insider: “A new forecast from technology research firm IDC, projects that SMB IT spending will hit $600 billion in 2018 and reach nearly $700 billion by 2021 – growing at nearly 5% a year.”

The 2018 guide to rich results in search (February 19, 2018)
Search Engine Watch: “The benefits of rich results are plain to see, and the launch of Google’s Rich Results Testing Tool is a further testament to the importance being placed on these enhanced search results.”

How Facebook Ads Deep Targeting Helps You Reach A Specific Audience (February 18, 2018)
Business 2 Community: “Facebook takes what people tell it and then combines that with even more information. They combine it with financial data, buying history, and more.”

SEO Writing in 2018: Top 47 Tips to Master a Combined Art (February 16, 2018)
Search Engine Journal: “According to a recent Searchmetrics General Ranking Factors study of Google, overall content relevance was more of a ranking factor than word count, or keywords in the text body, description title, or H1 tag.”

New survey by people-based marketer Viant promotes marketing to identified users (February 16, 2018)
MarTech Today: “Marketing to individuals across devices is gaining traction, as the appeal of third-party data and anonymous cookies fades.”