What Is A Google Virtual Tour?
Technically speaking, a Google Virtual Tour is a series of five or more 360 degree images that are strung together to create a 3D experience of a space. A Google Virtual Tour is an essential part of your Google My Business page & Google Maps.
For example, if you were a dentist, imagine yourself at the front door your business, open the door and walk towards the receptionist desk, then to your waiting room, your operatories… any room in your business a patient would see. Here’s a 360 example of a dentist Google Virtual Tour example to see what we mean. As you can see, your business’ customers they can virtually enter your three-dimensional space as though they are right there, walking through it from their smartphone, PC, or tablet. Your customers and clients can walk through the space, zooming in and out of areas of interest.
A 360 tour experience builds trust, authenticity, and can boost your sales with your audience. Gone are the days of sharing some two-dimensional snapshots and wishing that you could get the viewer to truly experience what it feels like to be standing there. With a virtual tour there is already a story built into the picture without one word being spoken or written. But, a Google Virtual Tour is much more than a series of pictures. This technology is a way to use 360 degree photographs and video to tell the story of your business.
How Does It Work?
Google Street View is a virtual representation of a business that is linked to an application like Google Maps. Linking your business’s Google Maps presence is a great way to enhance your listing and make it more than just a dot in a search. It allows a viewer to virtually walk through 360 degree horizontal. The images are panoramic and street view. By developing a virtual tour, potential customers can have an interactive experience where they can walk through your business before they make the decision of whether or not to visit your physical location. The numbers speak for themselves. 41% of searches on Google Maps results in a visit (view more helpful stats on Google’s statistical findings page). Put yourself ahead of all the other businesses that show up in a search that do not have that visual and interactive quality.
About the 360 Photographers
In 2015, 360 Vid Inc. combined Ben Quesnel’s talents of programming websites, games, and most recently virtual reality apps with his brother Gregory’s talent as a Software Architect and grew into a business of photographers, graphic designers and programmers. They can visit your business, take street view photos of it, and produce a three dimensional tour in a matter of days.
Did you know? 360 Vid Inc. has over 15,000,000 views for our clients. Read more about us on our about page.
How Can a Virtual Tour Help My Business?
There’s many benefits to a Google Virtual Tour.
Hiring 360 Vid Inc to photograph your business and turn it into a tour will:
- Keep customers on your website 60-120s longer on average, which means your customers are engaging your brand in a meaningful, novel way
- Improve you presence within a search engine.
- Elevate your customers’ brand experience (see how we helped Landrover Jaguar do that with their auto dealership Google Virtual Tour)
- Boost your Google My Business page performance.
- Make you accessible on all devices and platforms.
- Push customers from considering a visit to actually walking in your front door.
Want a full explanation of benefits? Read the full article on Google Virtual Tour benefits on our blog.
Customer Expectations
People today take their online experience with a company very seriously. In fact, online searches are the main source they use to develop trust in a company. The online experience, from loading time to the landing page can cause someone to buy in or give up on a business – and that’s before they ever enter a store or make a purchase. Having an online presence is somewhat of a prerequisite to becoming a successful business. In fact, 81% of people will look up a business online before entering a physical location (Source: Top Digital Agency).
In other words, a person’s online experience with your company may be the only chance you have of retaining them as a customer. A virtual tour is your chance to show them what their experience will be so that they trust your brand enough to take the next step of experiencing you in person.
How Do I Get 360 Photos for My Google My Business Profile?
The photos that are used to create a high quality virtual tour require the talent and expertise of a trusted photographer who specializes in Google Street View photography. At 360 Vid Inc, we understand the multi-step process involved in creating the final product of a realistic virtual tour that makes participants feel like they are in the center of the action. We specialize in taking 360 degree photos and then publishing them into Google Street View virtual tours for you.
Need a quote? Get in touch and we will get your business (or project site) a detailed quote for your virtual tour.
Our Google virtual tours start at $400 (plus GST). Five high quality 360 photos are included.
Did you know? We make some of the highest quality 360 photos in Canada. Photo quality matters to your customers, and we ensure your imagery reflects the prestige of your brand!
Your virtual tour lives on your Google My Business page. There is no hosting charge, as this is on Google’s servers.
Additionally, your tour can be embedded onto your website (which is highly recommended for boosting your search engine optimization).
Ten business days. On average, it takes five business days to capture and edit your photos.
From there, it takes approximately five more days to publish your tour to your Google My Business page. This number can vary, depending on Google’s mapping servers and their cache policies (delays can occur, but don’t worry – we will alert you when the tour is published and live).
A minimum of five 360 photos are included, as per Google Street View guidelines. This allows the photos to connect to eachother with white arrows.
If you require more than five photos (or aren’t sure how many photos you need), get in touch so we can help you figure it out.
It takes approximately 45 to 60 minutes. Make sure you stage and clean your business before we arrive — that way, we can get the photos done with minimal interruption to your business operations.
