Is your business struggling to get more visitors to your website? The answer might be a Virtual Tour. Here are top 3 benefits to adding Virtual Tour to your web page.

/in /by

The benefits in Virtual Tour and digital photography is to allow your website visitors 24/7 access to business. Nearly, any business can receive help from a Virtual Tour these days. Renters or homebuyers want to explore a property they are interested in. Fitness enthusiasts are looked at gyms online to get in shape. One of the first businesses that we did a Google Tour for, has over 500,000 views of their Virtual Tour! How many more customers would you have if 500k had the opportunity to see inside, and experience it at their own pace?

Here are top 3 benefits to adding Virtual Tour to your website:

1. Return on investment for Virtual Tours is estimated at less than a month.

Unlike other marketing contents that can take months to prove Return on Investment (ROI), businesses that use Virtual Tours see results much quicker. Virtual Tours increasing engagement, brand reputation, and trust.

2. Virtual Tours hold attention for a long time

Accordingly, to Nielsen Norman Group, the internet users on average spend less than 20 seconds on the webpage. Often they will spend more time on the websites with a Virtual Tour than those without. The average time spent viewing a Virtual Tour is 6 minutes. Millennials are 130% more likely to book a hotel, reserve a restaurant or venue if the business has a Virtual Tour.

3. Virtual Tours are improving Local SEO.

Google Business profiles with quality photos and a Virtual Tour have higher engagement, which can influence search engine result positioning. Virtual Tours embedded on a webpage increase the time on site and a number of clicks. Both important metrics for determining where your business ranks in the search results.

With the new generation of technology on the rise, more and more the Virtual Tours is being offered to help customers do all kind of things- travel, business, education, and much more. Accordingly, to Google, with 67% of surveyed participants saying they want a Virtual Tour when looking at business. There are limited companies that do this service and they have to be a Trusted Google Partner in order to have access to publishing to your virtual tour to Google. Local 360 is one of them. Contact us today at [email protected]

#marketing #virtualtours #seo

80% of Millennials want to take a Virtual Tour before visiting businesses

/in /by

80% of Millennials want to take a Virtual Tour before visiting your store. According to population projections from the U.S. Census Bureau, millennials are on the verge of surpassing Baby Boomers as the nation’s largest living adult generation. Generation Z is the first generation to have Internet technology available at an early age. With the web revolution that occurred throughout the 1990s and phone evolution in the mid-2000s, they have been exposed to an unlimited amount of technology. As technology became more compact and affordable, and the popularity of smartphones grew in the United States, Gen Z experienced life and business in wildly “unusual” ways than their parents. It is no secret that 54% of millennials shop online. 79% of millennials are using their smartphones to compare retailers. This generation is most likely to research your product and store first before going to make the actual purchase. 80% of millennials want to take a Virtual Tour before visiting your business. If you want to be in the running, you need a Virtual Tour to make the customer’s path from online to offline as seamless as possible. Millennials are spending $600 billion annually and that makes them the most powerful consumers of our time. hashtag#millennialshashtag#virtualtours

Create your own “See Inside” Thumbnail in the Google Knowledge Graph

/in /by

Do you miss the “See Inside” thumbnail featured on Google knowledge graph listings with virtual tours? Know you can create your own! Create a post on Google my Business.

Use a screenshot of your virtual tour, and add the “See Inside” text if you’d like. Make the post an “event” and have it expire after 1-year. After which you’ll have to do it again.

Add Google Virtual Tour to Facebook Business Page

/in /by

1. Static HTML: iframe tabs https://apps.facebook.com/static_html_plus/?hc_location=ufi
Static HTML makes it simple to build iframe tabs for your business.
2. Copy the “embed” code from Google Maps where you want the tour to start.
3. Set the iFrame width to 100% and the height to 800 px to fill the available space.

After the Google Street View | Trusted Virtual Tour – Next Steps

/in , /by

client-lg[1]

Great job! You’ve showcased the interior of your business using Google StreetView technology. You’re enjoying the benefits of a premium Search listing, and the “See Inside” feature has been enabled on Google Search, Google Maps, and Google+! You’re one of 10,000 businesses adding Google Street View | Trusted tours monthly, and you’ve experienced first hand that people who visit your tour are twice as likely to visit your business.

What next?

  • Update your Google+ page. We’ve already helped optimize your page, now be sure to keep it up-to-date. Do you have seasonal business hours? Do you use a consistent phone number online? Have you added any locations?
  • Promote your products and services on Google Images, Pinterest, and other social media networks. Social media loves imagery. Your Google Street View | Trusted tour and still photos are perfect for sharing, and getting shared.
  • Add the virtual tour to your website. You can add multiple starting spots, or enhance with overlays to make the tour a useful tool for your website visitors. We can help deliver a unique experience.
  • Increase the number of positive reviews on Google+, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and UrbanSpoon. The easiest way is to simply ask your customers, in person, and on your website. We can also help with other ideas for increasing your reviews, and improving your online reputation.
  • Use YouTube as a powerful way to promote your business. Whether this a a professional 60-90 second business profile video, or smart phone video about you and your business. We can help create a YouTube video of your tour with professional voice over, or a business profile video.

How Google Map Hackers Can Destroy a Business at Will

/in /by

He was alerted to that possibility when one of his regulars phoned the restaurant. “A customer called me and said, ‘Why are you closed on Saturday, Sunday and Monday? What’s going on?’” Bertagna says.

It turned out that Google Places, the search giant’s vast business directory, was misreporting the Serbian Crown’s hours. Anyone Googling Serbian Crown, or plugging it into Google Maps, was told incorrectly that the restaurant was closed on the weekends, Bertagna says. For a destination restaurant with no walk-in traffic, that was a fatal problem.

Read more at wired.com