Google Virtual Tour, Things You Should Know About

google virtual tour
Around 2007 when Google introduced their new venture – virtual tours. Fast forward, virtual tours have radically changed the business and marketing landscapes over the years. Google Virtual Tour, also known as Google Street View, is a platform which allows customers to virtually view places such as storefronts, national parks, museums, streets, universities and many more. This feature is an addition to Google Maps which is highly recommended that you use whenever you are travelling to unfamiliar places. Google was at the prime of virtual tours for several years until new players started showing up. Google makes it convenient for us to virtually see and experience things from the safety of our homes. It continuously revolutionizes a lot of industries especially now that we are in extraordinary times. There are studies which state that virtual tours won’t go away even if the pandemic is over. Rather, it will continue to go bigger and better. Most industry players will emerge and more businesses will invest largely on virtual tours.
This is why it is recommended that as early as now, entrepreneurs should look for ways on how to leverage the power of virtual tours and exploit the advantages of Google virtual tour. This will allow them to gain more positive traction for this business. This is also important in order to get a good headstart from the rest of the competition. Whether you run a business or you are a customer checking around, one can’t deny the benefits and convenience that virtual tours have been providing us these days.
Benefits of Google Virtual Tour

google virtual tour
There are plenty of reasons why you should be using Google Virtual Tours whether you are a customer or a business owner. For most entrepreneurs, adding Google Virtual Tours on their website as a feature helps them attract more customers and the latter makes it easier to look for their business online. It increases your shop’s visibility and presents the products to a wider audience. Let’s say you are looking for a shop to get a white sneaker. You finally found one but it’s located a mile from your place, in an area you are not really familiar with. Using Google’s Virtual Tour you can check what the store looks like from the outside. You can check the landmarks nearby and the type of neighbourhood around the place. Now, you can finally drive your way to that shop. With the help of the virtual tour, it helps you save time and allows you to plan ahead. In addition, it minimizes the possibility of you getting lost and wasting your time, money and energy.
Another great thing about having a Google Virtual Tour of your shop or restaurant or any type of business is that you can virtually showcase to your customers the products you are selling, the products you offer and the facilities you have. This gives your customers an idea of what to expect from your shop or how the place looks like before actually getting their feet inside your store. Seeing things virtually and them liking what they saw online increases the probability that this audience will take time to personally visit your store. These visits could possibly equate to purchases and increase in product demand. If you are trying to sell your property, having a Google Virtual tour drives more traffic into your site and increases your chance of getting that property be purchased. If you are a restaurant owner, you would want to have a Google Virtual tour embedded on your site to increase the booking reservation of your place. In order to track virtual tours, either Google Analytics or Google My Business are used. This helps you see how many views are generated from each tour.
Embedding a virtual tour on your website also gives you that competitive edge and helps improve your ranking on search engines. This is the reason why most successful business owners have already invested in adding Google Virtual tour feature on their online social media networks and websites. With this feature added, you as a business owner, increase your engagement with your customers. According to Snappr.com. there are studies which show that customers take a longer time on a website with virtual tours as compared to sites with still photos only. In a separate study conducted by Planet Home, real estates with virtual tours are at 40%higher in engagement as compared to images. Virtual tours have been a key element in making decisions when it comes to house purchases. A Planet Home study showed that 75% of future buyers prefer to check on virtual tours to help them come up with a decision. In addition, Redfin’s study echoed the power of virtual tours. According to them, people are making purchases even without seeing the property in person. Their study showed that out of 1,900 buyers, 63% of them made an offer just by relying on video/virtual tours.
Virtual tours open up a lot of opportunities to further expand your business. Higher engagement with your customers helps establish trust and increases your brands reputation, dependability and trustworthiness. Positive review could possibly turn into referral and free word-of-mouth marketing from your loyal customers turned into your brand ambassadors.
How does Google Virtual Tour work?

google virtual tour
Depending on the size of the location, it usually takes about 2-3 hours for the shooting of the area. After Which you are given a preview of what the finished product is. You will then have to agree on certain keywords or phrases which you would want to rank on. This is vital as virtual tours improve your local ranking and increase your visibility. If you are in need of additional help in ranking our mother company, Momentum Digital, is fully equipped to assist. With a headquarter based in Philadelphia, Momentum Digital, a full-service marketing firm, will take your SEO ranking to the top.
Google Photography

google virtual tour
Apart from the virtual tours, you can also get Google photography if you are in need of high definition photos or 360 panoramic shots. Momentum Virtual Tours also offers different kinds of photography services across a number of business lines. The team is composed of skilled individuals who can produce aerial shots, panoramic images, and other high definition photography requirements.
Virtual Tour Providers

google virtual tour
Apart from Google there are several players in the industry which have built some outstanding reputations over the years, one of which is Matterport. For those who are unfamiliar with Matterport, this is a platform which provides you a 3D perspective of an area. It has been a great partner of Momentum Virtual Tours for several years now. Matterport helps transform spaces into a highly immersive digital area such as architectural structures, floor plans, aerial view and many more. Virtual tours services are selling like hotcakes these days. One should still be cautious of dealing with others. You are free to work with virtual tour providers of your choice just make sure that you have made the necessary checks when it comes to their reputation and quality of work. This is important if you are after value for your money and you do not want your time being wasted. Take time to read the customer feedback or review section just to have an idea of the working dynamics and customer service they provide.
Google Arts & Culture
Are you a lover of the art world? Do you dream of seeing the Monalisa, a Van Gogh or Gauguin painting? Or walk through London museums? Perhaps you have always been curious about the Statue of Liberty and how was it constructed? If you wish to take a peak at a museum for the day, simply visit artsandculture.google.com and select from the choices the museum you want to explore. You can virtually visit the Van Gogh Museum located at Amsterdam, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Tokyo National Museum located in Japan or The Australian Museum in Sydney. You could also opt for a private virtual tour of the Versailles, former home of French royalties.
There are plenty of tours you can take and you can jump from one country to another, one continent to the next. In fact, you cannot visit everything all in a single day as there are plenty. This site is a great way of enriching your knowledge on culture and arts. It is not limited to virtual tours only, it also has interactive games, interesting videos, coloring books and a huge collection of photos and articles you can read on.
How to get a virtual tour?
Look no further as Momentum Virtual Tours are experts when it comes to virtual tours. If you need Google Virtual Tours to be embedded into your website, call us right now and we’ll discuss how to move things forward. You can also visit our website to know more about the other services we offer. We provide a FREE quote so do not hesitate to give us a ring! You can never go wrong investing in 3D features for your business.
About The Author: Sean Boyle
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