Virtual Tours Ultimate Guide

Marketers are taught that good content tells a story, engages the reader, and solves a pain for a real person. We don’t disagree. The “10 SEO tips” style of blog posts are great if they provide actionable insight. 

This type of content can be good for your brand, but if you rely on it to drive SEO as well, your inbound strategy will likely fail, and organic search will be weak. It’s a hamster wheel of running but staying in one place – creating tons of content that gets some page views from initial promotion, but then no one ever discovers it again. 

To drive exponential leads, we need to broaden our content horizons a bit. What we call “good” content needs to change. We need to create specific pages that solve a user need, and also rank in search engine results. 

Marketers who unlock this are heroes to their organizations. We’ve seen content marketing drive more revenue than demand generation teams. It’s done by creating a type of content called a “Demand Page.”

What is a Demand Page you ask?

A Demand Page is a page created to capture the demand for information users are expressing via search. Each Demand Page focuses on a single topic (concise for searchers), and a single “focus keyword.” 

Demand Pages host a mix of long-form content and shorter, branded content. The long-form copy goes deep into the topic being covered (your focus keyword for the page), and therefore creates more context for search engines by using keywords that are highly related to your focus keyword. The branded content and links to other site resources gives additional information to the user that will answer related questions they might have about the focus keyword.

In this way, the page meets the needs of everyone. Some people will want to read every word, others will scan the branded content and convert above the fold, and search crawlers have enough information to index and classify the page correctly. 

Here’s how we typically break them down for customers. You should customize the elements depending on what’s most relevant for page visitors. 

• Benefit Statement: This answers “What’s in it for me?” and helps the user understand the value the page is providing. 
• CTAs: Action based buttons! If the user is searching a bottom-of-funnel topic like “seo software,” you could have a demo request CTA, if it’s a top-of-funnel topic, a whitepaper might be more appropriate. 
• Supporting Visuals: Photos, videos, infographics, charts, product screenshots, animations, etc.
• Snackable Content: Short but powerful bits of information (benefits, pain points, data points). 
• Summarized Content: Longer than snackable content but easy to scan (bulleted lists, infographics).
• Trust Elements: Testimonials, client/partner logos, press clips, awards, certifications, etc. 
• Detailed Long-Form Content: This is the content that provides a detailed description of the topic for the searcher, and ample content for the search engine.

What goes into the long-form content?

• Heading: Make sure your focus keyword is included in the H1 title, and that it’s the only H1 on your page. This signals to search engines that it’s an important element on the page.  
• Subheadings: All of your subheadings (H2s) should include terms related to your focus keyword. There are many ways to find related terms. Semrush and Google Keyword Planner are both great ways to do this. 
  • Using these related terms to decide what each body section should be about is helpful to search engines and to page visitors. It contextualizes your primary topic for search engines by surrounding it with other things that web users are searching for. And it answers other questions that your readers likely have, since the data shows that people who search for your focus keyword are searching for those related terms also. 
• Word count: 1,500 words. Anyone who’s written content before is probably freaking out right now, but we really suggest making your long-form content…long. Backlinko analyzed the #1 ranking pages for 11.8 million search terms, and the average page length was just under 1,500 words. It’s a bit painful, but it works. 
• Internal Linking: Linking content can do two things. First, it contextualizes your other content for search engines. By linking out to a related page, you’re telling the search engine that that page is the expert on the topic you’ve linked. It also helps the search engine understand which pages on your website cover related topics, improving authority in broad categories. Third, it gives your readers an opportunity to learn more if they want to!

In conclusion…

Demand Pages are a new type of content that serve a unique function – they target one keyword at a time, and provide the benefits of a customized landing page (calls to action, branded content, downloads), a blog post (long-form content diving deep into the topic), and SEO (contextualizing the keyword for search engines). Demand Pages don’t typically live in your site navigation, especially once you start creating a lot of them. It’s important to keep them internally linked and included in your sitemaps to allow for proper indexation.

They don’t necessarily engage the reader in the same way a traditional blog post might – no riveting ledes here – but they do provide answers to queries that users are asking search engines, and they are your best shot to source exponential leads and revenue for your business.

What is a 360 Degree Virtual Tour?

360-degree virtual tours are a way for people to explore a place without actually being there.

It is a 360 degree interactive and immersive experience that allows the user to see everything they would be able to see with their own eyes if they were in the physical location.

There are many reasons why you may want to create one of these tours. For example, tourism or real estate companies are using them as marketing tools.

So not only can you use VR for promotional purposes, but also things like client consultations or visitor management.

Can You Make a Virtual Tour Without a 360 Camera?

Yes, there are a few ways that you can create virtual tours on your own.

With the right software, an individual can create a virtual tour of a site with panoramic images taken at different angles.

Another option is to take photos from the vantage point of moving around the site in person.

This method still offers an immersive experience for viewers who cannot visit the site in person but does not offer interactive features that would be possible with 360° cameras and VR headsets.

How are Virtual Tours Useful?

Virtual tours are a great way to allow potential clients to view your property before they come in for a visit.

Virtual tours are both inexpensive and efficient ways to showcase a property. They also allow the client to see the property in different seasons, and at different times of the day.

Virtual tours are especially useful for large properties that people may have trouble viewing from their online listings.

Can a Virtual Tour be a Video?

Virtual tours are also known as virtual reality tours. They are a combination of a panorama, images and video.

Virtual reality tours allow viewers to explore an environment in detail without physically being there. They can see the surroundings from different angles and even walk around a space.

Compared to video, virtual reality tours have more dimensions and provide viewers with a more immersive experience.

This is because they allow the viewer to interact with the environment they are viewing, unlike videos that lack this sense of immersion.

How is a Virtual Tour Done?

A virtual tour has a 360–degree view of a location. This means that it can be done either by an interactive video or a full-scale 3D environment. The virtual tour is also known as a “virtual walkthrough”.

A 3D environment can be built in the following ways:

1. The scan of the real world, which would come from laser scanners, thermal cameras and photogrammetry techniques;
2. A design created by an architect or designer;
3. A pre-existing 3D model made using VR technology.

The second two options are more flexible because they don’t require any physical visits to the venue and they can be updated as often as needed.

How Do You Make a 360 Virtual Tour?

To make virtual tours, you would need a 360 camera. You can buy one from Amazon or use your phone.

Here are the five most important steps:

Step 1: Decide on your needs and budget Before creating your 360-degree virtual tour, you have to think about how you’re going to record it.

360 cameras are becoming more and more popular as the technology becomes more affordable.

Many different types of cameras offer different features and price ranges.

The next step is to decide where you want to place your camera, and what your result will look like.

The best times of day for making 360 photos are sunrise or sunset when the sky is very dramatic with lots of light and colour variations from blue to pink.

Do Virtual Tours Help To Sell Houses Or Property?

Virtual tours are a great way to showcase potential homes to buyers.

They provide more information than the average brochure and it is easier and cheaper to use.

Virtual tours are becoming more popular today because they provide people with more information about the property they want to buy than a brochure would.

It is also easier and cheaper for real estate agents to produce virtual tours for their clients.

There are many factors that influence a potential buyer’s decision on purchasing a property.

This is why real estate agents need to pay close attention to their presentation of properties and make sure the pictures, videos, and tours are up to par. Many realtors use virtual tours as their main selling point.

However, there is not much evidence that proves virtual tours actually help people make purchase decisions.

Some people believe that virtual tours are just not enough – they need to see the house in person.

Others believe that virtual tours can be helpful because they can show prospective buyers what the property looks like without them having to go all the way there in person.

Regardless of what one might think about VR tours currently, it is clear that they will become more popular in the future.

What Makes a Good Virtual Tour?

You need to come up with a great creative idea. Your app will be available for everyone to view.

Your customers will be able to reach out to you on Facebook or even over the phone, and they will be able to get the exact details they need from you to make their booking or visit successful.

It needs to be easy to navigate for the end-user.

You need to consider the cameras that your software has on your phone or tablet.

It’s better to use the better device with a higher resolution camera,

Or even if they are taking a 360-degree video, you need to make sure that it is stable.

A video would be a lot easier to follow as opposed to an interactive 360-degree tour.

You need to have a well-built website, to provide the information that your customer needs.