Here’s why you should be on Google Street View

Why you should be on Google Street View, WebCie photo

Here’s why you should be on Google Street View

One of the main objectives of a local business owner with their digital marketing plan is to encourage new clients to visit their shop or call their store. Once a local shopper commits to getting down to your local shop the chances of a transaction skyrocket.
However, before they get to your store, do you know if your digital marketing has provided any tools or visual tips that will help entice or give better reason for the potential customer to come visit you?

There is a simple visual signal that we’ll discuss in the blog post that can really help give a client that has landed on your Google My Business listing a boost in confidence in visiting you or at least a better understanding of what your local business has to offer… that being Google Street View and 360 photos and videos.

 

If your business uses 360 photography properly, it can offer itself a way to literally showcase itself to the world so to speak by virtually bringing people into their shop or place of business.
Let’s go over what the benefits of using Google Street View and in addition answer some questions on how to use it to generate traffic and help Google My Business user experience.

Nowadays, Google Street View is an essential service for your business. It generates traffic to your website; help you brand reputation and encourages users to visit your store. There are only advantages to being on Google Street View. Since its new feature, you can increase the chances of bringing people to your place.
Call a Trusted Photographer to benefit a 360° virtual tour for your potential customers via the Internet. Guide them to your store!

360 photography virtual tour of WebCie office

What are the advantages of using Google Street View for your business?

Did you know that more than a billion people use Google Maps to collect find places, do research and plan travels? Almost half of these are Google searches that are done with local intent to find something in their “back yard” 
that’s a lot of business!
This information provided by the one and only Google Maps blog gives a ton of reason as to why a local business owner cannot afford not to consider the value of investing in local SEO!

As we all know, when we do a search on say our smartphone for a nearby business, the search engine will offer us local listings that it deems are most helpful and relevant to the users’ query (or question). Businesses that want to emphasize their business to potential clients that are within a close proximity focus (whether they do it via marketing with an agency or on their own) are essentially focusing on local SEO.

How my local SEO can be influenced by a 360° virtual tour?

recherche Google Street View pour localiser un restaurant à proximité

Simply, local SEO is a technique of using a series of digital factors that appear to correlate to having a high probability of influencing Google’s selection of your business in a local search. The goal is that local SEO will allow a company to have a good opportunity for showing up in a local Google search.

 

Here’s an example. Assume someone is using Google Maps or Google on their mobile phone and they type in “sushi restaurant” in Google. This would clearly leave only one idea in Google’s mind: to quickly find a Japanese restaurant in their database that is close to them. Taking advantage of all Google Maps has to offer, a Japanese restaurant manager would have the opportunity to sway Google to select them out of “the pack” thus helping the restaurant owner welcome this person in the minutes following their search. Cycle complete!

If you want your business to be visible on Google Street View, then Local SEO is essential. Think about the user who does oodles of research online before making the decision to hop in their car and physically go somewhere. The person would first need to make sure the opening hours are right for their visit, possibly look for answers regarding desired products or services. Maybe, seeing the inside of the place they were ready to travel to would also help. Photos and 360 virtual photography at this point in the potential shoppers’ experience with your Google listing are doubly important! 

Why it’s important to add a photographic virtual tour of your business to Google Street View?

If you have created your Google My Business listing and worked to maximize all it has to offer but are still looking for more ways to exploit it, then 360 photos and possibly videos are a logical next step. Although local SEO can help rank you among the leaders of your category, product or service, it cannot pull clients in simply because you are number one, two or three. Having an enticing visual portfolio of your business that includes 360 photos can help convert or push your listing “over the top” due to the amount of fresh info it provides.

Today, every business is listed in Google’s Street View and Google Maps. To draw attention to your business, you need to differentiate yourself and build trust.

Google Maps has recently improved its virtual navigation service by adding augmented reality. This feature is interesting: in a few clicks, the user has an overview of your business as if it were physically there.
By offering a 360° virtual tour of your business location, you give a quality image of your activity and reassure the visitor of their choice of place to visit. His virtual search will probably turn into a real visit. He knows what to expect and so may not hesitate to drive or walk to your shop.

Be wary however! Using photos or 360 photos for a virtual tour can also hurt your business if you do not use the images properly. Low-quality photos or showing unattractive angles can ruin a photo so make sure to spend time editing your 360 photos before publishing them. To ensure an excellent 360 virtual photo is taken of your business consider hiring a trusted pro that is a Recipient of the Street View trusted badge provided by Google.