Why Do Virtual Tours Of Your Business?
Increased Stickiness = Increased SEO
Imagine potential customers doing virtual tours of your business from their computers and mobile devices, 24-7.
They can virtually walk into your business, browse your product and service offerings, tour different sections of your business as if they are actually there.
And with just a click or tap on any part of the 360 degree photos of your business, they can also see detailed top to bottom, left to right views of your business.
This immersive user experience of virtual tours can increase the time spent on your website and social media. This “stickiness” signals to Google that your web assets engage so it will boost your SEO ranking as a result, particularly if your tour is on your Google My Business Listing (opens in a new tab) as well.
In addition, people enjoy doing virtual tours, so virtual tours of your business makes you standout from your competitors, most of whom don’t offer them.
Builds Trust & Interactivity With Your Business
Virtual tours of your business also builds trust in your business by:
- conveying your business’ atmosphere and decor that flat, two dimensional photos simply can’t convey;
- helps increase in store visits to your business, especially during this time as people browse websites of businesses to see who’s open and what safety measures they have in place;
- moreover, with a virtual tour of your business, people can potentially interact with items in your 360 degree photos if interactivity is added (see below). They can click or tap on your products or services in the virtual tour photos to go to a different room, see extra information on the item or even buy items directly online, for example.
Virtual Tours Can Fit Any Business
Virtual tours can help any type of business but they’re especially suited for:
- hospitality businesses like hotels, restaurants and spas
- tourist destinations
- restaurants
- educational based business like museums
- retail stores
- showrooms and display suites like auto dealerships, condo presales
- medical offices such as dental, chiropractors, rehab, etc.
- fitness centres and
- real estate listings.
That’s because people like to see what the ambiance of these business are in particular.
How to Create a Virtual Tour of Your Business
You can easily create a virtual tour of your business by using your smartphone. You don’t necessarily need to buy a pricey 360 camera for this.
To use your smartphone to create the 360 degree photos that make up your virtual tour, download the free Street View App from Google Play for Android Phones or App Store for iPhones. Install the app and then follow the app’s prompts to create a virtual tour of your business.
Here’s a video that walks you through the process of downloading the Street View App to using it:
Add Extra Interactivity to Your Virtual Tour
Once you’ve created your virtual tour, add extra interactivity to it by adding “hot spots” to your tour.
Hot spots are overlays added to items of interest in your 360 degree photos. Once added, people can interact with items like see more information on a selected item, go to a product order page, jump to a different on your tour, etc.
The example virtual tour of a pretend real estate listing below shows some of the types of hot spot that can be added to your virtual tour. Just click on the up arrow at the bottom to choose a photo or mouse over one that’s already loaded to begin navigating the tour.
Note, you should advise your clients that virtual tours are best experienced on a laptop or tablet because of their larger screens though virtual tours can be done from a smartphone as well.
To add hot spots to virtual tours of your business, visit websites like Freelancer. There, you can find people who offer the service of adding hot spots to virtual tours.
I also offer adding hot spots to virtual tour— and to standard videos as well (the latter don’t have to be 360 degree photos)—for only $27 Canadian per hot spot. Contact me below if you like them added to your virtual tours or videos and I will get in touch with you.
I can add the following types of hot spots to your virtual tour or video. These are:
- text
- link to an URL
- a call to action
- download a file
- see a video
- hear an audio file
- opt in to an email list
- embed
- phone
- add an image
- add an map and
- jump: goes to a different section of a virtual tour (only available for 360 degree photos of a virtual tour).
Next, embed the tour on your website and especially upload it to your Google My Business Page to further optimize your SEO.
What do you think of doing virtual tours of your business? Do you think virtual tours can help market your business during this pandemic time? Feel free to comment below. I Welcome your feedback.
If you find this article helpful and know someone who would benefit from it, please share it with them. I appreciate it and thank you for reading this article to the very end. Wish you the best in applying this strategy.